Comedy
TV: Latina Women Demand SNL Hire Latina Comedienne After Offensive Caricature
Taking inspiration from the sustained campaign that led to Saturday Night Live’s hiring of Sasheer Zamata, the first black comedienne to join the cast in nearly seven years, Twitter activists have...
5 Reasons to Watch Broad City
Broad City, Ilana Glazer and Abbi Jacobson’s webseries-turned-Comedy Central show, wraps up its debut season next Wednesday. (Fret not: the Amy Poehler-produced series has already been renewed for...
TV: Trailer Watch: Emily Mortimer’s New HBO Sitcom About Female Friendship
Emily Mortimer has been badly disserved by The Newsroom, a show full of female characters who are little more than incompetent dingbats, and whose character MacKenzie’s entire existence revolves...
How the Demise of the Romantic Comedy Will Affect Women
Writer Amy Nicholson takes a hard look at the death of a genre — the romantic comedy — in her fantastic LA Weekly piece “Who Killed the Romantic Comedy?” Let’s keep in mind that...
TV: 5 Reasons to Watch HBO’s Just Renewed Getting On
HBO finally showed the terrifically unsentimental hospital sitcom Getting On some tender, loving care last week by renewing it for a second season. The network had previously disserved its most...
Trailer Watch: Melissa McCarthy in Tammy Teaser
As the first film to boast Melissa McCarthy’s writing credits, Tammy already made our Most Anticipated Films of 2014 list back in January. We’re not entirely cool with the premise that Susan...
Gary Sanchez Producer Jessica Elbaum Launches New Label for Women’s Comedies
Studio comedies have long exemplified some of Hollywood’s worst bro-ish excesses. The last decade has seen the fall of the romantic comedy and the rise of the bromance, which wouldn’t...
Sundance Women Directors: Meet Gillian Robespierre
Gillian Robespierre has written and directed several short films, including “Chunk” in 2006, which follows an overweight teen forced to attend fat camp, and “Obvious Child” in 2009. Her...
Black Comedienne Sasheer Zamata Joins SNL
Sasheer Zamata became the most famous performer on Saturday Night Live yesterday when the show announced her addition to the cast. Zamata was hired after two of SNL’s black comedians, Kenan...
TV: New Black Comedienne to Join SNL (Finally)
Public protests from castmembers, widespread media scrutiny, and the existence of many talented black comediennes have finally convinced longtime SNL producer Lorne Michaels to add an...
Bette Midler to Play Mae West in HBO Film
HBO bucked the general biopic trend of focusing on a subject’s early struggles this year with Behind the Candelabra, which explored the last years of Liberace’s life. Now the studio will do the...
‘Variety’ Columnist: Female Comics Shouldn’t Tell Dirty Jokes
Sarah Silverman is arguably one of the most famous female comic working today. She’s a household name and can boast among her achievements an Emmy-nominated TV show, over two dozen film credits,...
TV: Maya Rudolph to Return to NBC in Variety Show
SNL comedienne and Up All Night actress Maya Rudolph is the latest entertainer to attempt a resuscitation of the primetime variety show. She and SNL producer Lorne Michaels have sold a vehicle for...
Marvel Introduces Kamala Khan, a Muslim-American Superheroine
You’d never know it from Marvel’s (white)sausage-fest movies, but the comic-book company has reinvented itself in recentyears as Team Diversity. Vulture noted last month that, “in a cheeky bit...
SNL Addresses the Lack of African American Women Straight On
Over the last couple of weeks there has been an ongoing controversy over the lack of African American women on Saturday Night Live. Honestly, it’s probably something we all should have been...
Carol Burnett Receives Mark Twain Prize
On Sunday, the iconic Carol Burnett received the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, one of the highest honors for a comedian. Burnett was paid tribute by other iconic stars like Julie Andrews and...
How Can We Still be Talking About Whether Women Are Funny?
Yesterday morning brought the great news that Amy Poehler and Tina Fey will be hosting the Golden Globes in 2014 and 2015. They were so terrific as hosts last year that the Globe people were smart...
Book Excerpt We Killed: The Rise of Women in American Comedy: A Very Oral History
The first time I ever heard the statement “women aren’t funny” was while reading it in a Christopher Hitchens’s column in the January 2007 issue of Vanity Fair. At the time, I was more...
This is What You Don’t Want When Releasing a New Product
Go Ellen h/t Upworthy
The Best Quotes from Tina Fey’s Entertainment Weekly Interview
I believe that we have all come to a group consensus that Tina Fey is the best. As we reported last week, NBC feels the same about Fey. And so does Entertainment Weekly! In the current issue, Fey...
Trailer Watch: Identity Thief — Starring Melissa McCarthy
Diana (the hilarious and amazing Melissa McCarthy) steals the identity of Sandy (Jason Bateman) and uses his money to live the good life in Miami. A week before his life (and credit) falls apart,...
Tina Fey Covers EW and Signs a Four Year Deal with Universal TV
As the sun sets on her series 30 Rock starting next week with a slew of special guests including Amy Sedaris and Catherine O’Hara, Tina Fey takes a look back at the show and her movie career in an...
Cross Post: Late-Night TV Stand-Up Demographic Scorecard: First Half, 2012
Remember when The New York Times profiled Eddie Brill into a corner and caused an uproar both within CBS and Late Show with David Letterman — which took away Brill’s power to book stand-up...
TV Fall Preview Trailer: The Mindy Project
Created by Mindy Kaling. I am so watching this show. Will be on Fox this fall. Fall TV Pilot Preview — The Mindy Project (Hollywood Reporter)
Cross Post: A Feminist Defense of Louis CK
This week, comedian Louis CK (of Louie fame) appeared on The Daily Show. I was actually watching The Daily Show for a change, and was excited to see Louis CK interviewed — he’s always funny...
Daryl Wein and Zoe Lister Jones Show Their Love for the Rom Com
I only wish I had liked their movie Lola Versus as much as I liked this. The film opens today. https://medium.com/media/953227e1b885b5b6ab457d50f491ecf2/href Facebook
Lightning in a Bottle? Teaming Sandra Bullock and Melissa McCarthy
Could this be the successor to Bridesmaids? Sandra Bullock is returning to comedy (remember how good Miss Congeniality was?) this time teaming up with Bridesmaids breakout star Melissa McCarthy for...
Kristen Wiig Says Goodbye to SNL After Seven Years
She can now be a full time moviestar. NBC.com Video Widget
Funny or Die: Don’t You Want Your Dad in Your Vagina?
These people at Funny or Die are really doing a great job of keeping this issue in focus and making sure we see how absurd it is. This one stars Kate Beckinsale, Judy Greer,...
Hollywood Feminist of the Day: Garry Trudeau
A big shout out to the funny guys on TV like John Stewart and Stephen Colbert — who are standing up for women’s rights during this absurd period where the right wing thinks its possible to...
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Gross
Something is a brewing in this country and we can thank Rush Limbaugh for it. I haven’t seen people this worked up in a long time. And the great thing is that young women are leading...
Trailer Watch: Veep Starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus
Bring it on. Series premiere on April 22.
Comedians Take on the Contraception Issue
These are worth watching. Just goes to show that the Republicans are our comedians best friends. https://medium.com/media/526c2e5ebdd9ede686e7315d16661a9f/href The Daily Show with Jon Stewart ...