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We Killed: The Rise of Women in American Comedy, by Yael Kohen
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No matter how many times female comedians buck the conventional wisdom, people continue to ask: "Are women funny?" The question has been nagging at women off and on (mostly on) for the past sixty years. It's incendiary, much discussed, and, as proven in Yael Kohen's fascinating oral history, totally wrongheaded.
In We Killed, Kohen pieces together the revolution that happened to (and by) women in American comedy, gathering the country's most prominent comediennes and the writers, producers, nightclub owners, and colleagues who revolved around them. She starts in the 1950s, when comic success meant ridiculing and desexualizing yourself; when Joan Rivers and Phyllis Diller emerged as America's favorite frustrated ladies; when the joke was always on them. Kohen brings us into the sixties and seventies, when the appearance of smart, edgy comedians (Elaine May, Lily Tomlin) and the women's movement brought a new wave of radicals: the women of SNL, tough-ass stand-ups, and a more independent breed on TV (Mary Tyler Moore and her sisters). There were battles to fight and preconceptions to shake before we could arrive in a world in which women like Chelsea Handler, Sarah Silverman, and Tina Fey can be smart, attractive, sexually confident―and, most of all, flat-out funny.
As the more than 150 people interviewed for this riveting oral history make clear, women have always been funny. It's just that every success has been called an exception and every failure an example of the rule. And as each generation of women has developed its own style of comedy, the coups of the previous era are washed away and a new set of challenges arises. But the result is the same: They kill. A chorus of creative voices and hilarious storytelling, We Killed is essential cultural and social history, and―as it should be!―great entertainment.
- Sales Rank: #887025 in Books
- Published on: 2012-10-16
- Released on: 2012-10-16
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 8.67" h x 1.19" w x 5.94" l, 1.27 pounds
- Binding: Hardcover
- 336 pages
From Booklist
Kohen’s lively oral history traces female comedians in America during the last six decades, showing how women doggedly fought their way into what was considered a male arena and thrived. The chronicle begins with the late, great Phyllis Diller, whom Kohen interviewed before her death, in August. Diller turned her own life into comedy, offering up joke after joke about being housewife to a loutish husband. While Diller mastered rapid-fire stand-up, Joan Rivers got her start lamenting her single status, and Lily Tomlin created eccentric characters. When Saturday Night Live came on the scene in 1975, Gilda Radner’s caricatures of public figures and original creations made an impression. Men largely dominated the show until the mid–1990s, when Molly Shannon’s hyperactive Catholic teen, Mary-Catherine Gallagher, became a sensation, paving the way for funny ladies Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Maya Rudolph, and Kristen Wiig to make it big in the next decade. Filled with recollections from comedians, comedy-club owners, and writers, this remarkable oral history is a must-read for entertainment buffs. --Kristine Huntley
From Bookforum
Kohen winds up presenting a sort of Mr. Toad's Wild Ride of female comedy, one that inadvertently advances the notion that sorting comics based on a pair of chromosomes makes more sense than, say, tossing them into one of two groups: Funny and Not That Funny. From the hot-pink cover to the emotional high five of a title, Kohen's book has that whiff of feminist rallying that renders so much of the for-women, about-women universe faintly uncomfortable. —Heather Havrilesky
Review
“We Killed shines in its details and its anecdotes....Well crafted and entertaining.” ―The Boston Globe
“An anecdotal history of the women who crack us up and push boundaries [told] by the trailblazers themselves....You'll learn as much as you laugh.” ―Cameron Diaz
“A comprehensive oral history...Part show business chronicle and part unabashed (read: drugs, digs, and dirt) confessional, We Killed [is] further proof that women, and the men who heed their talent, will have the last laugh.” ―Elle
“Comics of all levels of celebrity and vintage, as well as club owners, producers, writers, agents, and network executives, carry the story...[and] there's a bracing dose of shoptalk that puts you right inside their wheelhouse....Satisfying.” ―The New York Times Book Review
“A remarkable history of women in comedy.” ―The Observer (London)
Most helpful customer reviews
15 of 15 people found the following review helpful.
Do These Jokes Make Me Look Fat?
By takingadayoff
We Killed is like reading a good documentary film. It's organized roughly chronologically, from the 1960s to the present. The emphasis is on stand up comedy and TV. Author Yael Kohen introduces each chapter with a little background, then lets everyone speak for herself. Sometimes it seems as if there are several people in the same room, reminiscing and telling stories. Just as with the documentary film, the filmmaker, or in this case, the writer, is almost invisible to the viewer. Her questions aren't included and her remarks at the beginning of each chapter are brief.
