Brilliant, as always. And you mentioned some of my favorites.

I encountered a really crappy dismissive attitude from 'the boys' when I was taking sketch comedy writing classes. They would get annoyed if I didn't laugh at their dick-and-fart joke sense of humor, suggesting that I "lighten up" or not "take myself so seriously". Aah, it must have hurt their man feelings to have a stupid woman not be enamored by their contrived, recycled man humor.

A lot of these losers also has this caveman notion that women shouldn't use bad words or say anything dirty or suggestive. It was hard to get some of them to listen to me when they couldn't get past the fact that sweet, lovely and delicate words were not going to be coming out of my mouth anytime soon. Also, when performing "rants" that exposed inequalities in society (like Samantha Bee's finger-quotes, mentioned in this article, for example) there would always be one or two losers that would tell me to "calm down", downplaying what I was saying. Clearly, a woman expressing herself in a passionate and humorous manner must mean she is on her period which explains her lapse in using her sweet, calm and delicate voice. It makes me want to write a rant...hahaha.

My love for Amy Poehler grew even greater when I learned of her "Smart Girls" project. It sounds like its going to be an awesome project that gives young girls the confidence that they need and don't receive from other media outlets. Thank you, Jessica for giving credit to the super funny women!!

I Looooooove Margaret Cho. Like she said, "Feminism is nonnegotiable."

Fantastic article Jessica. I am glad you focused on these amazing women who combine my two favorite things in the entire world- feminism and comedy. There is a series of interviews done by Dawn French with various famous female comedians that is brilliant and it really gets into that idea you mentioned of men finding funny women threatening. You can find it in parts here- http://womenscomedy.wordpress.com/2007/08/18/miriams-australian-tour-of-dickens-women-2007/.

For a lot of female comedians the choice is you can be funny or you can be desirable, you can't be both. Its too bad because I think funny women are the sexiest thing on earth (and no I don't mean being sexy is the end all, be all, so nobody jump on me :-)

Also, when I read that Wanda Sykes joke I legitimately choked on my lunch. Just genius. If it weren't newly illegal in CA I would fly there and marry that woman.

Is this a real question? Wanda Sykes, hands down...lol.

*off to read the article*

Allison Janney of West Wing and Juno fame.

And I LOVE Sarah Haskins and Wanda Sykes as well.

I love Erin Jackson

http://www.erinjackson.net/blog/

I first saw her on Last Comic Standing.

i have had the privilege of seeing wanda sykes and margaret cho live.

i gotta say, my ab muscles hurt for a freakin week after both!

Iliza Schlesinger. Hilarious, down to earth and pretty much awesome.

She just recently won Last Comic Standing.

I agree all the comics everyone has already mentioned, plus Janeane Garafalo and Maria Bamford. They are funny enough to make me pee myself from laughing...or almost. ;)

And although she's not technically a comic, Rachel Maddow is hilarious both on MSNBC and Air America. I love me some funny women!

Maria Bamford is far and away my favorite female, feminist comedian. I could watch her show on superdeluxe.com over and over and over and over. And she's excellent live. AND! When Jerry Lewis was quoted as saying, "there aren't that many funny women," she posted on her website a list of "a few funny women who are comedians." About six dozen of them.

Elvira Kurt deserves a mention, too.

How about Lucille Ball, Lily Tomlin and Gilda Radner?

Hey Jessica and the feministing community,

I just wanted to submit a quick comment.

Attributing feminist comedy to a recent wave of white women (and then only mentioning these white women for most of the article) is, well, pretty inaccurate and problematic, I think. Women like Margaret Cho (who I sighed relief when finally reading about her- only for a white counterpart to be used to validate her statements) has been doing feminist comedy for a long time. Wanda Sykes, Whoopi Goldberg, and many other women of color have long been commenting on being a woman and a person of color in very feminist ways. I think that the fact that they have not been deemed as ‘funny feminist’ women with articles written about them speaks volumes to the racial inequities of our society and the profound lack of visibility of women of color in ‘mainstream’ media and critique. Yes, women are funny. And yes, these white women are getting a lot of play and publicity for it these days. But this isn’t just because they are a wave of this new thing called feminist comedians, it is also because they are white. While feminist humor, even a possibility of a rise in feminist humor, is happening by a group of white chicks, a lot of the time talking about white chick issues, to attribute the boom and creation of feminist comedians to them just ain’t all of it. And it is important to recognize where and when privilege gets you this kind of recognition. Like in this article.

Thanks so much guys, I'd love to talk about it more

amy sedaris! she was on chelsea lately recently doing a bit on vaginal cleansing (with a cardboard model!) and i was dying...

Kathleen Madigan is a very funny lady. I don't know what her stance is on feminism though. Her jokes tend to be about politics and her family.

"I love watching Bush speak because his sentences are so broken up it's like a psychic channeling a president."

"If Mike Huckabee doesn't play the spoons on the washboard at some point I'm going to be seriously disappointed. Looking at his teeth, I know at some point he has smacked down the washboard."

"I don't mind Hillary. What I do mind is that whenever they speak of her, especially Chris Matthews, they always ask 'Can a woman do this?' Yes, a woman can. Is it her? I don't know, a lot of people don't like her. What about Madeline Albright? Smart, experienced and bonus already looks exactly like George Washington."

Gina Yashere!!

And Wanda Sykes o'course.

(I also like George Carlin, but I'm guessing from the rest of the post that you're referring to female feminists.)

Gina Yashere!!

And Wanda Sykes o'course.

(I also like George Carlin, but I'm guessing from the rest of the post that you're referring to female feminists.)

What about Lisa Lampanelli?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IXqJlfIZ1ms

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZ5TN30sg9k

Favourites? There are too many to list, but Carol Burnett will always be my idol.

Favourites? There are too many to list, but Carol Burnett will always be my idol.