Women Aren't Funny

In her rambling documentary, Bonnie McFarlane hits the road to ask her peers if they think that women are funny. McFarlane has a stake in the answers, since she herself works as a standup comedian, often as an opening act for her husband, Rich Vos. She met Vos when she appeared on Last Comic Standing, where he served as a judge. McFarlane starts by citing statements from Jerry Lewis and Christopher Hitchens to the effect that comedy favors the male of the species (McFarlane's attempt to interview Hitchens, who died in 2011, suggests that she spent years on this project). Joan Rivers and Chelsea Peretti find such dismissals ridiculous, but not all of the male speakers agree, since Artie Lange and Patrice O'Neal find men funnier, while acknowledging that looks are less of a factor in male comic success. Speakers of both genders note that male comedians outnumber women so extensively that it's hard to take negative comparisons too seriously. There are insightful interviews here with Susie Essman, Colin Quinn, and others, but the film itself looks like a home movie (shaky camerawork, under-lit nightclub scenes, etc.), and is bogged down with too much extraneous material about McFarlane's life and career. McFarlane attempts to spice things up by speaking in the third person and posing as a half-nude television reporter (a black box keeps things PG-rated). But while it's clear that she cares about the topic, her attempts to generate laughs actually distract from the film's biggest strength—the not-so-funny and sometimes rather sad interviews. A strong optional purchase. Aud: C, P. (K. Fennessy)