Women in Comedy For our first-ever Women in THE GLORIOUS MS. RUDOLPH The character we’ve yet to see: “I’ve always Comedy Issue, we bring ON HER IMITATION GAME wanted to do Gwen Stefani. I did her over the For seven seasons on Saturday Night Live, years at The Groundlings, and I played in a you wit, wisdom, and war Maya Rudolph carried sketch after sketch band—we even played some shows with No stories from some of the with her over-the-top but somehow totally Doubt!—so I came up with an impression of world’s most hilarious women dead-on impressions—Donatella Versace, her, but there was never a reason to do her on —Maya Rudolph, Mindy Beyoncé, and Oprah among them. Now, with SNL. It’s all about the voice.” Her fondest Maya & Marty in Manhattan, the hour-long miss: “I was asked to come back to SNL Kaling, Sarah Silverman, NBC variety show she cohosts with Martin and play Barack Obama when he was Chelsea Handler, and more. Short, Rudolph is back in the live format running. I had no take on him whatsoever. Plus: our 100-comedian survey! she knows best, delighting audiences with I just couldn’t figure out the voice. At dress guest star–laden skits, song and dance, and, rehearsal, I was in this little Brooks Brothers of course, her homage-style mimicry that suit and my Scott Joplin wig, and Barack never makes any one celebrity the butt of came up behind me. I turned to him and said, a joke. Her first impression: “Roseanne ‘Well, how do I look?’ He said, ‘I don’t wear a Roseannadanna! As a kid I could wear my three-button suit.’ I was like, What does that hair naturally and make the scrunched-up mean? Is that a man joke? But I went out and face and complain like her. I was 100 did it, and it was terrible and humiliating. percent about getting the laugh.” But this is comedy—it’s fight or flight!” Blankenhorn Craig Schumer: Rosales/August; Rudolph: Ramona “I’m labeled a sex comic. I think it’s just ’cause I’m a girl. I feel like a guy could get up here and literally 64 pull his dick out, and everyone would be like, ‘He’s a thinker.’ ”—AMY SCHUMER, AMY SCHUMER: LIVE AT THE APOLLO 2 What challenges do 5 Have you ever female comedians face? been accused of taking “As soon as you hit a joke too far? 100 FUNNY the stage, you have to prove you’re funny. You probably have to play down being attractive. Bookers will book you L ADIES WALK because they think you’re going to sleep with them. % I once had one tell me that he didn’t know if I was funny, but if not he 65 INTO A BAR figured my tits were worth We all know the superstars of comedy, but what’s it like to the price of admission.” YES be in the trenches? In partnership with comic community —JODI WHITE, LOS ANGELES WomenInComedy.org, we asked 100 working comedians “We’re supposed to to sound off about making people laugh for a living. be everything: the intersectional feminist voice who never makes 1 THE anyone uncomfortable, but can bake and MELISSA TINA FEY % FUNNIEST McCARTHY change a flat. As female WOMEN comedians, you’re doing this bananas thing and 34 ON THE hate that you’re worried PLANET, whether the audience NO wants to fuck you or 6 What topics do ACCORDING not—and not knowing you consider taboo for which answer is worse.” TO OUR your own work? SURVEY —MAGGIE DEMPSEY, CHICAGO None: 38% Domestic violence: 26% 3 Who do you run jokes by 17% before performing them? Bathroom humor: Race: 15% 54% 42% 15% 7 How does your job AMY KATE AMY affect your relationships? SCHUMER McKINNON POEHLER “Being funny can be FRIEND SIGNIFICANT SIBLING OTHER overwhelming to men. I think of it as a stress test 4 Do you talk about your right away.” family in your jokes? —ANNE, CHICAGO “My mother’s seen my performances imitating 8 Have you ever dated her voice and expressing a fellow comedian? her fascination with black culture. My audiences think I’m exaggerating, but my mom just nods her 59% 41% head: ‘Yup, that’s me.’” YES NO —RHETT THOMPSON, MIAMI CHELSEA PERETTI’S THE BROOKLYN NINE-NINE STAR AND DAY-CARE GRAD ON HER LOVE FOR LUCY My childhood day care was run by a neighborhood mom who smoked, had a bunch of sons, had a dog— and let us eat sugary cereal! I loved it. Every morning before school when I got to this lady’s day care, her TV would