Original subtitles

Remember when comedy meant males doing jokes about females,

like wives and mothers‐in‐law?

Well, the tables have turned.

[ Spits ]

Griffin: The idea that chicks aren funny ‐‐

I hate to tell you, its still very much a thing.

Sarah: There are some people that can get their heads

around what they don know.

Cho: I said I wanted to be a comedian.

She said, [Korean accent] "Or maybe its better if you just die."

I think they thought of women as a different species.

Rivers: Very few ladies are capable of being a comedian,

and so everybody sits right up.

Heres somebody that thinks she can do it.

Apatow: This is a great argument

that women are doing much better work than men.

[ Cheers and applause ]

Youre welcome.

♪

Whats the hardest part about being a female comedian?

What is it? Whats the hardest part?

Like, what would you guess?

Woman: Um...

Well, its the rape.

[ Laughter ]

Um...

I have a deep camaraderie

with tough, hard‐core, funny‐ass female comedians

because its been a long road for all of us.

Susskind: What would make a woman

turn from some decent thing like housewifing

or cashiering in a five‐and‐dime store

or dental hygiene

and turn her to comedy as a career?

Its definitely easier for us now

cause weve pushed our way in,

but back then, there was one of them, two of them.

[ Laughs ]

People try to analyze it.

"Are women not funny?"

Its like, "No, theyre oppressed, you dumb idiot."

I really stopped a great career there.

Oh, and Id do it again.

Id much rather be your wife than amount to anything.

[ Laughter ]

Cryer: Of course, there have always been funny women.

Its just a matter or whether the society

that they were in was willing to let them be funny.

We have with us this evening an international star,

Miss Fanny Brice.

[ Applause ]

It wasn until the late 1800s

and the early 20th century that women

started becoming really famous as comedic performers.

Kohen: A lot of them were comediennes ‐‐

a woman who gets up onstage,

is funny, but she sings and she dances.

Hey, wait a minute. The music stopped.

Well, I didn hear it.

Oh, she didn hear it.

Kohen: Shes more of an entertainer than just the straight comic.

That was kind of what was allowed.

It was not really accepted for a woman to stand onstage

and tell jokes and give their opinion

to a bunch of men until Jean Carroll.

Most fellas, they have a tough day at the racetrack ‐‐

they get nasty, but not my Jack.

Hes so sweet. Nothing bothers him.

He drinks. And, of course...

[ Laughter ]

Well, he doesn drink cause he likes it.

He drinks to steady his nerves.

The other night, they got so steady, he couldn move at all.

[ Laughter ]

Nesteroff: Jean Carroll was in a comedy team

with a guy named Buddy Howe, who she ended up marrying,

and then Buddy Howe went off to war.

So Jean Carroll rewrote their act

so that she could do it by herself

and became a solo stand‐up.

This guy ate like he was going to the chair.

I mean, as for manners, you know?

Ive seen people eat with their hands before,

but not soup. And thats ‐‐

[ Laughter ]

Nesteroff: She got rave reviews.

She was playing the same venues

as all the biggest comedians of the late 1940s

and getting bigger laughs than the guys.

[ Applause ]

Welcome to "You Bet Your Life."

Say the secret words and divide an extra $100.

Its a common word,

something you always have with you.

Phyllis Diller, lets start with you.

Now, Phyllis, what do you do

to break up the monotony of housekeeping

and taking care of five small gorillas?

[ Chuckles ]

Well, Im really not a housewife anymore.

Im an entertainer.

Phyllis Diller started comedy at 37 years old with five kids.

She was cutting‐edge because she was doing something

that no other woman had done before.

I love to go to the doctor!

Ooh!

Where else would a man look at me and say,

"Take off your clothes"?

[ Laughter ]

In those days, so much of comedy was just straight‐up sexist.

"My wife is a battle axe."

Phyllis Diller switched it around.

Now it was about her horrible husband.

Fang ‐‐ Thats my husband.

He went to the dentist the other day.

The dentist told him hes got the worst set of tooth

he ever saw in his life.

[ Laughter ]

Nesteroff: For a woman to go onstage and complain about that,

it was emancipation, in a way.

You sure youre a marriage counselor?

Of course. Don I have a sympathetic face?

Well, your face has my sympathy.

The self‐deprecating woman

was very popular in the comedy world.

Back from the beauty shop, where shes just had her head

tarred and feathered, here is Miss Phyllis Diller.

[ Applause ]

Griffin: I think when it came to women

doing comedy, certainly stand‐up,

you had to dress in a way that was crazy.

You had to work within the confines

of what guys would accept you doing.

What in the world?

[ Laughter ]

Is that a riot?

I tucked that in in the dressing room,

and it fell out again.

