Women and Laughter

205 Pages·1994·19.382 MB·English

by  Frances Gray (auth.)

N IN SOCIETY
nist List edited by
--
Jo Campling
Editorial Advisory Group
Phillida Bunckle, Victoria University, Wellington, New Zealand;
Miriam David, South Bank University, Leonore Davidoff,
University of Essex; janet Finch, University of Lancaster;
jalna Hanmer, University of Bradford; Beverley Kingston,
University of New South Wales, Australia; Hilary Land, University
of Bristol; Diana Leonard, University of London Institute of
Education; Susan Lonsdale, Department of Health; jean O'Barr,
Duke University, North Carolina, USA; Arlene Tigar Mclaren,
Simon Fraser University, British Columbia, Canada; Hilary Rose,
University of Bradford; Susan Sellers, University of St Andrews;
Pat Thane, Goldsmiths' College, University of London; Clare
Ungerson, University of Southampton.
The last two decades have seen an explosion of publishing by,
about and for women. This list is designed to make a particular
contribution to this continuing process by commissioning and
publishing books which consolidate and advance feminist research
and debate in key areas in a form suitable for students, academics
and researchers but also accessible to a broader general readership.
As far as possible, the books adopt an international perspective,
incorporating comparative material from a range of countries where
this is illuminating. Above all, they are interdisciplinary, aiming
to put women's studies and feminist discussion firmly on the agendc
in subject-areas as disparate as law, literature, art and social policy.
N IN SOCIETY
...
nist List edited by
Jo Campling
Christy Adair Women II1CI oanc.: sylphs and sirens
Sheila Allen and Carol Wolkowitz Horneworldna: myths nlruUtles
Ros Ballaster, Margaret Beetham, Elizabeth Frazer and Sandra Hebron Women's Worids:
Ideology, femininity and the woman's mapzlne
jenny Beale Women In Ireland: was of change
jennifer Breen In Her Own Write: twentleth-centuly women's fiction
Valerie Bryson Feminist Political Tbeoly. an Introduction
Ruth Carter and Gill Kirkup Women In EJ'I&Ineerlna: a good pllce to be?
joan Chandler Women without Husbands: 11'1 explcntlon of the llll'lfns of 1111nia.ge
Cllina:
Gillian Dalley Ideologies of rethlnklna c:ommun~ nl collectivism
(2nd edn)
Emily Driver and Audrey Droisen (editors) Child Sexual Abuse: feminist perspectives
Elizabeth Ettorre Women and Substance Use
Elizabeth Fallaize French Women's WrltlnJ: recent fiction
Lesley Ferris Acting Women: lmaps of women In theatre
Diana Gittins The Family In Question: chlnglnt households and flmllllr Ideologies (2nd
edn)
Tuula Gordon Feminist Mothers
Tuula Gordon SlnJie Women: on the rn.r&~ns?
Frances Gray Women MCI Laughter
Eileen Green, Diana Woodward and Sandra Hebron Women's Leisure, Whit Leisure?
Frances Heidensohn Women and Crime (2nd edn)
Ursula King Women and Splrltulllty: voices of protest and promise (2nd edn)
jo Little, Linda Peake and Pat Richardson (editors) Women In Cities: aender lnd the urban
environment
Susan Lonsdale Women and DlsabiUty: the experience of physical dlslbiUty among
women
Mavis Maclean SUrvMng Divorce: women's resourtes after sepnt1on
Shelley Pennington and Belinda Westover A Hidden Workfolte: homeworkers In England,
18~1985
Vicky Randall Women and PoUtlc:s: an International perspective (2nd edn)
Diane Richardson Women, Mothemood and Chlldrearlng
Susan Sellers Language and Sexull Difference: feminist writing In FI'IIIICe
Patricia Spallone Beyond Conception: the new polltla of reproduction
Taking Liberties Collective l.elmlng the Hard Way: women's oppression ll'ld men's
edUCitlon
Clare Ungerson and Mary Kember (editors) Women nl Social Polley: 1 ruder
(2nd edn)
Kitty Warnock Land Before Honou~ Palestinian women In the Occupied Territories
Annie Woodhouse Fantastic Womert sex, gender and trlnsVeStlsm
Women and Laughter
Frances Gray
pal grave
© Frances Gray 1994
*
All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of
this publication may be made without written permission.
No paragraph of this publication may be reproduced, copied or
transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with
the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988,
or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying
issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, 90 Tottenham Court
Road, London W1T 4LP.
Any person who does any unauthorised act in relation to this
publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil
claims for damages.
The author has asserted her right to be identified as the author of this
work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs
and Patents Act 1988.
Published by
PALGRAVE
Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS and
175 Fifth Avenue, New York. N.Y. 10010
Companies and representatives throughout the world
PALGRAVE is the new global academic imprint of
St Martin's Press LLC Scholarly and Reference Division and
