We killed : the rise of women in American comedy / Yael Kohen.
Material type:
TextPublication details: New York : Sarah Crichton Books, 2012.Edition: 1st edDescription: xxviii, 308 p., [16] p. of plates : ill. ; 24 cmISBN: - 0374287236 (alk. paper)
- 9780374287238 (alk. paper)
| Item type | Home library | Collection | Call number | Materials specified | Status | Date due | Barcode | Item holds | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Adult Book
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Main Library | NonFiction | 792.76 K79 | Available | 33111007024769 |
Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:
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.
Includes index.
Mothers of invention : headlining -- Phyllis Diller, Anne Meara, Barbara Harris, Joan Rivers, Elaine May, Louise Lasser, and more -- Lily of the underground. Headlining -- Lily Tomlin, Bette Midler, Richard Pryor, and more -- Prime time : headlining -- Mary Tyler Moore, Carol Burnett, Marlo Thomas, Bea Arthur, Valerie Harper, and more -- In the spot : Carol Burnett -- Saturday night live : the boys' club. Headlining -- Gilda Radner, Jane Curtin, Laraine Newman, John Belushi, Chevy Chase, Dan Aykroyd, and more -- I am woman : headlining -- Whoopi Goldberg, Elayne Boosler, Robin Williams, Carol Leifer, Sandra Bernhard, Suzanne Somers, and more -- In the spot : Merrill Markoe -- The boom years : headlining -- Roseanne, Joy Behar, Ellen DeGeneres, Paula Poundstone, Rita Rudner, and more -- In the spot : Ellen DeGeneres -- Janeane Garofalo and friends : headlining -- Janeane Garofalo, Kathy Griffin, Margaret Cho, David Cross, Bob Odenkirk, Laura Kightlinger, and more -- Saturday night live : the girls club : headlining -- Kristen Wiig, Maya Rudolph, Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Rachel Dratch, and more -- Comic rising : headlining -- Sarah Silverman, Chelsea Handler, Kristen Schaal, Ellie Kemper, Aubrey Plaza, and more.
"Kohen assembles more than 150 interviews from America's most prominent comediennes (and the writers, producers, nightclub owners, and colleagues who revolved around them) to piece together the revolution that happened to (and by) women in American comedy"--Provided by publisher.