Meghan O'Keefe

Every single man I admire—I mean, smart, funny, kind, hard-working, morally upright males of the human species—ardently believe women are funny. They’ll rave about Maria Bamford, give all props and respect to Tina Fey, quote Jessi Klein jokes to their friends, wax poetically about how much they love Sara Schaefer, swoon at the mention of anything Amy Poehler’s done…I mean…name the lady comic and they love her. They’ll even rattle off up-and-coming female comics you’ve never heard of and say, “YOU NEED TO FOLLOW HER ON TWITTER, MEG! SHE’S THE BEST!”

In fact, it’s been smart, funny, awesome dudes who have pulled me aside to say, “You’re really funny and should do this professionally and don’t give up,” more often than even the super-supportive girls have.

When guys have said shit like “women aren’t funny” or “chicks can only do well in improv, but not stand up” or “let’s put in a rape joke!” to my face, I never listen to it. Why? Because the men who say those things are never men whose comedy I actually admire. They are usually hacks. They are usually dumb-dumbs. They are usually sexually-frustrated. They’re usually people who aren’t moving forward with their thoughts and ideas on stage or off. 

Basically, I can’t be bothered with those fools and neither should any of you.