www.vulture.com: At the Comedy Cellar in Greenwich Village, there’s a table where the comics sit. It’s where they joke, debate, goof off, and ridicule their friends. As depicted on the FX series Louie, it’s the most fun place to be with the smartest, coolest comics in America. Every club has one, but the Comedy Cellar is the best club, and the table Louis C.K. sat at was the best table, occupied by the likes of Chris Rock, Jerry Seinfeld, and Marc Maron. That table is the most important force in comedy. There are rarely women at that table. There are never gay men or trans people.
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I distinctly remember one of the first times that I as a teenager actively noticed and actually thought about the blatant sexism in entertainment. It was right after Bridesmaids did extraordinarily well in theaters, and female comedians were getting much more press (meaning, some press instead of absolutely none). Suddenly, I was seeing articles everywhere, both in print and online, that were some form of "Breaking News: Women are funny!" This was not meant to be sarcasm, but instead was an actual revelation that the entertainment industry kind of collectively had after Bridesmaids. I was a little bit confused by this, since I was pretty sure that women were always funny. However, since a successful major film led by a team of female comedians is so extraordinarily rare, that's what it took for comedy to recognize women. That all being said, I really like the point in which the article mentions how feminists have no place at the Comedy Cellar table. Women in comedy have to keep their mouths shut and pretend nothing is wrong in order to be successful. The second a woman talks about sexism or harassment, they are cast out. This is true in any industry, but especially in comedy, which is already such an immensely competitive field. I would be very interested to see what celebrities such as Tina Fey and Amy Poehler have to say about this issue.
This article really hits the nail on the head here: "Sexual harassment is one of many tools heterosexual men use to remind other comics that our status is provisional. We’re not equals. We’re not colleagues. We’re flavors, we’re different, we’re people who should quietly accept whatever creepiness is presented to us. Mostly, these tools remind us that our status as real comics is provisional." While discussing the comic world, this situation could easily apply to many other jobs--especially in the entertainment industry, but even beyondt. A women who has been promoted above her male colleagues is often seen as an anomaly. Chances are her fellow male coworkers or subordinates have qualified her success by remarking on her personality "ice queen" "bitch" "medusa" or on her looks/sex appeal "bet she slept her way to the top" "slut" "bimbo". Any minority outside of white straight men are often brushed aside as quota fillers, and that once someone more talented comes along they will be cast aside. I really hope that all of these shakeups help change this too often occurring dynamic, and I too think that "the table is the problem...[and it is time to] burn the table down."
I really applaud this author for giving up their seat at the table and for understanding that a seat at a table that perpetuates violence isn't a good seat to have.
Comedy is such a white man's game. Every time I watch stand up comedy I see white men on stage, joking about sexual violence, the LGBT community, or something else they have no business joking about. I'm incredibly tired of everything in the world being a white cishet man's game. It simply isn't true that those are the only funny people, in fact I'm not sure people like Louis CK are even funny considering how vulgar their content and their lives are.
Because a sense of humor is so specific to every person I hope that one day comics will represent more people. There are things that are very funny about the LGBT experience that I as a person in that community would love to laugh at. But I would never was a cishet person making those jokes. Maybe one day we'll even have trans gay women in comedy. That'll be the day I think comedians are funny.
This article truly emphasizes the issues facing the comedic world and mimics the issues that we face widespread. The author of the article does a great job of calling out the issues within the white, straight, cisgendered, male- centered environment that dominates comedy and in turn, the table. Comedy has always been centered around jokes that uplift the white man and degrade women, homosexuals, and people of color. The content of those who rely on these surface level jokes and stereotypes to gain comedic appeal are the same ones who spew jokes about sexual assault and degrading women, and we continue to pretend like this is okay. Not only are the people who sit among Louis CK in this “boys’ club” perpetrators of allowing such actions to occur, but it is also us, the listeners, the quiet ones who just listen and laugh. “My silence simply empowered a system to treat me and many other people like we were negligible and disposable.”
This kind of stuff just makes my skin crawl. Of course these things exist. Stuff like this happens at ever strata of society when a group of straight men get together, but to know it is so instrumental in this field is just gross. kudos to this writer for having the courage to stand up and write this article. It is not easy to put one's career at stake for what one believes in. I kind of wish that a more plausible solution was presented though. 'Burning the table' is not exactly an actionable idea. I wonder what it would really take to dismantle something that seems to be so intrinsic to stand up itself. Is there a way to get rid of the table entirely, or does it have to modified greatly in order for it to be more inclusive? Maybe as long as there is a table, it can not be inclusive. But then what will take place of the table?
Comedy is “allowed” to be sexist. Because it is comedy. It is a joke. There is no harm done because comics are not being serious. These “rules” apply to real life, as well. People make offensive jokes and defend themselves with “It is just a joke.” I can’t stand that. Telling jokes that are sexist (or racist, etc.) spread the mindset that talking in that way is completely fine. In comedy, women are the butt of jokes very often. In addition, women often make sexist jokes as well. In my opinion, though she does do work promoting good body image, Amy Schumer in many ways reduces women to that, just a body, even if they are all different, beautiful bodies. Furthermore, she attempts to show other women that her body is beautiful *because* men still find her desirable and sexy. That’s not what it’s about. But the point is, comedy is rampant with sexism, mostly because there’s an excuse. We need more people to wake up and see the issue with this.
As a kid I listened to a lot of stand up comedy, but I didn’t realize the sexism and the boys club inherent to the comedy until I got older. When I think about my favorite comedians, I realize how few women are on the list and I wonder how the women who did manage to make it got there. Did they have to “play the game” in order to be successful? I wonder this even for people like Tina Fey and Sarah Silverman who bring an element of unapologetic femininity to their writing. I vaguely recall when I read bossypants, her examples of rampant sexism, but after reading this article I want to take a second look at what she faced as a woman in comedy. After listening, to Sarah Silverman’s remarks about Louis CK, they were close friends. So why did he help her succeed? If so, how did she never see his disgusting behavior?
This article does a fantastic job of acknowledging the problems that we are facing, and not holding back in urging everyone in our community to, not only take responsibility, but do something to stop perpetuating this cycle of violations of individuality, privacy, and safety. Comedy is such a difficult thing because often it is used to cope with the problems in our society. We have gotten to the point where the jokes are so common that it makes it okay. It is no longer scathing and savage with a hint of seriousness when a comedian calls someone out; it is simply another Tuesday. Comedy is also wildly challenging because it is something that is dominated by straight, cisgendered, men who have absolutely no business making jokes about the things they build a career around joking about. It is frustrating and quite simply wrong.
I appreciate how this article is trying to detail the lack of diversity in the comedy space, and the “all boys atmosphere” that allowed Louis CK’s behavior to go on unnoticed. This sort of climate that protects and insulates this kind of behavior needs to be torn down and replaced with a more inclusive multicultural climate that accepts voices from all sides. Only then can victims and future would be victims feel safe in an environment and truly experience transformative justice. This sort of culture is toxic not just for victims, but for men who are not perpetuating this sort of assault and are just “bystanders” letting it happen (they themselves are also complicit in the oppression and assault of women). It puts them in a power scenario whereby they must choose between exposing inappropriate behavior and potentially losing out in their careers.
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