Duly Noted | Cracking up the glass ceiling of comedy

The cover of Tina Fey’s memoir Bossypants, out this week, is a bit weird. Fey, with her hair blowing in the breeze, rests her pretty, expressionless face on a beefy hand attached to hairy arm better suited to her 30 Rock co-star Alec Baldwin. The choice isn’t exactly aesthetically pleasing. But maybe that’s the point.

Self-deprecation runs deep in the American breed of humor. From Charlie Chaplin to Woody Allen to Demetri Martin, our comedy is best doled out from a modest standpoint. Maybe that’s why it was necessary for so long for women to either dumb themselves down or frizz themselves up in order to compete with the boys.

Today, it’s becoming increasingly acceptable for women to be good at what they do and look good doing it. Icons like Michelle Obama prove that in order to be taken seriously, women don’t have to hide their femininity. In order to do a “man’s” job, you don’t have to act like a man — or look like one.

The same goes for being taken un-seriously — comedy. Now, women can look girly instead of goofy — and still deliver a knee-slapper. Enter the new generation of “hot” comediennes.

Women like Fey, who will be promoting her book on Tuesday in Philadelphia, Amy Poehler and Kristen Wiig prove that it’s possible to be smart and funny and attractive, without being aggressive. Kathy Griffin’s brand of mean, crass humor seems outdated. Anna Faris’s dumb blonde schpeel is getting old.

One of the basic tenets of humor theory is the element of incongruity. Jokes are even funnier coming out of the mouth of a pretty woman because, according to popular belief, she’s not supposed to do anything but be pretty. Sarah Silverman’s entire career is built on this kind of shock value.

Similarly, late-night show host Chelsea Handler, author of the bluntly titled My Horizontal Life, and other comediennes like her, have made the idea of sexy women making sex jokes more acceptable.

Judd Apatow’s upcoming movie, a bromance minus the bros called Bridesmaids starring Saturday Night Live’s Kristen Wiig, has already been dubbed “the girl version of The Hangover.” Which is basically as complimentary as the term “lady cop.” Still though, that Apatow is making a film that features a woman as more than just a nagging wife or potential conquest is a step in the right direction.

This season, The Daily Show With Jon Stewart added former Maxim cover model and self-proclaimed geek Olivia Munn to its cast of faux-news correspondents. Some saw this as a superficial gesture to boost the show’s gender diversity, with the added bonus of hotness. But here’s the thing — Olivia Munn is really funny.

I asked Rachel Romeo, College senior and chairwoman of Bloomers, Penn’s all-female comedy group, what she thought about the role of women in comedy today.

For some, “their looks may be what gets them in the door,” Romeo said, “but they wouldn’t survive without talent.”

As to the commonly held belief that women aren’t funny, Romeo noted that “we [women] have to push ourselves further to get across the same jokes,” comparing the inherent humor of a man in a dress to the less effective image of a woman in a baseball cap and pants.

Today, comediennes wear the figurative pants. Rather than trying to play down their looks or smarts, they aren’t afraid to use them as assets. Fey has more girl power than all the Spice Girls combined because she knows who she is and how to use it. The kind of uncompromising self-awareness is what makes today’s comediennes so successful, empowering and worthy role models.

For young women, there’s something to be said for creating your own identity rather than having it shaped by societal expectations. Women in comedy have nailed that punch line.

Rachel del Valle is a College freshman from Newark, N.J. Her email address is delvalle@theDP.com. Duly Noted appears every other Friday.

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