e-mail to a friend in needWhat’s so scary about funny women?
Obviously, we heart funny women at Breakup Girl HQ, but what about the rest of the world?
Are funny women intimidating to the opposite sex?
Although Kevin Pang ends his Chicago Tribune article on the topic with a happy punch line, he explores the pitfalls of funny women in the Chicago improv scene trying to date “civilians.”
Although male improvisers date both within and outside the community, many female improvisers only date fellow performers…The argument, I realized, might not be that female performers can’t date noncomedians, but that they gravitate toward funnier men.
He goes on to quote sociologists and layfolk, and makes the astute observation:
Those who can make others laugh are the puppeteers of life. They pull strings, tugging and slacking people’s emotions. And that’s a powerful thing, perhaps too much for some men to accept.
So what’s the moral here? Should funny women stick to dating only funny guys? Should natural-born comediennes suppress their instincts in order to appeal to men? Or should men just grow a pair and face their fears? What do you think? Comments welcome.
[P.S. Welcome, Paula, to BG's super-bloggers! You're funny, and we're not intimidated.]
Grow a pair.
(full disclosure: I do improv comedy)
Comment by Dan Wilson — November 12, 2009 @ 4:57 pm
This could be the topic of a dissertation. But I like the way the reporter, and Paula — and, most to the point, Dan — have boiled it down.
Comment by BG — November 12, 2009 @ 5:08 pm
The only reason I can imagine for a man to be intimidated by a woman with a sense of humor is that he’s got something to be laughed at. Or less than something.
Then again, that assumption aside, if a man is intimidated by a funny woman, it’s a good sign for her that he’s both lacking in self-confidence and more likely to end up acting like a jerk because he’s scared of her.
A big ol’ warning sign, in other words.
Comment by 2fs — November 12, 2009 @ 5:18 pm
I think the reporter not only grew a pair when admitting to his girlfriend that her line was funnier, but his heart grew three sizes that day for taking the time to research the situation and write about it. I was always the funny girl and it definitely wreaked havoc on my dating life. The breakthrough came for me though when I learned that by refining my material and playing to better audiences I could attract the kind of man who understood me. So, hand me that twine, I’m going as back hair.
Comment by mags — November 12, 2009 @ 5:53 pm
I get happy lovey feelings when the girl I’m into can make me struggle to breathe and prevent my side from splitting.
Comment by mike — November 12, 2009 @ 7:55 pm
men are intimidated by funny because you can’t be truly funny unless you are also smart. and we know how some men feel about women being smarter than them. they bottom line, if a man likes a funny woman, it means he likes a woman who shows she’s smart, and that my friends, is a man who likes an equal partner. moral of the story = if the man don’t like you funny, then he isn’t worthy of your time. NEXT!
Comment by maryalicecarr — November 12, 2009 @ 10:35 pm
oh, bad grammar above intentional. misspellings are not. whoops. so much for acting like i’m all smart…
Comment by maryalicecarr — November 12, 2009 @ 10:37 pm
Probably you’ve all been waiting for the POV of a long-married guy. But FWIW…
“Funny” is so subjective. Men say they want a woman with a sense of humor. Most likely they want somebody who will laugh at THEIR jokes. Our egos are indeed fragile things.
Or we say we would like her to be witty. This usually implies that they can indeed make funny comments, without being loud or obnoxious or embarrassing, or trying-too-hard, or being an attention junkie, or she’s-not-laughing-AT-me-is-she? Of course, I assume nobody likes that in a guy, either, but that doesn’t explain how so many of them manage to reproduce.
Seems like the world is tougher on women for being funny, as with just about everything else.
Of course, speaking of improv, when I was single I would have killed to meet somebody like Catherine O’Hara or Andrea Martin. Like I said, FWIW…
Comment by Tom Marcinko — November 13, 2009 @ 11:06 am
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