[ Laughter ]

Kohen: Youre basically saying, "Im coming up onstage.

Don look at me as a woman.

Look at me as, like, a funny person."

Just looking at the two outfits here ‐‐

Moms and Woodys.

I would like to wear Moms.

And Id like to wear yours.

[ Laughter ]

Moms Mabley, who was a great comedienne of the 30s and 40s,

50s, didn become known by white audiences

until the 60s,

when there were more black faces on TV.

Ive been accused of liking young men.

[ Light laughter ]

And Im guilty. [ Laughter ]

Kohen: She was very sexual,

and she was also very blunt and raunchy.

Moms Mabley as an old woman was not considered a threat,

so she could get away with it.

Frost: When did you get married, then, Moms?

I was young, son.

[ Laughter ]

And I married a man ‐‐ 98.

He didn live but five days.

[ Laughter ]

It took three undertakers a week

to get the smile off his face.

[ Laughter ]

Kohen: She was more than just,

you know, another woman in comedy.

She was much more of a pioneer.

[ Applause ]

Rivers: Its very hard for a woman

who has been brought up to be sweet and clingy

to stand up in front of 2,500 people and say,

"Okay, now, listen to me."

Its a tremendous ‐‐

You really have a tremendous sense of power

when youre standing up

and commanding them to listen to you.

I wouldn be single again for anything in the world

cause I was the last girl in Larchmont, New York, to go,

and I was desperate.

When I say ‐‐ I was desperate.

My parents had a big sign saying,

"Last girl before the Thruway."

I mean, thats how desperate I was.

Joan was the real deal.

Shes, like, a badass.

She grew up in the gritty New York City scene,

and she was breaking ground

by just talking about her life honestly.

This is an era where women just didn do that.

A girl ‐‐ Youre 30 years old, youre not married ‐‐

Youre an old maid.

A man ‐‐ Hes 90 years old, hes not married ‐‐ Hes a catch.

Its a whole different thing.

She would push the boundaries constantly.

The edict was, "If its making people laugh, then its okay."

I think you can tell what kind of a lover

a man is gonna be from the way he tinkles.

Everage: Who said that?

If a man in a room that is fully lit

cannot hit a hole this big around...

[ Laughter ]

Im gonna ponder on that one.

[ Laughter ]

Woman: There are some people

who say that some of the things that you do or say are vulgar.

Does that ‐‐ Life is vulgar.

Life is outrageous.

I find whats made my comedy work as much as its worked

is I say things that everybody else has thought

and not really verbalized.

Rivers: When you die, whatever you got out of him,

you have buried on you,

and the next bitch wants it, make her dig for it.

Oh, sure!

Sarah: Joan Rivers was, at no point in her career,

not funny because she changed with the times.

I mean, she was an evolving, writing‐every‐day,

real‐life comedian.

Carson: Don you think men really like intelligence more

when it comes right down to it?

Oh, please, are we gonna go back to that?

Yeah, sure. Are you kidding me?

Its a brain, you know, a caring person.

No man has ever put his hand

up a womans dress looking for a library card.

I am sorry.

[ Laughter and applause ]

Ill tell you its such a hat show, Fred.

I think Ill get another station. Oh.

As our first offering this evening, we ‐‐ Stop that!

Go back and sit down!

[ Laughter ]

Leifer: When I was growing up,

I was an "I Love Lucy" freak, could lip‐sync it.

I love that I can turn on something

thats over 60 years old now and go,

"You can beat these jokes.

And you can beat these characters."

♪ I took the wind ♪

♪ Wind ♪

♪ Ooooh ♪

[ Laughter ]

McKay: This is a woman in a time

where comedy was completely dominated by men.

Not only does this show become the comedy show,

they then create the modern model

for all the sitcoms to follow.

Shes an absolute titan of comedy.

White: To have a woman be not only a comedian

but a solid business person,

she broke ground for generations of us.

[ Laughter ]

Burnett: You don see too many beautiful women

be clowns like that,

and she was, indeed, a beautiful woman.

You know, she was a movie star at MGM,

and nobody ever knew she could be funny.

[ Laughter ]

Ball: Mugging and doing pratfalls and doing things

that maybe nice little girls

weren supposed to do at one time.

I have never thought of it as a hindrance,

as something that we shouldn do.

We just go ahead and do them. We don think how we look.

Is it easy, for instance, say, to be sexy and funny

at the same time? Oh, yes.

Very easy.

[ Laughter ]

It may be easy for you, Carol.

[ Laughter ]

Carol Burnett is the single most talented woman,

or performer, ever.

She could do everything.

Nesteroff: She started on the "Garry Moore Show"

and became a big star.

