Marie Claire has an interesting interview up with several prominent female comedians—everyone from Margaret Cho to Kristen Schaal to Kathy Griffin—who discuss the challenges they face in terms of overcoming appearance-based scrutiny to get people to laugh. "I remember seeing beautiful girls do stand-up, and it was a disaster every time," Margaret Cho admits, "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."

Yet many actresses have encountered the opposite end of the spectrum: "After Suddenly Susan, I went to every network and said, "What if you put four funny chicks together? Not newcomers, but four women who are proven in television: me, Jennifer Coolidge, Megan Mullally, Cheri Oteri, or Molly Shannon..." And the network people said, "What about Carmen Electra?" Griffin goes on to state that she's "constantly dieting, constantly working out, because unlike Will Ferrell, I'm going to take more hits if I don't at least have a normal figure. I was walking through Central Park yesterday without any makeup, and I come home and I'm on fucking TMZ for being old and ugly."

Joan Rivers, who is not shy about her love of plastic surgery, admits that many comedians start out without movie star looks but take the opportunity to change their appearance, once success kicks in: "Every comedian that does well becomes more attractive. Look at Roseanne, look at Lily, look at Goldie Hawn, whose face is totally different from where it started; Carol Burnett, Kathy Griffin. Nobody wants to be the ugly funny girl."

Yet are looks alone the only factor in deciding who will and won't be successful? Not necessarily. A woman who writes her own material has a better chance of shaping her career, says Kristen Schaal: "The ability to write is really one of the main things that has kept me grounded. If you can write, you have control over your career. If you don't, then you're just waiting for someone to give you a job." Women can also help each other: Tina Fey and Amy Poehler both apparently made a point to create better roles for women during their SNL days. (Though Janeane Garafolo takes a swipe at Casey Wilson by stating, "Unfortunately, what tends to get made are the Bride Wars movies. Even though there might be 50 scripts written by women, the one that's written about a wedding that you can put Kate Hudson in will get made." Ouch.)

When I was in college, I was one of only three women in a popular sketch comedy troupe. I also wrote a decent portion of our live skits, and tried to create roles that went beyond "mom," or "girlfriend." I can't lie and say I didn't find it easier to write for the boys, but I did make an effort to make sure that the women in the troupe had good parts and great lines; it's not a question of whether women can be funny (they are), it's a question of whether anyone will give them the opportunity.

"Look," says Carol Leifer, "it takes a lot of balls to be a comedian." Especially if you're not born with 'em.

We'll Show You Who's Funny [Marie Claire]

The New York Times:

Ms. Getty relished her late-in-life success, her son said. And she enjoyed reminiscing about more difficult times. In a 1990 interview she recalled one of her last secretarial jobs, at a company called Snap-Out Forms, where she kept her acting ambitions a secret for fear of being fired.

“At Snap-Out Forms, the first day I came to work, I had an audition, and I said, ‘Can I go for my lunch at 10 o’clock?’ ” she said. “The next day I had to go someplace else. I said. ‘Can I take my lunch at 2:30?’ The next day I asked if I could take lunch at 11 o’clock. The office manager said, ‘You have the strangest eating habits of any secretary we’ve ever had.’ ”

Associated Press:

Audiences particularly loved the verbal zingers Getty would hurl at the other three. When McClanahan's libidinous character Blanche once complained that her life was an open book, Sophia shot back, "Your life's an open blouse."

Getty had gained a knack for one-liners in her late teens when she did standup comedy at a Catskills hotel. Female comedians were rare in those days, however, and she bombed.

The Los Angeles Times:

Getty, a natural comedian famous for her one-liners even in private life, played Sophia for laughs, but she also brought depth to the character. It was her idea that Sophia would always carry a purse because, she said, older women are forced to shed so many possessions in their later years that everything they own ends up in their purses.

"Nobody puts down their life very easily," she explained in a 1992 interview with Newsday.

The Hollywood Reporter:

She requested that Fierstein write a part for her, which he did in "Torch Song Trilogy." The middle-aged Getty improbably became the toast of the town and was spotted by the "Golden Girls" producers who asked her to audition. Arriving in character — an oversized thrift shop polyester dress — she landed the part.

She was a vocal supporter of gay rights and active in fundraising for AIDS research. She retired in 2000 after revealing she was suffering from Parkinson's disease. Two years later, she announced she was suffering from Alzheimer's disease.

The National Post:

In a 1995 interview, the tiny Gettty — she was under five feet tall — admitted that many of her biggest fans were children.

"I think they look upon me as an old child, because I'm so little," she said.

Reuters:

Born Estelle Scher in New York City in 1923, Getty wanted to be an entertainer from an early age, despite her small size and the initial objections of her Polish immigrant parents.

She got her start as a comic at resorts in New York state's Catskill mountains and pursued her dream as an actress in regional theater and off-Broadway productions while raising two sons and working office jobs to make ends meet.

Entertainment Weekly:

Born Estelle Scher in New York City on July 25, 1923, Getty started out her career in the Yiddish theater, but her focus soon shifted to settling down and raising a family with Arthur Gettleman, whom she married in 1946. They remained together until Arthur's death in 2004.

Earlier: Estelle Getty, Thank You For Being A Friend

Here's a more detailed account of how it went down, according to the Guardian's Mary O'Hara:

Vegas stepped on stage to cheers and immediately announced that he had no material, and that he was there mostly to get laid. There followed a short meandering ramble (mainly about lap dancers) before he turned his attention to the audience - and to one young woman in particular in the front row who, he announced, he wanted to be 'inside'...The woman he focused on was about 18 or 19 and was very obviously unnerved by his attention...Once she was on stage, Vegas told her to lie very still. She couldn't stop her nervous giggling; he threatened to kick her in the ribs. It didn't come across to me as a joke - and near to where I was sitting, no one was laughing. Eventually Vegas crouched down beside the nervous girl and started stroking her breasts while repeatedly saying, "don't fucking move". Then he ran his hand up her leg and began pulling her skirt up. Every time he looked up to address the audience, she would reach down and pull her skirt back down, but he kept pulling it back up.

Supporters of Vegas on the Not BBC forums and elsewhere argue that at no time did the woman refuse Vegas's advances; another commenter said he particularly enjoyed the "the discomfort [Vegas inspired] in the predominately middle-class section of the audience I was sitting in." Mary O'Hara and others point out that the woman, young as she was, may have felt she couldn't say "no", as Vegas was singling her out in a crowd full of cheering, jeering people and that she had no idea what was going to happen once she got onstage, and perhaps felt unable to fight back.

This is complete conjecture, but in an interview with the Guardian from two years ago, writer Decca Aitkenhead talks about how when Pennington created his "Johnny Vegas" angry-drunk-aggressive persona, he was "bitter and directionless, drifting between bar jobs in London and Glasgow. By 25 he still hadn't had a girlfriend." He created "Vegas" after he moved back in with his parents. Is Johnny's treatment of this woman payback for all those women who rejected him in late teens and early 20s? It's unclear. What is pretty evident, however, is that Vegas crossed the line on Friday night and called it "comedy." James Williams on Not BBC put it this way: "I don't like to think that any area is out of bounds for comedy, even if the comedy is lazy nonsense (which on this occasion, I think it mostly was) - but that really only applies when you're talking about words and ideas. Once you've got someone pinned down on the stage, it becomes a rather different matter... Really, did no one else see it?"

Since When Is Sexual Assault Funny? [Guardian]
Here's Johnny! [Guardian]
Johnny Vegas Thread [Not BBC]