Funny Girls is a multimedia project discussing women in comedy, through a print zine, as well as an online platform. Eleanor Tomsett in her thesis states ‘Stand-up comedy as an art form has emerged from, and been developed within, male dominated spaces’. (2019). This project aims to challenge these patriarchal industry structures and platform female comics, who have continuously had to battle with the stereotype that women aren’t funny, perpetuated by attempts to investigate scientific or philosophical reasons for this as in Christopher Hitchens’ ‘Why Women Aren’t Funny,’ (2007). This project was inspired by the limited research on women in British comedy, and it hopes to prove that these women are worthy of further study and promotion as narratives around gender in comedy evolve in the 21st Century. Additionally, it aims to explore the zine as a vessel for both female liberation and fandom, justifying it as the perfect medium for the subject matter.
Please see links for full project.
Funny Girls: A multimedia project exploring the evolution of female narratives in 21st Century British stand up comedy.