What have I done?!

People forget just how much she was a part of the culture

at one point in time.

Burnett: I did not think that I would want to ever ‐‐

could ever host a variety show.

Welcome to our first show that were doing.

Im real excited and very, very happy

that youre all with us tonight.

Looks like we got a nice, full group.

Could you bump up the lights so I can see ‐‐

Ooh! Gorgeous!

They had an image of a fella

in a tuxedo coming out and doing a monologue,

and, "How will a woman...?"

You know, "Will they take a woman doing this?"

And we said, "Well, I hope theyll take me

at least for 13 weeks."

And it worked.

It worked for 11 years.

I never thought it would go that long.

I knew I wanted to do musical, comedy.

I wanted guest stars.

Excu‐u‐u‐se me!

I wanted to do sketches.

I wanted a rep company the way Sid Caesar had one.

[ Laughter ]

Curtain, you fools! Curtain!

[ Laughter ]

[ Applause ]

Parent: There were 10 variety shows on

at the same time that Carol Burnett was on,

and there were approximately 10 comedy writers on each show.

And I was the only woman out of all of them.

Kohen: The funny thing about female writers in television

was that in the beginning,

I would not say they were very welcomed,

although there were certainly exceptions.

Treva: I interviewed for the "Carson Show."

And I called my agent.

And I said, "I think it went really well."

And he said, "Im sorry, honey, but they just called and said

they would not feel comfortable with a woman in the room."

Being a comedy writer

is not the most macho profession,

so I think there was a certain defensiveness

and overcompensation.

[ Laughs ]

I like that inside track of getting to hear

how men talk if women weren around

cause it was almost like you weren around.

It was filthy.

The language was disgusting.

I loved it.

Youll have such a time, such fun, such ‐‐

Oh, youll ‐‐ I have to warn you, though.

Theres a street down there in Rome

where it just isn safe for a woman.

Where?! Where?! Where?!

[ Laughter ]

Kohen: When you get to "Your Show of Shows,"

you know, thats a very famous writers room,

and you had two women who worked at separate times.

The first was Lucille Callen,

and the second was Selma Diamond.

Reiner: It was always right to have the womans viewpoint.

And who better than women to say,

"Women will laugh at that"?

And so when I put together

the characters for the "Van Dyke Show,"

I said, "We need the womans viewpoint."

And when I told my agent,

he immediately said, "Rose Marie."

Its a beautiful piece of writing.

It really is, but you know Alan.

If he doesn get a laugh every 10 seconds,

he calls the cops and has the audience arrested.

[ Laughter ]

Chupack: Rose Marie on the "Dick Van Dyke Show"

was great for women

who might aspire to being in the writers room

because that was the first glimpse we got

maybe that that was possible.

Kohen: Its not like there were plenty of career women on TV.

Women were mainly housewives in the sitcoms,

or they were secretaries and teachers.

They weren writers.

You mean to say that youd give up your job for us?

Yeah. Compared to you, Im a rat.

Compared to a rat, youre a rat.

[ Laughter ]

My mother didn want me to be funny

because how was I gonna get married

and be funny at the same time?

But here was Rose Marie.

She was blonde and pretty and funny,

and I kind of liked that idea.

No, uh, don ‐‐ don bother to send it, Mom.

I don think Im going to Mexico, after all.

[ Telephone rings ]

Um, hang on there, Mom, will you?

Newsroom. Hello, Mary?

[ Laughter ]

The "Mary Tyler Moore Show" changed everything.

They brought a lot of women into the business.

Here we go. Ready? Action.

Kohen: They wanted to make a truthful story

about a single woman in her 30s,

and I think that Jim Brooks and Alan Burns realized

that if we want to have the right details,

we have to ask women what the stories are here.

You look different. I like it.

Well...

Yeah.

I like it back here, too.

[ Laughter ]

I have a feeling hes gonna kick my tires.

[ Laughter ]

Women are so important in the bigger world of comedy

because our experience is different,

and theres that much more to mine for humor.

I don know what you two are laughing at,

but Ill take a chance its dirty.

[ Laughs ]

Betty White on "Mary Tyler Moore"

is one of my favorite characters of all time.

I mean, what a viper.

Wherever did you find a party hat made of skin?

[ Laughter ]

White: Sue Ann Nivens was sort of fun to play

because something that Betty might be shy about doing,

she would do in a heartbeat.

Tell me one good thing about me ‐‐ Anything at all.

Youre attractive. Very attractive.

Sexy, provocative.

A tawny, sensual beast.

Yes, a beast.

[ Laughter ]

Treva: I think it was important to all of us

to try to reflect

what was happening with women during that time.

Things were changing so quickly,

and we were right in the middle of it.