At first, I thought the format was a awkward and I wanted a little more to connect the conversations, but then I forgot the format and was just enjoying reading about all these women (and a few men) talking about what it was like to write, perform, and get a foot in the door.
If you ever mistakenly thought that women aren't funny, you just have to read the lineup in this book to remind you of all the women who have made us laugh since the 1960s. Carol Burnett, Penny Marshall, Lily Tomlin, Mary Tyler Moore, and dozens more are all here. Even though Kohen includes a wide cross-section of women in comedy, you're bound to notice some of the women who aren't in the book, such as Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, and Betty White. The sheer number of notable women in comedy should prove the point that women are funny, and these are just the women on screen.
Reading about how some of my favorites got their starts was fun, but the real power of this book is in how the women dealt with the various degrees of sexism that existed in the 1960s and in many cases still exist today.
In addition to some surprising (and some not so surprising) stories about dealing with people who thought comedy was for boys only, I found myself thinking about some old favorites in a whole new way. For instance, The Dick Van Dyke Show included the first example of a career woman on TV, other than schoolteachers. And although much was made of her unsuccessful love life, the character Sally Rogers was an independent woman, dressed for success, had her own apartment in Manhattan, and was acknowledged as one of the best in her field as a TV comedy writer. There was no mention of her parents (as with That Girl, Ann Marie played by Marlo Thomas). Carl Reiner, the series creator, is to credit for the decision to include a credible career woman in the Dick Van Dyke Show. Since he had been a writer for Sid Caesar's Show of Shows back in the 1950s, which included the writer/comedian Imogene Coca, it seemed natural to him that a woman would be slinging jokes with the best of them. Now it seems funny that there was no talk about breaking barriers or being a token - Imogene Coca and Sally Rogers were just writers who were also women.
13 of 14 people found the following review helpful.
Missing some history
By cary o'dell
While I think this book is an important one, I wish the author had concentrated just on women in stand-up comedy, especially since her historical knowledge of other fields, like TV broadcasting history, is greatly lacking. She begins her look at women as a force in the sitcom genre with "Mary Tyler Moore" which didn't debut until 1970! ?She thereby erases many important women on the screen and behind the scenes who were on the air long before "MTM." After all what about Madelyn Pugh Davies, she wrote a little show called "I Love Lucy." Other early female comedy writers include Selma Diamond, Lucille Kallen (from "Your Show of Shows"), Gertrude Berg and Peg Lynch, just to name a few. Furthermore to state that sitcoms pre-"MTM" never featured any single working women beyond "school teachers" (like Eve Arden in "Our Miss Brooks") is inaccurate as well. What about Ann Sothern as a hotel manager on her second sitcom, "The Ann Sothern Show" or Gale Storm as a ship's cruise director on her sitcom? Such narrow historical recounting doesn't do any favors for the readers and certainly not for women.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful.
Imagine You are Watching a Documentary
By Princess Periwinkle
Yael Kohen writes, We Killed: The Rise of Women in American Comedy at the time of and in response to Christopher Hitchens’ article in Vanity Fair proclaiming women aren’t funny.
“Comedy has always reflected society- its values, taboos, norms. Surely, then, it only makes sense that the rise of women in comedy has run parallel to the rise of women in out society” (5). This is one of several hooks in the introduction, however I lost interest hereafter.
Kohen’s introductions to chapters are concise, consisting mostly of history with a sprinkle of her own observation.
The format of the book is awkward. Each paragraph is an oral account of club proprietors, writers, performers, producers, etc.- the name and profession in bold type followed by their personal story. The problem with this is, the book gave little indication of its format, thus confusing me right out the gate. Another reason this is troublesome is because it doesn’t move the history along. There is an abundance of information embedded in the oral accounts and I learned a great deal, but I felt like I had to hunt for the information. Not everything accounted for needed to be recounted.
Kohen’s book is well researched and surely informative. I loved learning how women dealt with sexism in each of their generations, past to present. I learned Phyllis Diller preferred to work gay clubs because they were chic; the audience had higher brow expectations for jokes unlike the vaudeville clubs.
I appreciate Kohen creating an inclusive environment in her book- men and women participate in the discussion- this is how feminism is thrives and paradigms begin to shift.
Kohen does a wonderful job researching and including so many wonderful people, but I feel there might be a few missing pieces. Chapter Three: Prime Time introduction speaks of the 1970s as the “most prolific decade for women in television” (57). The introduction and statement discredits the early work of women such as Lucille Ball and Donna Reed (creator and producer, respectively). Without them, how could the “most prolific decade for women in television” exist?
Overall, Kohen pieced together a scrambled and misogynistic history into a densely rich, accessible perspective. For that, I thank her. This book should be the jumping off point for turning this into a documentary.
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