Pretty/Funny
Women Comedians and Body Politics
Published on 1. March 2014
Book
Hardback
278 pages
978-0-292-75691-5 (ISBN)
Description
Women in comedy have traditionally been pegged as either "pretty" or "funny." Attractive actresses with good comic timing such as Katherine Hepburn, Lucille Ball, and Julia Roberts have always gotten plum roles as the heroines of romantic comedies and television sitcoms. But fewer women who write and perform their own comedy have become stars, and, most often, they've been successful because they were willing to be funny-looking, from Fanny Brice and Phyllis Diller to Lily Tomlin and Carol Burnett. In this pretty-versus-funny history, women writer-comedians-no matter what they look like-have ended up on the other side of "pretty," enabling them to make it the topic and butt of the joke, the ideal that is exposed as funny.
Pretty/Funny focuses on Kathy Griffin, Tina Fey, Sarah Silverman, Margaret Cho, Wanda Sykes, and Ellen DeGeneres, the groundbreaking women comics who flout the pretty-versus-funny dynamic by targeting glamour, postfeminist girliness, the Hollywood A-list, and feminine whiteness with their wit and biting satire. Linda Mizejewski demonstrates that while these comics don't all identify as feminists or take politically correct positions, their work on gender, sexuality, and race has a political impact. The first major study of women and humor in twenty years, Pretty/Funny makes a convincing case that women's comedy has become a prime site for feminism to speak, talk back, and be contested in the twenty-first century.
Pretty/Funny focuses on Kathy Griffin, Tina Fey, Sarah Silverman, Margaret Cho, Wanda Sykes, and Ellen DeGeneres, the groundbreaking women comics who flout the pretty-versus-funny dynamic by targeting glamour, postfeminist girliness, the Hollywood A-list, and feminine whiteness with their wit and biting satire. Linda Mizejewski demonstrates that while these comics don't all identify as feminists or take politically correct positions, their work on gender, sexuality, and race has a political impact. The first major study of women and humor in twenty years, Pretty/Funny makes a convincing case that women's comedy has become a prime site for feminism to speak, talk back, and be contested in the twenty-first century.
Reviews / Votes
"Can a woman comic be pretty and funny? This academic (but readable) feminist take on six transgressive women laugh-getters - DeGeneres, Sykes, Silverman, Griffin, Cho and Fey- shows how each challenges the conventional role the culture assigns them" - Ms. Magazine "Focuses on Katy Griffin, Tina Fey, Sarah Silverman, Maragert Cho, Wanda Sykes, and Ellen DeGeneres" - Chronicle of Higher Education "Pretty/Funny compiles six case studies of famous female comedians who write their own material - Fey, Kathy Griffin, Sarah Silverman, Margaret Cho, Wanda Sykes and Ellen DeGeneres. Particularly, it focuses on how each woman's comedy challenges the pretty/funny binary that has shape-shifted as women making their own comedy expands [...] Race and sexuality fittingly play a big role in the book's analyses as well, looking at how these comedians' writing challenge and poke fun at how gender appears in sexism, racism, anti-semitism and homophobia. Pretty/ Funny is a fun and revealing book fit for anyone interested in the academic underpinnings of the anti-authoritarian bastard children (lady comics) of a cultural bastard child (comedy)." - Columbus Alive! "In her new book Pretty Funny: Women Comedians and Body Politics, Linda Mizejewski - Professor of Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies at the Ohio State University in Columbus - rips apart the notion that there are no funny women, and pours scorn on the idea that funny women should be judged only by their appearance. Pretty/Funny is very accessible for the non-academic reader, and is an enjoyable stomp through the sexist battlefield of the comedy circuit." - What the Frock?More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Austin, TX
United States
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Dimensions
Height: 229 mm
Width: 152 mm
Thickness: 25 mm
Weight
626 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-292-75691-5 (9780292756915)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
E-Book
03/2014
1st Edition
University of Texas Press
from
€32.99
Available for download
E-Book
03/2014
1st Edition
University of Texas Press
€38.99
Available for download
Person
Linda Mizejewski is Professor of Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at the Ohio State University in Columbus. She is the author of Divine Decadence: Fascism, Female Spectacle, and the Makings of Sally Bowles, Ziegfeld Girl: Image and Icon in Culture and Cinema, and Hardboiled & High Heeled: The Woman Detective in Popular Culture. Her most recent book, It Happened One Night, is a study of the original romantic comedy film.
Content
Acknowledgments
Introduction. Pretty/Funny Women and Comedy's Body Politics: Funniness, Prettiness, and Feminism
Chapter One. Kathy Griffin and the Comedy of the D List
Chapter Two. Feminism, Postfeminism, Liz Lemonism: Picturing Tina Fey
Chapter Three. Sarah Silverman: Bedwetting, Body Comedy, and "a Mouth Full of Blood Laughs"
Chapter Four. Margaret Cho Is Beautiful: A Comedy of Manifesto
Chapter Five. "White People Are Looking at You!" Wanda Sykes's Black Looks
Chapter Six. Ellen DeGeneres: Pretty Funny Butch as Girl Next Door
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Introduction. Pretty/Funny Women and Comedy's Body Politics: Funniness, Prettiness, and Feminism
Chapter One. Kathy Griffin and the Comedy of the D List
Chapter Two. Feminism, Postfeminism, Liz Lemonism: Picturing Tina Fey
Chapter Three. Sarah Silverman: Bedwetting, Body Comedy, and "a Mouth Full of Blood Laughs"
Chapter Four. Margaret Cho Is Beautiful: A Comedy of Manifesto
Chapter Five. "White People Are Looking at You!" Wanda Sykes's Black Looks
Chapter Six. Ellen DeGeneres: Pretty Funny Butch as Girl Next Door
Notes
Bibliography
Index