It was an explosive time with situation comedy,

and I think many more women started working at that point.

Did you find it fun to be the only girl writer around?

With some men.

Some men are secure enough to accept it.

A lot of them gave me a lot of trouble,

and theyre running candy stores in Brooklyn.

[ Laughter ]

No, no, thats true.

Insecure people don get anyplace.

Youve got to face it.

Women are here to stay.

[ Cheers and applause ]

Welcome to Long Dust. Can I help you?

[ Crying ] Yes. I...I read your ad.

I‐Id like to know about the $65 funeral.

I see.

[ Laughter ]

Was that for yourself?

[ Laughter ]

Mike Nichols and Elaine May met in Chicago

at the birth of improv.

Burnett: They didn write jokes.

They wrote situations

that were just hysterically funny,

but that you could relate to.

Would you be interested in some extras

for the loved one?

What kind of extras?

Well, how about a coffin?

[ Laughter ]

My life changed the day my parents took me

to see Nichols and May on Broadway.

Before that, all I saw were comedians talking about

how bad their wives were

or how bad their mother‐in‐laws were.

Take my wife, please.

And then all of a sudden, the sky opened up,

and there were Nichols and May.

And I thought to myself, "Now thats funny."

Well, tell me, how do you put your sketches together now?

Do you outline them,

or are they fairly well written out?

Well, we don ever write anything down.

And we don ever outline them.

Its a terrifying process.

What kind of an excuse is that?

Well, its ‐‐ What do you mean?! Well, I mean,

all the other scientists have mothers, Im sure.

And Im sure that they all find time after breakfast

or before their count‐off to pick up a phone

and call their mother!

Kohen: Elaine May was always the writer of the two.

I don think shes given enough credit for being kind of

one of these foundational people of improv.

Nesteroff: She was smart. She was witty.

She was sexy.

She was everything that female comedians

up to that point weren allowed to be.

Well, thank you very much, Jack.

Thats okay.

[ Laughs ]

Vardalos: And thats when I realized its possible.

You have to write to the point where you get respect

cause nobodys gonna hand it to you as a female.

Come on, Lily. Lily Tomlin.

What are you gonna do?

Im gonna do a lady tonight

whos an employee of one of Americas

most beloved institutions.

Phoenicia?

Phoenicia, this is Ernestine.

I want you to send out a service check on all the circuits at ‐‐

at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

Well, because, honey, its almost impossible

to get through to that man.

[ Laughter ]

[ Laughs ]

Nesteroff: In the 60s,

"Laugh‐In" was one of the hottest programs on TV.

And all these famous characters we associate with Lily Tomlin

became famous then and turned her into a huge star.

And thats the truth. Pbht!

Markoe: She was hip.

She was not doing material about being a frustrated wife.

She was doing character material,

and it was really new and different and brilliant.

Mama said you went to college.

Mama said that?

Im not going to college when I grow up.

No. No. Cause I seen pictures

where they shoot you in college.

[ Laughter ]

[ Applause ]

Nesteroff: Her characters were no longer

just innocuous, wacky, and weird.

They started to become characters

with a subtle political point of view.

Recently, I did my most eloquent sculpture to date.

I used four gallons of vanilla ice cream,

and I molded the first family.

And then I invited some of my friends over,

and we sat around and watched them melt.

Kohen: She was a very dominant voice at the time.

I mean, you can find Rolling Stone covers

where it was, like Richard Pryor, Lily Tomlin,

and they are our most dangerous comedians

doing the most dangerous stuff.

Nesteroff: They both immersed themselves in characters.

The very first Lily Tomlin special on NBC, 1974,

they both won Emmy Awards.

So did its producer, a guy named Lorne Michaels.

And based on the strength of that special,

the "Lily" special,

he got the pilot for "Saturday Night Live."

"Dear Roseanne Roseannadanna..."

I don know where you get it, how you get it,

or who actually milks the dogs,

and I don care to know.

Hi. [ Laughs ]

"Saturday Night Live" definitely early on ‐‐

amazing that right out of the gate,

it was Laraine Newman and Jane Curtin and Gilda Radner.

Now, Candy, Candy...

They could definitely hang with the guys.

They were just as important, and they were hilarious.

Hey, stud muffins, want to make bouncy bouncy?

[ Laughter ]

They had three female performers and three female writers,

which, if you look at the comedy landscape

at that time, is unheard of.

What made "Saturday Night Live" different from

those other shows was, our show was the first one

to really have a voice for a younger generation.

Then the man...

Ew!

Ew! Yahhh!

Thats disgusting.

And then you scream,

and then he screams, and then its over.

