the fatling

Fatnnoyed

Okay, I need to make this quick, because I’ve almost used up my allotted slacking off at work time.  But there’s a new thing this year called The Comedy Awards.  It’s produced by MTV, but it’s not actually airing on MTV for some reason?  Perhaps because if viewers of Jersey Shore got a glimpse of actual scripted comedy, they would no longer watch Jersey Shore and thus MTV would no longer have the ad revenue to send the guidos and guidettes to Italy?  I’m ashamed that I know that much about Jersey Shore.

But we’re not here to complain about the decline of MTV’s once mildly interesting programming or suggest that since they never show music videos, they may want to change their name to RTV, short for Retch TV.

No, the point is that I was scrolling through the nominees for this new awards show, which is pretty standard, with categories for best actor/actress in film and television, writing awards, directing awards, blah blah blah.  There are also really fun categories, like best sketch/alternative program and best animated comedy versus best live action comedy, and overall, this seems like a pretty good way to honor successful comedy types.

However.  Take a glance at the nominees for best standup special.  Notice anything?  Yeah, you’re right.  Only one of the nominees is a woman, the much disliked (at least on this blog) Whitney Cummings, for her tastefully titled special Money Shot.

My problem with this situation is manifold.  First of all, one woman?  ONE?!  That’s it?  Second of all, guess what?  The Fatling can’t even recall a single other standup special featuring a woman from 2010.  Internet searches have not proved helpful, but I’m also kind of lazy about that sort of thing/I’m not searching correctly.  I mean, can any of you think of a lady comedian’s special from the previous year, other than the everpresent Ms. Cummings’?  Or is it Cummings’s?  Please prove me wrong, internets.

Regardless, this opens up a problem with a potential solution.  My immediate thought was that since the categories for best actor/actress are always segregated by gender, why not institute that same policy w/r/t standup specials?  But upon searching for those nonexistent other specials from 2010, it’s pretty clear that there aren’t enough hour-long specials being produced by women to even support the creation of a “Best Standup Special, Female” category.

So, again, female comedians find themselves butting up against a Catch-22.  Because “women aren’t funny,” women aren’t given the opportunity to prove that they are, in fact, funny.  This incredibly frustrating.  I mean, I don’t particularly find Ms. Cummings’ (Cummings’s?) brand of humor to be to my taste, but it would be nice for her to be competing in an arena where she stood a ghost of a chance to be recognized for fighting her way to the top of the lady comedian pile.  She’s up against Louis CK and Ricky Gervais, and there’s no way she’s winning against either of them (as neither are her other competition, Aziz Ansari and Bill Maher).

I would really, really love to see a resurgence of feminism in the standup arena.  The whole boys’ club mentality is really due for an overhaul.

Okay, back to work.  Fat, fat and away!