In my anthropology class today, we discussed how home-cleaning and baking products are still marketed solely to women. As if women have nothing better to do with their days than replace their sad, old mops with Swiffers. I'd love to see a Pillsbury commercial with the dad helping his kids make cookies. Because you know what? Choosy dads can choose Jif too. #sarahhaskins
i think. maybe i just watch to much tv while baked but isn't there one where the dad is building a tree house and the daughter brings him a pb&j, and the voice over is "Choosy Moms and Dads choose Jiff" ?
Is this maybe a Canada thing? A quebec thing? Someone confirm/deny, please. I hate not knowing if i made TV up or not. #sarahhaskins
@yet i: but... I always gathered the gist of that was "choosy moms (and small girls who are of course just mini-moms waiting to happen) choose jiff" #sarahhaskins
@yet i: snap. You are correct. BTW, those ads aired here in Texas. I also remember one with a grandpa making a peanut butter sandwich for his grandaughter (tho now that I think about it, I'm not sure if that was Jiff) #sarahhaskins
Man, A+, Sarah Haskins. You always manage to be both witty and articulate about these kinds of things. When I want to explain the absurdity in advertising, I just put on one of your videos, and I am no longer a crazy harpy, but someone who knows something funny and cool on the internet. You make this so accessible, and seriously, all of my male friends have become more aware of how stupid some advertising can be basically because of Target: Women segments, I shit you not.
@boxspelunker: A few of my guy friends, and even my brother, are fans of Sarah Haskins and Target: Women. Shit's hilarious, I don't care what gender you are.
What I don't think is funny is humour that is sexist, homophobic, or racist. This is probably where women get the label of not-being-funny, because we generally like our humour cleaner. Its obvious why Sarah Silverman would think those women who get offended at accusations of un-funny-ness are actually just uptight -- those are the women who don't think SHE'S particularly funny.
This is my difference with most of my straight white male friends -- they'll still laugh when someone calls someone else a faggot or a bitch because they do something vaguely feminine, or at the South Park episode where Hillary has a 'snude' (a nuke in her snatch). If its making fun of someone at their expense, that's where I draw the line, because I know what its like to be on the receiving end of sexist or racist humour. Its not that someone has made fun of me directly, say, its being in the same room when someone makes a sexist joke, and you're the only one who doesn't find it hilarious. Its even worse when other girls in the room laugh along with the guys, because they don't want to look as if they can't take a joke, or they're too sensitive.
Its always incredible to me how otherwise caring and compassionate people can not understand how certain kinds of humour can be genuinely offensive, because they have never been placed in a situation where they are part of the marginalized group. More women than men have had that experience, simply because they are female. Therefore, we're less likely to engage in mean-spirited jokes, because we generally know the damage it can do.
Of course, when we point out how some jokes probably shouldn't be told, we're considered too much of a buzzkill to be funny.
The context in which she said the quote is quite different than if she'd just opened with a dismissal of the comment outright.
As a comment made in a very specific framework, I think that she was right as far as summing up what they were all talking about -- which was professional funny people getting past caring if people didn't find them funny.
I don't follow Sarah but a lot of what I have seen of her work I've liked. It's perfectly valid not to like her, but when someone says "she just isn't funny" then that person is wrong. She isn't funny *to them* but a person can't decide for the planet on the funniness of another person.
@Helennellieforsythe: The comments on this post aren't trying to be funny. Should we be funny all the time? Maybe we should bring out the poop humor like Ms. Silverman?
I find a lot of Sarah's humor to be disempowering. She's also often substitutes lewdness for legit comedy. Her phrasing here is along the lines of "jeez, learn to take a joke!" Sure, there are both funny and unfunny women in the world, but to deny that there's a dearth of women getting big comedy jobs shouldn't be hushed up with, "You're not funny anyway, so get over it."
I remember reading a blurb years ago about the women who'd written for the original SNL. I'm wildly paraphrasing, but one of them said women could write humor about men's subjects but men couldn't write about something like, say, makeup. The line I remember is "The only word they know is mascara."
I've known since I was 12 that many men find the Three Stooges and the fart scene in Blazing Saddles funny. Or fill in a more recent relevancy - aspects of South Park, Family Guy or Judd Apatow's movies.
So if I wanted to generalize from those examples I'd say men like broad, crude humor. Women like something a little more subtle.
But again, that'd be generalizing. Just like whatever oaf who says women aren't funny -just because women's humor is different than theirs.
it's one of those conversations that are likely to go nowhere - like "women can't play instruments." There are plenty of examples to counter with, but anyone who thinks such things enough to say it out loud and argue is probably very limited in scope.
11/06/09
Oh, dear.
Not that I can afford to be vain about my "early poems", but I'm not sure who decided this was a good idea. #kristenwiigreadssuzannesomers
11/06/09
The Cant, ohs.
The Chode Not Take.
Where the Side-eye Ends.
Man, Fred.
Peeves of Ass. #kristenwiigreadssuzannesomers
11/04/09
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i think. maybe i just watch to much tv while baked but isn't there one where the dad is building a tree house and the daughter brings him a pb&j, and the voice over is "Choosy Moms and Dads choose Jiff" ?
Is this maybe a Canada thing? A quebec thing? Someone confirm/deny, please. I hate not knowing if i made TV up or not. #sarahhaskins
11/04/09
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That interview was awesome. #sarahhaskins
11/04/09
09/14/09
How 'bout this: People(read:men) who say that women aren't funny have been, universally, in my experience, unfunny and misogynistic.
09/14/09
This is my difference with most of my straight white male friends -- they'll still laugh when someone calls someone else a faggot or a bitch because they do something vaguely feminine, or at the South Park episode where Hillary has a 'snude' (a nuke in her snatch). If its making fun of someone at their expense, that's where I draw the line, because I know what its like to be on the receiving end of sexist or racist humour. Its not that someone has made fun of me directly, say, its being in the same room when someone makes a sexist joke, and you're the only one who doesn't find it hilarious. Its even worse when other girls in the room laugh along with the guys, because they don't want to look as if they can't take a joke, or they're too sensitive.
Its always incredible to me how otherwise caring and compassionate people can not understand how certain kinds of humour can be genuinely offensive, because they have never been placed in a situation where they are part of the marginalized group. More women than men have had that experience, simply because they are female. Therefore, we're less likely to engage in mean-spirited jokes, because we generally know the damage it can do.
Of course, when we point out how some jokes probably shouldn't be told, we're considered too much of a buzzkill to be funny.
09/14/09
09/14/09
As a comment made in a very specific framework, I think that she was right as far as summing up what they were all talking about -- which was professional funny people getting past caring if people didn't find them funny.
I don't follow Sarah but a lot of what I have seen of her work I've liked. It's perfectly valid not to like her, but when someone says "she just isn't funny" then that person is wrong. She isn't funny *to them* but a person can't decide for the planet on the funniness of another person.
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09/14/09
Maybe instead of making offensive statements about women, sexist men could just tell better jokes? They're just proving how humorless men must all be.
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I've known since I was 12 that many men find the Three Stooges and the fart scene in Blazing Saddles funny. Or fill in a more recent relevancy - aspects of South Park, Family Guy or Judd Apatow's movies.
So if I wanted to generalize from those examples I'd say men like broad, crude humor. Women like something a little more subtle.
But again, that'd be generalizing. Just like whatever oaf who says women aren't funny -just because women's humor is different than theirs.
09/14/09