[ Groans ]

The early days of "SNL" were a tale of two worlds

because you had these great female writers like Anne Beatts

and Marilyn Miller and Rosie Shuster.

But then you had ‐‐ Like, John Belushi

didn want to do sketches that were written by women.

I like sirloin steak. I like American food.

Wrap it up. Don push me, Curtin!

I mean it! John used to regularly ask

for the women to be fired [Laughs] on the show

because chicks just weren funny.

Awful! Awful!

Awful! Couldn be worse!

Really enough to make you want to puke your guts out.

Beatts: It was an uphill battle.

Lorne used to come round to me and Rosie and go, like,

"So, what have you got for the girls?"

We felt an obligation to cover them

since the men didn write that much for them.

[ Laughing ]

But seriously...

[ Laughter ]

They started to write more for Gilda

because Gilda was very outgoing, you know,

and she was more of a proven laugh‐getter.

Ahh! Thats the...

No! Im gonna have to...

Bloom: When I saw Gilda Radner, my mind was blown.

There was just something about her that was really magnetic.

She committed to it so hard, and she wasn afraid

to not be dainty with her character work.

What is that bewitching scent youre wearing?

Vicks VapoRub.

[ Laughter ]

There was never a moment

when you thought, "Wait a second.

These women don deserve to be there."

What do you see?

Wax buildup.

Kohen: The stuff they were doing

was as edgy as what the guys were doing,

and a lot of the sketches have withstood the test of time.

I love him! I love him!

I love him!

And where he goes, Ill swallow,

Ill swallow, Ill swallow.

Man: It is possible ‐‐ but just barely ‐‐

that one of the people waiting in line

outside this New York nightclub is a future star.

It is certain that each one thinks

he or she is star material, talented,

and just waiting for the right break.

Zoglin: In the 70s, when the stand‐up comedy boom is starting,

women definitely had a tougher time.

Only a very few, like Elayne Boosler,

managed to crack the stand‐up comedy clubs.

Do you know that people have donor cards

on their drivers licenses, that if they have an accident

they will leave parts of their body to someone?

Who would want to receive the eyes

that didn see the car in the first place?

[ Laughter ]

Elayne Boosler was a game‐changer

because before her,

there hadn been a young, single,

female comic who went out onstage with no apologies

for who she was and just kind of told it like is.

I guess maybe breasts are the most important part

of the body, when you think about it.

I mean, without them, employers just wouldn know

who to give the smaller paychecks to, so...

I came along in 73 and started to reflect the times I lived in.

Women were starting to work. The pill was here.

Single women were starting to have sex.

You weren labeled anymore.

They think were dumb,

so they put too many directions on the products.

Like, on the home pregnancy test, it says,

"For use in the privacy of your own home."

Oh, good.

I was gonna drive to a crowded shopping center.

That was a little threatening to some men in the audience

and even for some club owners.

Boosler: Everyone in the business tried to talk me out of it.

"You can be pretty and do comedy.

You can do it."

And my best line in those years was,

"Im just a human being trapped in a womans body."

And I really believe that summed up my approach to comedy.

[ Applause ]

Way back when,

when I started doing comedy in 1979,

there were only six female comedians

working on the circuit, only six, and it was really odd.

We didn know each other because the club owners

would never book us together cause it was such a rarity

to have a female comic to begin with.

In fact, I remember when Id go to some clubs

around the country,

whenever I performed, the emcee would go,

"Youre not gonna believe what we have coming up next!

Youre not gonna believe it!

Its a female comic!"

Like it was some sort of estrogen freak show.

[ Laughter ]

I have definitely heard some crazy intros over the years.

Sometimes Ill go up on shows,

and there will be sort of an apology, like,

"You guys, shes really funny.

Shes one of my good friends."

"We got a lady coming up next who tells jokes.

How about that?"

So, Id get up there, and Id be like, "I know.

Whats with the jokes and the vagina?

Am I right, fellas?"

[ Laughter ]

Kohen: Stand‐up in general is a hostile environment,

and I think if you were a woman,

that hostile environment just was like up times 10.

You know, professional sports just don do a thing for me.

I like to ‐‐

[ Man shouts indistinctly ]

Good point. My mistake.

[ Laughter ]

Of course, I enjoy you very, very much, but...

When I was coming up, I could always tell

if I saw three or more young guys in a group,

I could kind of set my watch to it and go,

"When I go onstage, those guys are gonna give me a problem."

All right. [ Man shouts indistinctly ]

If that man screams one more time,

Im gonna whack his peepee.

Do you understand what Im gonna do?

[ Applause ]

When guys give you a hard time,

you should just go right for the jugular,

which is basically...

"Hey, buddy, I don go to your job

and knock the dicks out of your mouth"...

which I think is appropriate and funny.

