[This post is courtesy of our gal pal, Marie Claire.]

With Amy Poehler’s new sitcom, Parks and Recreation,MC premiering this month, and Tina Fey ruling Hollywood from atop a pile of Emmys, funny women are having a moment.  rounds up the pioneers, the visionaries, and the chemically imbalanced to talk about how we got here.

Can a pretty girl be funny?
MARGARET CHO (Lifetime’s upcoming Drop Dead Diva): I remember seeing beautiful girls do stand-up, and it was a disaster every time. Not only were people not gonna listen to you because you’re a woman, if you’re good-looking, people really don’t want to listen to you.

SUSIE ESSMAN (Curb Your Enthusiasm): I’ve had to give some young female comics advice about what they’re wearing. Like, you can’t wear something too provocative — it’s too confusing to the men in the audience. They don’t know if they wanna f**k you or laugh at you.

JOAN RIVERS (comedian): Phyllis Diller used to dress like a fool. Totie Fields was a big fat woman. In the beginning, women comedians were all grotesque in one way or another. Read More »

Last Comic Standing is a funny reality show…no pun intended. You don’t get too attached to the host (Bill Bellamy is great but I think he peaked during Cousin Skeeter) and because of an American Idol style set-up, you don’t know who to root for for a few weeks. Instead, you get 3 to 4 lead-off episodes riddled with crappy comics and 30 to 90 seconds worth of quality humor.

One thing of note was the female presence wasn’t as strong as in year’s past. There are still a several audition cities to go, but as of right now only one of the six semi-finalists is a woman…and frankly she wasn’t very funny. Funny ladies were in full effect last year and Amy Schumer even made it to the top 3. Let’s hope the women can bring it back next week.

Anyway, the fellas came out swinging.

Louis Ramey was the king of night one. As an African-American, especially one from Wisconsin, I can appreciate his jokes about getting double takes on the ski slopes. He was creative, shocking and had impeccable timing. He appears to have the most experience but he kind of lacks star power. Read More »

Anyone with a sense of humor can tell that Saturday Night Live has ebbed a little when it comes to being hilarious.

It’s hard to pinpoint exactly what has turned the once intensely entertaining show into an hour of slightly-too-long sketches that sometimes make a person laugh, but whatever the recipe that conjured the Eddie Murphy, Chris Farley and later Will Ferrell generation, today’s SNL could use it.

That being said, I’m not sure the holiday would be complete without a little visit from a vintage SNL clip that only gets funnier with age. The combination of public radio personalities, Alec Baldwin, and tasty, bite-size treats is pure comic genius.

Long Live Schweaty’s Balls.