It might be an understatement to say being a (successful) female comedian is a tough gig. But why? And what’s with all the vitriol and derision directed Amy Schumer’s way?
Amy Schumer is out with her newest movie Snatched, and while the Mother’s Day comedy co-starring Goldie Hawn didn’t quite catch up to the meteoric box office success of her first feature with Judd Apatow, Trainwreck, it still managed to sit around the $20 mill opening weekend mark beside other modern comedy smashes such as Pineapple Express and This Is The End. What is it that makes these titles so much less decried and devalued than Schumer’s films? There’s been plenty of films from some of our most beloved comedians that have fallen flat, and yet the vitriol reserved for a dud by Schumer is unprecedented. It’s an oversimplification to put it down to the boys club mentality that dominates comedy as it’s not just men who are bristling at Schumer’s success.
Generations of women (many of who identify as feminists) have simply been conditioned to resonate with what the entertainment industry serves up, which is overwhelmingly tailored to the male population. There’s a familiarity and comfort in the masculine perspective and as an ardent fan of superhero films and stand-up comedy, many of my favourite moments in film and television have been provided by men. Alongside many of her contemporaries like Mindy Kaling, Ilana Glazer and Abby Jacobson, and Ali Wong, Schumer isn’t trying to tear down the patriarchy and abolish male-centric entertainment, she just isn’t writing that content herself. Providing an alternative really shouldn’t be that controversial. If the worldwide back-catalogue of content is to become intersectional, it has to be accepted that ‘good quality’ is not only a show or a style that appeals to absolutely everyone, universally, 100% of the time. There’s a growing sense of outrage when consumers who are happy with the current status-quo are faced with an example of something ‘other’.
Some of the examples of Schumer’s so-called ‘unfunny’ jokes are dependent on understanding the female experience – she isn’t forcing those without vaginas to relate, and as someone with a vagina, it’s nice to not have to find some way to artificially relate to jokes that depend on having a penis. Unfortunately, the male experience is such a deeply buried foundation on which most of the globe’s entertainment is based, and it can be tough to switch the lens through which we do view new content, with- or sans-vagina. There are women who don’t appreciate Schumer’s style, which is okay – until it results in uneducated bullying simply to pander to the popular attitude of the moment. Stacey Patton called out Schumer’s “racist” jokes without ever even watching her segment. It can be hard to accept a subpar contribution to women’s body of work because it feels that we have a limited number of chances to prove that our content is just as valid, that anything less than exemplary will weigh too heavily against the legitimacy of an entire gender.
While there are dozens of internet experts making YouTube videos in their basement of Schumer’s unfunny bits, few can deny her status as a pioneer. Decrying her entire career because they can’t relate to her vagina jokes is a surefire path to losing all credibility. The intensity of this backlash against her can only be explained as outrage at something never seen before. While women’s humour has been progressed by Mary Tyler Moore, Joan Rivers, Whitney Cummings and Sarah Silverman, Schumer is evidently a new force to be reckoned with, and she’s feeling the resistance from an array of viewers who are uncomfortable with change. Schumer’s fellow comedians express their admiration for her, and also don’t condone the accusations of joke-stealing, so who are the general public to rebut the experts in their own field? Evolution is a process, and it’s exciting that Schumer can manage to alienate so many people while still being ‘the fourth highest-paid comedian and also the only woman to ever make the list of the world’s top-paid comics’ according to Forbes Magazine.
All in all, Schumer’s critics seem to be the ones that have forgotten the point of comedy. Rather than trying to convince everyone to appreciate the same humour as themselves, critics of comedy should be focussing on maximising the breadth of the medium to continue expanding into unexplored and intersectional new realms.