Mister, I don have time

to tell you all the things that are the matter with you,

but lets start with that checkered bell‐bottom suit.

Kohen: You had to learn to deal with it

if you wanted to make it in the clubs,

and the best ones did.

Hi, pigs.

[ Laughter ]

I don know how to say this, but I want to be on you.

[ Laughter ]

Rudner: I dated my last boyfriend for two years,

and finally, I gave him an ultimatum.

You know, I said, "Listen, either you tell me your name,

or its over." [ Laughter ]

This is my long, luxurious, blond hair.

[ Laughter ]

Ain it pretty?

All: Yeah!

I could put it in a ponytail.

Want to see? All: Yeah!

No.

Kohen: Whoopi Goldberg always thought of herself

as an actress more so than a comedian.

She was very much in the spirit of Lily Tomlin,

more so than the stand‐ups of her era.

And they said, like, "Are you a Valley girl?"

And I said, "No, Im a surfer

because before there was the mall,

there was the ocean, okay?"

I, like...

Chupack: It was so much more than stand‐up.

She was commenting on the world were living in

in a really interesting way

through these different characters.

I passed this big dude walking around the circus

with a picket sign, talking about,

"Stop abortion."

I said, "I have the answer to abortion."

He said, "What is it?"

I said, "Shoot your dick."

[ Laughter ]

Goldberg: I was always an actor,

and one of the reasons I started doing the monologues

was because I couldn get any work

cause people sort of look at you

and decide what you can do and what you can

or what they think you can do.

[ Cheers and applause ]

What does it take to become successful,

and how tough is it for you compared to men?

I think its harder to be a man comic, actually.

Yeah, cause theyre generally not funny or intelligent.

[ Laughter ]

[ High‐pitched voice ] "Roseanne, don you think

we should talk about our sexual problems?"

[ Normal voice ] Like Im gonna turn off "Wheel of Fortune"

for that.

[ Laughter ]

Roseanne was the big 80s comic who came out.

She was the kind of woman that when you talk to people,

they remember Roseanne.

They remember what her persona was.

She had a clear point of view.

I never get out of the house. I never go no place.

I never have no fun ever, ever, ever,

ever cause Im a housewife.

I hate that word.

I want to be called "domestic goddess."

Its so much more descriptive.

Roseanne Barr took the classic "housewife" stance

and turned it on its head.

They come up to me.

They go, "God, Roseanne, youre not very feminine."

[ Light laughter ]

They say that.

Can you believe that they would say that to me?

Can you even believe that? "Youre not very feminine."

So, I say, "Well, suck my dick!"

[ Laughter ]

Leifer: She took off like a rocket.

She really captured what most great stand‐ups do

that connect with the bigger, wide audience.

She was authentic.

Maher: Oh, please. If I came out ‐‐

Come on. Women have been the butt of male jokes

for two million years, and weve always laughed.

And now I come out and I make a few crummy little jokes

about you and your penises and you can take it.

[ Cheers and applause ]

Roseanne...

[ Cheers and applause continue ]

Listen to this. Youll have to.

My grandmother ‐‐ [ Laughter ]

...she started walking five miles a day when she was 60.

Shes 97 today.

We don know where the hell she is.

[ Laughter ]

Griffin: In the 90s club heyday,

the clubs were so crowded

because everybody in the world thought,

"Im gonna move to California or New York.

Im gonna do three funny minutes

and then get my own sitcom like Jerry Seinfeld."

That was the downside of that era.

They really just didn really have room for me

or the likes of me.

Who could start off the sex category other than ‐‐

yes, you know it ‐‐ Miss Kathy Griffin?!

Im gonna tell a story that I told once before ‐‐

only once before.

It is not the time I fucked the midget.

[ Laughter ] It is ‐‐ Sorry.

Thats another party.

Sarah: These were people that didn have

as much success in mainstream clubs

because mainstream clubs had mainstream comedy.

They didn necessarily go for weird.

So they started their own rooms with their own crowds.

Im not ‐‐ Im not telling the story

for any kind of shock value or anything like that.

Im just telling a story.

The original stand‐up from the late 70s

was all setup, punch line, setup, punch line.

Thats all anybody was doing.

And the alternative‐comedy scene

suddenly was all this personal storytelling.

Theres five kids in our family. Im the oldest.

And my brother whos the fourth child got lymph cancer.

[ Chuckles ] Hope for laughs. And, um...

You could just be talking about what happened that day.

It was like somebody coming up and reading their diary.

Im sorry.

I didn study theater for 12 years

just so I could go, "Rambo, no!"

[ Laughter ]

We kind of free‐formed it

and more of a stream of consciousness.

