Trailblazer Appreciation: Amy Schumer

Ever hear that women can't be funny? Ever hear that women can't be on late night TV? Ever hear that only certain kinds of women can be sexy?

Amy Schumer doesn't give a fuck.

This week the third season of Amy Schumer's sketch-comedy show called Inside Amy Schumer premiered on Comedy Central. Lets be honest, that in itself is an achievement worth celebrating, since the prevailing theory is that women aren't funny. Amy's comedy is provocative and pushes the limit's of what can be shown on TV.

The Inside Amy Schumer premiere included the viral sensation "Milk, Milk, Lemonade" and the epic collaboration of Julia Louie-Dreyfus, Patricia Arquette, and Tina Fey celebrating their "Last Fuckable Day." Her show takes a massive undeniable stand against the physical standards that Hollywood has set for women. A fantastic season opener to a show that often takes a critical eye to the way women are treated in society.

Amy's hilarious comedy also lead her to this year's MTV Movie Awards as the host. Between Shailene Woodley winning literally every award, and buff action movie stars standing in front of pyrotechnics instead of speaking, Amy stood out for her hysterical monologue.

Amy also wrote her first feature film called Trainwreck,  a romantic comedy that she is starring in along with SNL alum Bill Hader. The movie was directed and produced by star maker Judd Apatow. The trailer is up, and with such a funny, talented cast, it looks like it will be a hit this summer.

Are you exhausted yet? You should be. Amy Schumer has been paving the way for women in comedy, and isn't slowing down now. She's been able to take the stereotypes that hold back women, and use them to push herself forward. For her inspiring perseverance and fearless comedy, we are grateful to have such outstanding idol carving her own path. 

BBC panel shows, no longer a boys club

Many TV watchers might be familiar with panel shows like QI and Have I Got News For You hailing from the BBC. They are monstrously popular shows that appeal to the casual viewer with smart improvised comedy. Hailing from the Great White North, us Canadians get a variety of influences in our media. Hollywood has a powerful influence in representing North America, but we are still under the Queens thumb.

BBC show QI

During one episode of QI the panel was asked "Why aren't there more women on QI?" The answers ranged from the assumption that men are inherently funnier, or the perception that there simply aren't as many female comedians. The answer provided was based on a study that said women laugh more than men, but laugh less at other women.

As Sandy Toksvig noted in that segment, it's rare for a women on a panel show to be sat next to another women. In fact, statically women rarely if ever turn up. One Buzzfeed article that attempted to suss out how many women were in fact represent on panel shows, and the results were quite shocking. Ranging from the least diverse Mock the Week coming in with 87% male panelists, and ranging all the way up to the best show for female representation, 8 Out Of Ten Cats where 66% of the guest panelists were male. At best you could hope to see two men for every woman.

Comedian Jo Brand

But does that mean that setting a requirement for these television programs is the best course of action? For Danny Cohen, the Director of Television at the BBC, he thinks it is. An interview with The Guardian quoted him as saying "We're not going to have panel shows on any more with no women on them. You can't do that. It's not acceptable." a sentiment that stirred a surprising amount of controversy. Television media shapes a great deal of the public's perception on many social issues, and accepting the responsibility of acknowledging gender inequality and taking steps to rectify that is a surprising and encouraging move for the public broadcaster.

The question now is, was that in the best interest for women. Sandy Toksvig suggested that this sort of public outing is not going to help with the marginalization of women's representation on television. She herself is a frequent panelist on many shows including QI as shown earlier. Toksvig argued that there are still issues with the representation of women even if they appear, citing the example that older women are almost never shown on television unlike their male counterparts. Others argue that ensuring women are on panels shows would have been better received more naturally had this new rule from the BBC not been publicly announced.

2013's Whose Line is it Anyway?

Although this news came down back in February, the issue has been discussed for many years. Back in 2009 comedian and frequent panel show guest Jo Brand wrote a scathing column about panel shows and how harsh of a culture it is for women to work in. One common element of all panel shows on BBC is that they feature a comedian host, and in many cases a permanent panel guest. In every case, they are men. Perhaps the place to start featuring more females on panel shows isn't bringing in guests for individual episodes but including women in the cast. Perhaps a female cast member would be an encouraging sign to other women who would otherwise be intimidated by the current male dominated editing.

@Midnight Panelists

This is all British television, so how does this stack up to American television. In the Season 9 revival of Whose Line is it Anyways on The CW, 3 out of the 4 permanent panelists were men, and 2 women appeared as guests 2 times each. Along with the new host Aisha Tyler that brings the representation of women to a round 25%. Comedy Central panel show @Midnight hosted by Chris Hardwick features low occurrences of women. In the 7 seasons of Last Comic Standing there has been 1 female winner, and it happened to be the year the show adopted co-host Fearne Cotton who was the show's only female host in 8 seasons, and the only time the series featured a co-host. Season 8 is currently in it's semi-finals round, and men outnumber women 2-1. That may not be a panel show, but it is a national representation of comedians.

BBC Confirms Plans to Ban All Male Panel Show Line-Ups

BBC Chief: No More Comedy Shows With All Male Panels

Will Ferrell's Gary Sanchez Productions Introduces Gloria Sanchez

The Hollywood Reporter is reporting that Will Ferrell, Adam McKay and Chris Henchy are creating a new division in their successful production company Gary Sanchez Productions to focus on female content. Lead by executive Jessica Elbaum, the new Gloria Sanchez Productions will focus on creating female led projects for film and television, driven with female content creators.

Will Ferrell Launches Female Focused Film and TV Production Company

Adam McKay, Jessica Elbaum,
and Will Ferrell. 

Jessica Elbaum has worked at Gary Sanchez Productions since the company's beginnings, and has helped bring female comedies to life, even though they could easily put Will Ferrell in every movie and make a lot of money.

Gary Sanchez Productions helped launch Bachelorette in 2012, a personal favorite of us Fempire ladies. In 2014 they will release the Melissa McCarthy movie Tammy, as well as the Kristen Wiig film Welcome to Me.

Lets be clear, this is extraordinary not because there is a female head running the division, or because this is a production company focused on female films, which are both great. It's because women are rarely given a shot in comedy, and this is a production company with a proven track record for success. Comedy is one of those areas where women are consistently undermined. When it comes to Hollywood, the economics and statistics of what people want to see in a movie has resulted in a skewed perception that women shouldn't lead comedy films.

Sandra Bullock and Melissa
McCarthy at The Heat premiere

In 2013 I could only find one female-driven comedy in the top 100 grossing films of the year. The Heat, starring Sandra Bullock and Melissa McCarthy, might seem like an obvious bet after the success of films like Bridesmaids, but the $40 million dollar box office opening was a surprise to many who assumed the big budget action film White House Down would dominate. Every other big budget comedy that summer had a male star in it's top billing, when The Heat proved you don't need men to make audiences laugh.

At the Fempire Movie Club, we support the decision to get more women involved in movie making, in all aspects of production, and we can't wait to see what Gloria Sanchez has in store for us.