be blasting I Love Lucy. I’d sit on that smoky-smelling couch and soak up Lucy before walking to school. It makes me think how much we all crave representation, before we can even articulate that desire. I didn’t know it then, but it affirmed the very possibility of my future: It was solid proof that a funny woman can make money doing what she loves at the highest level, on a hit show. So, every few years, when the media starts asking “Can a human being with female anatomy actually be funny?,” the question strikes me as plain incorrect. Not only because I myself make my living from comedy, but also because as a tiny girl I saw a woman on TV using her talent to challenge a world that said women were best as housewives. Carol Burnett, Joan Rivers, Roseanne Barr, Katey Sagal, Tisha Campbell-Martin, Tichina Arnold, Sarah Silverman, all the women of SNL, and so many more have flown in the face of this bizarre question, to millions of fans. Yet the question persists, as respected intellectuals con- tinue to treat it with alarming earnestness. And when they do, I smell cigarettes, I taste Froot Loops, and I see Lucille Ball obliterating any doubts in all her black-and-white, timeless comedy glory. “I can’t say any more lines, or they have to pay me like a man.” 66 —CECILY STRONG, SNL WEEKEND UPDATE 9 When did you know you wanted to SARAH SILVERMAN be a comedian? “When an older lady asked three-year-old me ON THE ART where I got my pretty red hair, and I answered, OF DISHING ‘From the mailman,’ just as my dad and I had rehearsed.” IT AND —TAMALE SEPP, CHICAGO “The day I got TAKING IT suspended for being a ‘class clown.’” Candid, irreverent, and outrageous, this queen —BRI GIGER, LOS ANGELES of low-key hilarity is a stand-up comic who’s been open about her struggle with depression, a 10 Preshow drink: onetime Saturday Night Live cast member (at 22!), and one of the most multidimensional en- 20% 17% 13% tertainers in Hollywood. Is there anything that you won’t joke about? Nothing is taboo if WATER BEER WHISKEY you have an angle on it. That said, critiquing “One sugar- women’s human shells isn’t my thang. Though free Red Bull.” there’s probably something funny or interest- —ILIZA ing to be said about those who do it, and what SHLESINGER, that comes from. Not to be all PC. But I’m LOS ANGELES guessing that would be the area of the fresh angle on that shit. Do you perceive yourself as a guy’s girl? I play poker and basketball, and I do stand-up, and those things tend to involve lots of dudes, but times are changing. Women are our current comedy greats. There’s a wom- en’s basketball league started by comics that’s grown so huge I believe there are 19 teams. But me, need a couple days in bed reassessing their self- I’m just me. Don’t make me decide. I love my sisters esteem afterward. It’s a bit of a blood sport, but if you and brothers both. As women get older, they’re of- decide to do comedy that involves risk, risk means ten made to feel uncomfortable about their age. risk, and you can’t complain of flesh wounds if you sit How do you deal with that? I just don’t let that men- down at the table to play. Have other jokes hit close MARIA BAMFORD’S tality be a part of my world. I talk to friends who get to home? Obviously. All our origin stories come from their feelings hurt when they read Twitter mentions. pain. We’re Riddlers and Penguins just trying to be I have an amazing solution—don’t read Twitter men- loved. One of your famous jokes was: “I was raped by tions. Read Lenny Letter. Read E. E. Cummings. After a doctor…which is so bittersweet for a Jewish girl.” participating in the 2013 James Franco roast, it With rape jokes, what’s too far? To me, that joke is AS SEEN ON HER SEMI- made news that the jokes about your age were AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL dated. Most comedy isn’t evergreen, but there’s always SERIES, LADY DYNAMITE, hurtful. Listen—that was me being honest despite a fresh take on anything. I had that joke in my special NOW ON NETFLIX my vehement defense of the comics roasting me. It’s 11 years ago, and I had a rape joke about rape jokes There was a point [after what a roast is. You all know and love each other, but in my latest special.