And that really caught on with audiences

and created its whole new wave of comedians

and women comedians.

This alternative‐comedy scene was happening

alongside the rise of women at "Saturday Night Live."

Backflip! Mary, Mary, stop it.

Backflip! Stop it!

Mary, stop it! Backflip!

You had Molly Shannon.

Simmer down, now!

Kohen: And you had Cheri Oteri, Ana Gasteyer.

I think we both assumed ‐‐ and I think wrongfully ‐‐

that a baker of your generation

might tend towards a more dry or crusty muffin.

And then Tina Fey was brought on as a writer.

In the 25‐plus years of "Saturday Night Live,"

you are the first female head writer.

I heard, "Oh, that place is a boys club. Its horrible.

Its horrible." And when I got there,

my experience was that it was not that bad.

I think Ive been very lucky to get places

kind of as they change.

I quit being head writer.

We all sat in the room, and I go,

"Clearly its Tina Fey who should succeed me,"

and everyone went, "Yup!"

We all knew Tina was the sharpest,

kind of strongest writer coming up.

Research is being conducted on the worlds first

contraceptive patch for women.

The patch is approximately three inches in diameter

and reads, "Get off me."

[ Laughter ]

Once she became head writer,

she was in a position to advocate

for the other women on the staff to kind of explain to men,

you know, why something was funny.

Announcer: Introducing Kotex Classic.

This is the original.

I love the belt. Its so complicated.

Newman: I think women really have the market cornered on irony

because were subject to so much bullshit.

Maybe what bothers me the most

is that people say that Hillary is a bitch.

And let me say something about that.

Yeah, she is. Yeah.

And so I am. And so is this one.

Yeah. Deal with it.

Yeah. You know what?

Bitches get stuff done.

And all of a sudden,

badass women were the force of that show.

Oh, my God!

What am I, the police or something? You know what I say?

Smoke em if you got em. Smoke em if you got em.

Do you love nice presents?

Do you?! [ Screaming ]

Smith: You look at "Saturday Night Live"

when I was a kid, the names you knew were, like,

Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Chevy Chase, John Belushi.

You always knew the dudes names.

And now when you talk about "SNL,"

the names that pop up ‐‐

Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Kristen Wiig, Leslie Jones...

If you want to see Leslie Jones naked, just ask!

...and Kate McKinnon.

The alien showed my mind the furnace of all creation,

what we could call God.

What?

[ Laughter ]

These fancy cats are seeing God.

Meanwhile, Im starting phase two,

which is me sitting on a stool while 40 gray aliens

take turns gently batting my knockers around.

McKay: And then it spread into movies.

Suddenly the biggest comedy stars in the world

are Melissa McCarthy.

Theyre, you know, Kristen Wiig.

This is some classy shit here.

[ Belches ]

Jesus, Megan.

Im s‐‐ I want to apologize.

Im not even confident of which end that came out of.

"Bridesmaids" came out, and it was like,

"This is gonna be the definitive answer

as to why women are funny."

Now, I had known women are funny for years

cause I have a vagina, but... [ Gags ]

Oh, my ‐‐ Okay. Oh, no.

...they just hadn made it to the big screen

in the way that they did with "Bridesmaids."

Its happening. Its happening.

Its happening. Its happening.

Newman: It showed studios that you could make money with that.

And it opened that genre of women behaving badly.

Officer Doughnuts, why don you go back into your squad car

and go save a kitten from a tree?

Cause these pussies are doing fine.

These women are so good, you cannot ignore them anymore.

You want to stay with the "best youve ever had" guy.

No. You don. Thats a creepy guy.

"Best sex that youve ever had" guy is in jail.

You know what I mean?

Yeah.

But Ive been thinking about maybe reaching out to him.

[ Laughs ] Bloom: Theres a lot of creative freedom.

Yes! Theres a lot embracing

of diversity in stories that haven been told yet.

So, I think its a great time to be a woman.

What are those? What ‐‐ What are those?

Stop. Stop it.

Theyre my Spanx. They hold everything together.

Why? Whats gonna f‐‐ come fucking popping out?

I was trying to describe your humor, and I was thinking,

"Well, irreverent isn really strong enough."

So I came up with the word "demented."

Ooh. I like "demented."

Because ‐‐ Yeah. I like "demented"

because Ive been trying not to say "retarded"

because I do feel like its not nice.

"Demented."

Yeah. Does that work for you?

Yeah. "Demented," "ridiculous."

I was licking jelly off of my boyfriends penis,

and all of a sudden ‐‐ [ Laughter ]

...all of a sudden, Im thinking,

"Oh, my God, Im turning into my mother."

