Buffista field trip to Skokie?

I'm there!

This Hitchens piece is totally crazy: Why Women Aren't Funny.

Minion is in my office getting a job offer on his cell phone right now! AAAGHHH!

Slow natter day and I'm sitting here waiting for a brief to get reviewed so my paras can make it to the Christmas party. Anyhoo, survivoristas, a great interview with last night's bootee: [link]

I'm trying to decide if I should just move my office myself, or if I should keep pretending to do work. Also, I'm avoiding one phone call and waiting for a return call from someone else.

Jesse, from way back, I'll send you the book. I have a couple of other thigns I need to send you too.

Monkey!

Did we know that Monkey Day is Dec. 14th? [link]

Monkey Day needs your help! The petition to make Monkey Day a national holiday needs your signature to make it a reality, if you haven't signed already please do so. E-mails used to sign the petition are kept confidential and not used for evil purposes, so you have nothing to lose except Monkey Day. Also, you can help by spreading the word of Monkey Day to your friends and family, or post a Monkey Day link on your website, link buttons and banners can be found in the links section. Please help us to promote the National Monkey Day petition to make Monkey Day a recognized national holiday.

How to make a sock monkey: [link]

Vulcan sock monkey: [link]

Monkey Cliff Diving (flash game): [link]

The Daily Monkey: [link]

Monkeys in the News: [link]

Jesse, from way back, I'll send you the book. I have a couple of other thigns I need to send you too.

Yer awesome! I was literally just confessing to my coworker that I was going to have to buy the third one after work. Actually, honestly, I still might have to do that. You're not going to the post office today, right?

Okay. I'm not as caught up by the idea of one gender being funnier than the other, but more about why the comedy field is so male dominated on stage. In its simplest form, when we hashed it out among our improv group, it was basically that being funny (especially where wit is not concerned) isn't ladylike. For that matter, neither is surrendering to humour.

However, ladylike is less and less of a concern these days, but it still takes a while for a pendulum to swing. I'm willing to posit it's notably a societal phenomenon, and not anything in our nature.

Back to this Hitchens guy:

There are more terrible female comedians than there are terrible male comedians,

Really? I can only go from Montreal open mike nights, but those were full of guys trying to flex their humour muscles--I'd say that the hack comedian population skewed more male than the people actually respected. Montreal-wise, anyway.

but there are some impressive ladies out there.

A generous concession.

Most of them, though, when you come to review the situation, are hefty or dykey or Jewish, or some combo of the three.

As far as I can tell, hefty's code word for "wouldn't bang her sober." Speaking as a woman with a bit of a thing for the comedy...it's not field filled with Adonises either.

it could be that in some way men do not want women to be funny. They want them as an audience, not as rivals

This I have experienced. Won't argue with it. However, it applies to other male dominated areas I've been in. So not very special.

Men can tell jokes about what happened to John Wayne Bobbitt, but they don't want women doing so.

And? PMS jokes go over better among women when told by women. See also: gay jokes, "black people can be so..." jokes.

Damn. I meant to go on, but there's so much that needs quoting, and my head really hurts.

Okay, one more and then I'm going to go lie down...

Whereas with a man you may freely say of him that he is lousy in the sack, or a bad driver, or an inefficient worker, and still wound him less deeply than you would if you accused him of being deficient in the humor department.

REALLY? I think that begs for a survey.