The reason why women aren’t often funny

The Edinburgh Fringe festival is drawing to a close. Female comics including Bridget Christie, Jayde Adams, Zoe Coombs-Marr, Kate Lucas and Michelle Wolf have been receiving scores of five-star reviews. Coombs-Marr, Wolf and Adams are nominated for Edinburgh Comedy Awards this year, Sofie Hagen won Best Newcomer last year, and Bridget Christie won the main Edinburgh Comedy Award in 2013 – despite female comedians only accounting for fewer than 15 per cent of the circuit. And yet people persist in saying that women aren’t funny. Nearly every female comedy performer I know has experienced an audience member saying post-gig, ‘I don’t normally like women comedians, but you made me laugh.’

The late Christopher Hitchens, who wrote the famously controversial op-ed ‘Why Women Aren’t Funny’, was right about one thing: it’s probably fair to say that women employ humour less often in everyday life than men do.