You know? Its like... [ Laughter ]

Kohen: When you think of comedy

as being something that pushes boundaries

and thats commenting on society, on a certain level,

what does a white man have to say anymore?

And men ‐‐ whew, you guys are catching hell.

Youre probably not feeling any better, right?

Cause every other commercial is for broke dick.

[ Laughter ]

Apatow: If you look at the culture,

whos changing the culture right now?

And I don know if theres a male equivalent

to what a lot of hilarious, thoughtful women

are doing right now.

No, no. Shh. Hush. Hush. Hush.

Its been quite a ‐‐ The point is that Im doing fantastic.

Shes doing great. Hes a 6.

Oh, totally a 6. Yum.

Hes a 10. I mean, look at him.

I hope hes like seven inches, max.

Inches? I thought we were rating them on hotness.

I thought we were rating them on dick size.

Why would we be rating them on dick size?

Ladies, your staring is making

some of the guys feel uncomfortable.

Seven. Seven.

I think its really fair to say

that its never been better for women in comedy, absolutely.

Bamford: It has gotten a lot better and could get even...

more better? Mo better?

I think feminism is the worst thing

that ever happened to women.

Our job used to be no job.

[ Laughter ]

Then all these women had to show off and be like,

"We can do it. We can do anything."

Bitch, shut up!

Everywhere I look, I see amazing women doing comedy,

and there are more venues to do comedy

than there have ever been.

Newman: Theyre afforded all these platforms.

They can make their own stuff.

They don have to answer to anybody,

so their content can be just what they want it to be.

Mwah!

♪ This is where our poop comes out ♪

♪ This is what you think is hot? ♪

♪ This is what you think is hot? ♪

Is it someones birthday or...

Were celebrating Julias last fuckable day.

Yes. Salud. Woman: Whoo!

Griffin: I love watching these young women

be unabashedly feministic.

Its great that they can be loud and proud about these issues.

Also, theyre real issues.

Wong: The best comedies and the best television now

is all being created and show‐run by women.

I have my own sho‐‐

Its about time.

Ugh.

Man: I have mild, extra mild.

I have no idea what that one is.

And I hear really good things about that English banger.

Actually, you know what?

I think Im kind of done with sausages.

Late night is one of the last places

where it still feels very much a mens club.

So its great to have Samantha Bee.

Is that okay for you, that he is representing the country

in an old‐timey racist way?

If it is a negative, I would say its like a minor negative.

Im so confused by you.

Bee: Watching someone choke down a piece of their soul

just to belong broke my fact checker.

You can do this.

Boosler: Samantha Bee is the best political show on television.

I don think anybody cuts to the core like she does.

But to see her do it and shove it down their throats

cause they have to take it from a "girl."

Shes brilliant.

We do stories on the show

that we feel passionately about in the moment,

and we just see the world differently.

Anybody have any questions? Oh, yes.

Is it hard breaking into the boys club?

Okay ‐‐

Whats it like being a woman in late night?

How can I watch your show as a man?

Whats it like to be a female woman?

[ Indistinct shouting ]

I think were at our greatest point

for women in comedy, I would guess,

but we still have a very long way to go.

Oh.

Beatts: The fact that people have to

keep talking about women in comedy indicates

that its not equal.

I guess its a normal question. Is it harder for female comics?

Is it harder? Its not.

Like, they think we just get up here

and just bleed all over the stage.

Im just, "Ohh, my ovaries.

How do I keep them in my body?"

Uh...

People will always want to talk about women in comedy.

I mean, you guys are doing a documentary,

and youre doing a segment on women in comedy.

The fact that its 2016 and "women in comedy"

is still a topic is so embarrassing.

Im sorry. That just drives me fucking crazy.

Its a different kind of patriarchal society

in the 50s as opposed to sexism now.

They didn know any different then.

But youre so pretty, see?

Oh, is that what it is? Yep.

And thats the way it was.

Now they know better, and they want to stop it.

Now when you hear men say women aren funny,

I just think, "Oh, you sad old man.

Get on ‐‐ Get on your little glacier and just die."

Woman: Do you think most women sell themselves short?

Yes.

Most women have been told to sell themselves short.

See, I think women are brighter than men.

I think women are more sensitive than men.

And I think women are stronger than me.

Plus, we have that extra little layer of fat,

so if we ever fall in the water, we live longer.

[ Both laugh ]

[ Southern accent ] Shes one of them girl comics.

Them ‐‐ Them ain that funny. They got a ‐‐

They got an extra gland down in their hoo‐hah,

and it filters the jokes through.

It ain funny. I read it in the science book.

Its science. You can look it up.

There was a whole episode on "Planet Earth"

they did about women and their anti‐joke "vaginers."

It was in HD, too. It was horrifying.