Union College Union | Digital Works Honors Theses Student Work 6-2014 Who's Laughing Now? From Lovable Lucy to Top- of-the-Rock Tina: How Women in Comedy Changed from 1950-2014 Caroline Hershey Union College - Schenectady, NY Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalworks.union.edu/theses Part of the American Film Studies Commons, Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Commons, and the Film and Media Studies Commons Recommended Citation Hershey, Caroline, "Who's Laughing Now? From Lovable Lucy to Top-of-the-Rock Tina: How Women in Comedy Changed from 1950-2014" (2014). Honors Theses. 530. https://digitalworks.union.edu/theses/530 This Open Access is brought to you for free and open access by the Student Work at Union | Digital Works. It has been accepted for inclusion in Honors Theses by an authorized administrator of Union | Digital Works. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. Who’s Laughing Now? From Lovable Lucy to Top of the Rock Tina: How The Role of Women in Comedy Changed From 1950-2014 By Caroline Elyse Hershey Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for Honors in the Department of English UNION COLLEGE June, 2014 i ABSTRACT HERSHEY, CAROLINE Who’s Laughing Now? From Loveable Lucy to Top of the Rock Tina: How the Role of Women in Comedy Changed From 1950-2014 ADVISORS: Peter Heinegg and Bunkong Tuon This thesis discusses the evolutionary progression of women in comedy from the 1950s to the present day. By looking at the stand-out female comedians and entertainers from each generation, the change from Lucille Ball in I Love Lucy to Carol Burnett as host of The Carol Burnett Show, to Tina Fey and the multitalented new group of women in comedy.