Gawker’s Neetan Zimmerman is outraged, outraged I tell you! about Adam Carolla discussing the hiring of female writers in Hollywood.
In an apparent bid to drum up some publicity for his new book, comedian Adam Carolla decided to court controversy by exhuming the hackneyed “women aren’t funny” canard in a New York Post interview.
In more sane words: Adam Carolla responds to interviewer’s question with an answer that THIS blogger finds…unsavory.
And just what is this, in Zimmerman’s words, “chauvinistic tirade”?
The lesson you learned from a sexual harassment seminar was “Don’t hire chicks.” Do you hate working with women?
No. But they make you hire a certain number of chicks, and they’re always the least funny on the writing staff. The reason why you know more funny dudes than funny chicks is that dudes are funnier than chicks. If my daughter has a mediocre sense of humor, I’m just gonna tell her, “Be a staff writer for a sitcom. Because they’ll have to hire you, they can’t really fire you, and you don’t have to produce that much. It’ll be awesome.”
Essentially, Carolla says that he likes working with women and that it’s good for women to go into writing in Hollywood because it’s a guaranteed gig. Enough that he would encourage his daughter to do it. But that’s lost on Zimmerman.
“I don’t care,” he grumbles. “When you’re picking a basketball team, you’ll take the brother over the guy with the yarmulke. Why? Because you’re playing the odds. When it comes to comedy, of course there’s Sarah Silverman, Tina Fey, Kathy Griffin – super-funny chicks. But if you’re playing the odds? No.”
Essentially, Carolla cites examples of female comedians he admires. But according to Zimmerman, it’s chauvinism.
Carolla then proceeds to pick a fight with specific female entertainers he doesn’t personally care for. “If Joy Behar or Sherri Shepherd was a dude, they’d be off TV,” he asserts. “They’re not funny enough for dudes. What if Roseanne Barr was a dude? Think we’d know who she was? Honestly.”
Carolla cites three women considered by just about everyone to not be that funny. According to Zimmerman, that’s “picking a fight”.
Award-winning writer Warren Ellis was one of the many who took exception to Carolla’s comments. On Twitter, Ellis responded by offering a few names of “women who are funny,” adding: “Because apparently some shithead needs us to start a list for him.”
An “award-winning” writer nobody’s heard of cites three “women who are funny” that nobody’s heard of and calls Carolla “some shithead”, but according to Zimmerman, lobbing insults is A-OK.
Carolla compliments female comedians and gets attacked. Zimmerman attacks Carolla as hating on women, and doesn’t get rebuked. It goes to show the incredible way a simple and logical argument can be twisted by those who just have fun finding fault with people they don’t agree with.