Palgrave Publishers Ltd (formerly Macmillan Press Ltd).
ISBN 978-0-333-44790-1 ISBN 978-1-349-23275-8 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-23275-8
This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and
made from fully managed and sustained forest sources.
A catalogue record for this book is available
from the British Library.
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2
09 08 07 06 OS 04 03 02 01
If you would Uke to receive future titles In this series as they are published you can make use of
our standing onler fllc:lllty. To pl.ce a standing onler please contact your bookseller or, In case
of difficulty, write to us at the address below with your name, address and the name of the
series. Please state with which title you wish to begin your standing order. (if you 11111! outisde
the UK we may not have the rights for your area, In which case we will forward your order to
the publisher concerned.)
Customer Services Department, Macmillan Distribution Ltd
Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS, England
For my son
Contents
Acknowledgements IX
Introduction: or, Why this book does not exist 1
PART I THEORIZING LAUGHTER
1. Theoretical perspectives 19
Who's laughing? 19
Why laugh? 24
PART II SITCOM: STORY OR SPECTACLE?
2. Born in the USA: a story of money and angels 41
The fifties 46
The sixties 57
The seventies 63
The eighties and after 70
3. British sitcom: a rather sad story 80
Domestic dragons and 'doing it very well' 82
Female independence or female lack?
The work of Carla Lane 89
Role and representation: the work of Penelope Keith 98
The future 107
vii
viii Contents
PART III STANDUP AND BE COUNTED
4. On the halls: Ms/readings and negotiations 115
5. Making it on your own: women in the new
comic traditions 133
Take my wife- please! or, Coping with the clubs 133
New comedy, new chances? 142
6. Other selves: character comedy and the one-
woman show 161
One woman, many faces 171
Snapshots, 1987-92: not really a conclusion 181
Notes 186
Suggestions for further reading 194
Index 197
Acknowledgements
I should like to thank the University of Sheffield Research Fund for a
grant towards this book; Jo Carnpling, for seeing it through with such
patience; Imogen Donelly (Jimmo), Clare and Johnny Maire, Elizabeth
Rees-Morgan (Fizzy Lizzie), Claire Schrader (La Dame de Flamme),
Kate Rowland and Linda Smith for illuminating interviews and letters as
well as entertainment; my seminar groups of 1991 and 1992 for their
insights and continuing interest in women's laughter; Tallyn, my son, for
making me laugh; those friends who sat around with me in clubs where
women start their sets at 2 am, for the company; Olly Double, PhD and
standup comic, for generously sharing his own findings and insights and
for disagreeing with me most of the time.
FRANCES GRAy
lX
Introduction: or, Why this book does
not exist
Humourless: the cliche 'she lacks a sense of humour' is applied by men to
every threatening woman when she does not find the following funny: rape,
big breasts, sex with little girls. On the other hand there is no imputation of
humourlessness if she does not find impotence, castration and vaginas with
teeth humorous. (The Feminist Dictionary)
Once, you could be reborn. You became one with the goddess Demeter
mourning her daughter Persephone, snatched away to hell for half the
year, and you rejoiced with her in the symbolic birth of a holy child, the
sight of whom blessed you into eternal life. So secret was this rite that
even now we know only the ceremonies which led up to it. The initiates
shed all distinctions of sex and status as they washed in the sea, the
source of life, and dressed themselves in garments which were ever
afterwards holy. They sacrificed pigs, symbols of both decay and fertil-
ity. They walked as if in mourning towards a fire so bright it could be
seen from miles away, and as their walk drew to an end they crossed a
bridge symbolic of the transition from sorrow to joy. On this bridge they
encountered the rites known as the gephyrismoi: dirty jokes, songs and
dances performed by a woman.
The Eleusinian Mysteries: secret rites of the ancient world; there are
many, and contradictory, ways of reading them, especially those jokes
on the bridge. You might favour, for instance, a romantic - feminist
view, one encouraged by the story they commemorate. The godqess, in
deepest grief for the rape of her daughter, refused to eat or drink; a lame
serving maid, Baubo, staged a little comic show, telling smutty jokes,
parodying the pains of pregnancy and birth and finally producing from
beneath her skirts Demeter's little son, who leapt into his mother's arms
for a surprise kiss; the goddess laughed, took nourishment and went on
to recover her daughter for half the year and allow Spring to return to the
earth. Thus comedy was born. A story of a lost matriarchal paradise, you
might say, a rich female culture in which one woman heals another, and
1