h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Funnier in the 'more amusing' sense?

I mean, you have ten seconds to think of famous blokes who can make you laugh....

Eric Morecombe, Tommy Cooper, Ricky Gervais, Peter Kay, Harry Hill, Eddie Izzard, Bill Hicks, Rik Mayal, Vic Reeves, Bill Bailey, Lee Evans, Paul Merton, Johnny Vegas, Frankie Howard, Phil Jupitus, Kenneth Williams, David Jason, Bob Mortimer, Chris Morris, Paul Whitehouse, Harry Enfield, Skinner and Baddiel, Johnathon Ross, Ade Edmonson, Ben Elton.....

Too many.

Now the same, only women...

Kathy Burke, Caroline Aherne, French and Saunders, Victoria Wood, Julie Walters, Catherine Tate, er... Jenny Eclair, err, errr, er... Su Pollard?

*rests case*

Men are funnier, but women are prettier so thats all right then.
DM

None of that list of women are, IMHO, funny. Can't think of any good female comedians though...

No case to answer.

Humour is such an individual thing that it is impossible to categorise it with something so objective as the sex of the humorist.

The are a few names amongst those that you mention that positvaley want to make me vomit - at best leave me scrabbling for the remote control and all of them are male.

Donald

Donald,

IMHO of course it can be categorised.

I, as an idividual, think of funny people that I, as an individual, find amusing. I then categorise those results by the humorists gender. I can think of more gentlemen than ladies so therefore I think men are funnier.

You, as an idividual, think of funny people that you, as an individual, find amusing. You then categorise the results by the humorists gender. If you can think of more gentlemen than ladies you therefore think men are funnier or vice versa.

A third party, as an idividual, thinks of funny people that they, as an individual, find amusing. They then categorise their results by the humorists gender. If they can think of more gentlemen than ladies they therefore think men are funnier or vice versa.

When you, I, and several third parties have all posted to this thread it would then be possible, based on the results given, to categorise humor with something so objective as the sex of the humorist.

*sighs*

Its not so high brow, think more fozzie bear and less sam the eagle.

I have to agree with Donald - humour is a very individual thing. A lot of the men on your list do humour that is not to my taste at all.

Jo Brand is an obvious omission from your list of alledgedly funny women (Catherine Tate? Su Pollard?, not my idea of funny at all). However, I don't think that there are many blokes out there who would laugh at Jo Brand's jokes because they are simply not designed to appeal to men.

As for day-to-day life - I think my male and female work colleagues make me laugh to an equal degree. Frankly, their all bonkers

It is indisputably true that men tend to be found funnier - even an ardent feminist would be hard pushed to name three female comedians as there favourites (can I add Linda Smith to the list, BTW - brilliantly funny).

But then again, how many women do you find who _want_ to go into comedy. How many women sit around in the pub and tell each other jokes? How many women laugh when someone gets hit in the groin by a football? It's just not how women do things. Note how all the best-known gossip-columnists have been female.

B

It is a clear cut case that men ARE funnier - they dont even have to open their mouth. Look at any bloke in the nude. See? Dead funny.........

I'm appalled anybody finds Catherine Tate funny. I think she's the single most overrated performer I've ever seen. How she ever got a show of her own baffles me, unless she's married to the commissioner of programmes or something.

Similarly Victoria Wood and Julie Walters are wildly overrated. Oooh, Victoria, she's sooooooo clever, and she's northern too, how amazing! Oooh, sing us the song about the macaroons again!

See above point about tastes.

Ten seconds? Mentioning only the ones I actually think are good...

Hattie Hayridge. Doon Mackichan. Sally Philips. Jo Brand. Linda Smith. Jane Leeves. Fiona Allen. Sarah Alexander. Tamsin Greig. Jessica Stevenson. Jennie Eclair. Lucy Porter. Arabella Weir. Ronnie Ancona. Jan Ravens. Caroline Aherne.

Now mentioning ones OTHER people like but who make me reach for the remote, if not actually my revolver:

The entire cast of Absolutely Fabulous, Dawn French and the other one from "The Vicar of Dibley".

Admittedly not as many come tripping off the tongue as men, but see above point about what women get up to in their spare time - i.e. not competing with their mates to see who can remember the most/funniest/filthiest jokes in a pub.

Relatively few of the people I've listed above actually do much *standup* comedy, which seems to be the "gold standard" of what makes someone funny in and of themselves. Many of them however are writers and performers of some of the best sketch and character comedy of the past decade, something arguably harder to get right once, let alone for a whole series or more.

H.

Just a little view from the rest of the world:

Concerning the lists in the first post -- the only people I've even heard of, let alone laughed at, are French and Saunders and Julie Walters.

*rests case*

You've never heard of Bill Hicks?

H.

No.

Have you heard of Rick Mercer? Or Mary Walsh? Or Cathy Jones?

I didn't know it was actually possible to have never heard of Eric Morecambe.

We don't all live on that tiny little island in the North Atlantic.

Dave Broadfoot?

I've heard of Cathy Jones.

Bill Hicks wass an American, incidently, not a Brit.

We don't all live in that tiny, isolationist North American oligarchy.

now your just making them up.

How on earth can some of those near legendary comic names never of made it to werever it is you live, but Julie Walters has?

Is it a tiny little island with only one cable station showing endless re runs of Billy Elliot?

A805899 - Morecambe and Wise
A609563 - Bill Hicks

Who's Billy Eliot?

I just had a look at the list of comedians on the comedian's comedian http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Comedian%27s_Comedian and frankly, I've never heard of most of them and most of the ones I've heard of simply aren't very funny.

Billy Elliot is a shite chick-flick about a little boy who wants to be a ballet dancer, or possibly a tap dancer, I forget which. It stared Julie Walters.