Backwards, In Heels, and Pregnant: Pregnant Comedians Prove We Are FULLY Out of Reasons to Keep Saying Women Aren't Funny!!
It has long been said that women can do anything that men can do but they can do it, "backward and in high heels". This feminist maxim has been touted by powerful women for years and has recently been being put to test by women in entertainment, specifically in the field of stand-up comedy. Oh, and let's make one more twist. Let's replace "high heels" with "pregnancy."
Over the past few years, more and more women have been going on tour, performing full comedy hours, all while pregnant. This is not to say that women in other performance fields have not done this exact thing over and over again. For example, during season four of The Office, Angela Kinsey was pregnant. That takes bravery and courage. Today, however, we are talking specifically about working comedians, significantly along in their pregnancies taking on one of the most energy-requiring forms of entertainment. Stand-up comedy requires a unique form of stamina. The field demands a performer to athletically command a room and maintain energy, focus, and throughline for at least an hour on stage. If you think that getting the attention of an audience full of (more than likely) drunk people is not that hard, think back to the last time you and your drunk friend tried to do literally anything.
In recent years, more and more women have joined the profession. However, stand-up comedy is a male-dominated field. According to a study done earlier this year, 85.2% of all stand up comedians are men. Only 11.2% are women. The argument that women are not funny or at least, heaven forbid, not as funny as men is a frustratingly modern retort in the modern day. If you have any interest in being filled with rage for a few minutes, check out this Vanity Fair article titled Why Women Aren't Funny. It's from 2007, but that still feels a bit too close for comfort, right?
One particularly infuriating quote from this article is as follows:
Precisely because humor is a sign of intelligence (and many women believe, or were taught by their mothers, that they become threatening to men if they appear too bright), it could be that in some way men do not want women to be funny. They want them as an audience, not as rivals. And there is a huge, brimming reservoir of male unease, which it would be too easy for women to exploit.
I would like to point out that this quote defeats the author's own thesis. Women are not "not funny". They are not less funny than men. Instead, a society constructed to protect the fragility of the male ego while simultaneously putting women down has taught women to hide their funny: that they can't be bold or smart or, heaven forbid, the funniest one in the room because that would imply that everyone was looking at her and not at the guy that has built his identity around the five minutes of fame he felt as the class clown. Women aren't funny. They're f****ing hilarious.
That is why the amazing comedians, selling out comedy shows while pregnant are changing the name of the game. Here are five absolutely powerhouse female comedians that have conclusively proven that anything a man can do, a woman can do backward and pregnant.
1. Iliza Shlesinger
Iliza Shlesinger has been a stand out stand-up comedians for years. Which, yes, for those counting DOES mean that she has as many Netflix specials as Dave Chappelle. Throughout her work she has been a champion of exactly what she believes. She doesn't pander to women. She makes jokes about her experience and life just like any other comedian. AND SHE IS CURRENTLY (like LITERALLY November 16, 17, 18) PERFORMING SOLD OUT SHOWS AT THE BEACON WHILE PREGNANT. I was lucky enough to see her perform last night, and she is as unstoppably incredible as she has ever been. She is one of the greats. (No gendered modifier needed).
2. Ali Wong
Back in 2016 (filmed in 2015) incredible stand up comedian Ali Wong recorded an entire Netflix special, titled Baby Cobra while eight months pregnant. Her special was smart, raunchy, and, most importantly, undeniably hilarious. The killer comedian's special got a 100% from critics on Rotten Tomatoes. Two years later, Wong went on to film a second Netflix special Hard Knock Wife. Both specials, unsurprisingly, reign uniquely supreme in a world full of tired, redundant premises. Wong will unapologetically roast you off the stage: pregnant or not.
3. Amy Schumer
Amy Schumer's hilarious special Growing cements her firmly within the ranks of these incredibly tenacious women. Not only were Schumer's jokes throughout the special, punchy and hilarious, but she opened up saying that she did not have an easy pregnancy. "If you had a good pregnancy, like if you're someone who enjoyed being pregnant...I just hope your car flips over." Regardless of how terrible she felt, she was up there killing it. No one would have known (except, it is the LITERALLY job to make jokes about it). Does anyone think they can do the same thing? And still, be hilarious? Taking volunteers now....no one? Interesting.
4. Christina Pazsitzky
Just for Laughs is one of the largest, most highly respected comedy festivals in the world. Comedian Christina Pazsitzky performed at the festival while pregnant and absolutley brought the house down. In the first moments of her set she starts cutting into jokes about the pregnancy, the difficult inability to drink during it. "I'm not so much afraid of labor as I am these feelings," she jokes. After destroying at the festival, she went on to put out her own Netflix special Mother Inferior. Hilarious. An icon.
5. Joan Rivers
Back on The Ed Sullivan Show, comedy hero Joan Rivers performed on the show while being seven and a half months pregnant. After mentioning that she was pregnant she told an applauding audience, "A lot of your mothers have actually gone through this." Long predating that 2007 Vanity Fair article (we're all still mad about that, right?). Rivers is an absolute champion and powerhouse.
Women are funny. Blanket generalizations that imply otherwise are merely the residue of a primitive time we are collectively fighting to shake. If you are ever in doubt remember that it is because of that time that the women you see can do it backward, in heels, and pregnant. In the words of the incomparable Iliza Shlesinger, "You f*ckin' do something, Scott."
