New from the oddball corners of my mind whining for attention department!
For some reason, I got thinking of stand up comedians today. So, I posited this query to myself: “Self, if you were forced to watch one comedian for a week, who would it be?”
The possibilities run the gamut from wild and crazy (Steve Martin, Robin Williams, Jonathan Winters) to slow and cerebral (Steven Wright, Bob Newhart) and everything in between.
I never did come up with an answer for myself, but I noticed that in all my calculations I hadn’t thought of any women. I don’t think I’m being sexist (one never knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men), but I just don’t know of any female stand ups that leap to the top of my funny bone ticklers list.
When I scrunched up my face real hard and strained for a thought, I did come up with one name without the use of “The Google” to scour the internets: Judy Tenuta.*
I love Judy, because she’s totally insane (in addition to her goddessness) and because she promised to teach me how to play the accordian (“It could happen!”). Plus, she has a real(ish) blog! It currently has a video of her doing the weather at a local tv station in Ohio, if you need a good Tenuta fix. I sure did.
*Even after great googly mooglying, though, there’s only a handful of female stand-ups that I like. (I’m only talking stand up comedians here… I love Lucy and Carol and Gilda just like any other red-blooded ‘murrican. And Samantha Bee is hee-larious.) Why is that?
Ellen is kinda funny sometimes. Wanda Sykes, too.
And Sarah Silverman, sometimes.
There were a few on Last Comic Standing that I liked, Kathleen Madigan in particular. If I had to pick any of these, it’d probably be her.
I had to go all googly to construct that list, other than Ellen. Strange, how none of them are top of mind.
Stop making me think, dammit! 🙂
I’d completely forgotten about Judy Tenuta until now! Thanks for the link – I’ll check it out. I always thought she was hilarious 🙂
I like Kathleen Madigan, too, and I think I’ve got one of her DVD’s on queue at Netflix.
I read just yesterday that Roseanne Barr is coming back to tv – I used to like her, too.
Wanda Sykes
Lisa Lampinelli
and
Bill Maher
oh, i love the Judy!
if forced to watch only one comedian for a week, i think i could handle spending that time with Ellen Degeneres. perhaps this is because of the sad, unrequited lesbian crush i harbor for her.
what about Carol Leifer or Mo Gaffney?