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From toothpick legs to dropping vaginas:
Gender and sexuality in Joan Rivers’ stand-up comedy performance
Sharon Lockyer, Brunel University
Abstract
This article employs sociocultural analysis to examine Joan Rivers’ stand-up comedy
performances in order to reveal how she successfully operates in a sphere of artistic
expression that has been, and continues to be, male-dominated. The analysis uncovers how
Rivers’ stand-up comedy performance involves a complex combination of elements and how
it fuses features that are regarded as ‘traditionally masculine’, such as aggression, with
features frequently used by other female stand-up comedians, such as self-deprecating
comedy and confessional comedy. Furthermore, the analysis exposes the complex ways in
which constructions of gender and sexuality are negotiated and re-negotiated in Rivers’
stand-up comedy performance, and illustrates how dominant ideological identity
constructions can be simultaneously reinforced and subverted within the same comic
moment.
Keywords
gender
sexuality
stand-up comedy
Joan Rivers
self-deprecation
ageing female body
masculine discourses
Introduction
A large body of academic and industry-related evidence suggests that the stand-up
comedyscape has always been, and continues to be, male-dominated (Channel 4 2010;
Chortle 2011; Gray 1994; Nilsen and Nilsen 2000; Ross 1998; Zoglin 2009). Such male
dominance is reflected in the number of male stand-up comedians compared with female
stand-up comedians and the aggressive performative features that this form of artistic
expression utilizes, which are often perceived as ‘traditionally male’. Despite this, female
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stand-up comedians can, and do, penetrate this male-dominated industry and have successful
stand-up comedy careers. This article examines how one eminent female stand-up comedian,
Joan Rivers, negotiates this predominantly male space through close qualitative sociocultural
analysis of her stand-up comedic performance. The specific Live at the Apollo (Wheeler
2007) performance chosen for analysis is interrogated in order to answer three inter-related
questions: how does Rivers navigate the male-dominated stand-up comedy space? How does
Rivers negotiate a form of expression that is largely aggressive and competitive? To what
extent does Rivers use her stand-up comedy performance to reinforce or resist traditional
dominant notions of gender and sexuality?
Funny women? Don’t make me laugh!
There are many factors surrounding gender and stand-up comedy creation, performance and
appreciation. These factors contribute to a ‘masculine discourse’ (see Beynon 2002; Smith
1996), which is designed to promote and maintain male power and dominance across the
stand-up comedyscape. Zoglin (2009: 6) argues that the stand-up comedy landscape is largely
‘defined by testosterone’ and notes that conventional wisdom suggests that women are ‘less
suited by nature to stand-up comedy, an aggressive, take-charge art form’ (Zoglin 2009: 182).
Those female stand-up comedians who do penetrate this male-dominated sphere and adopt an
aggressive tone are criticized for doing so. For example, the American TV host Johnny
Carson (who provided the launch pad for many male comedians and also had Joan Rivers on
his show as a regular guest) argued that stand-up comedy is ‘much tougher for women[]
You don’t see many of them around. And the ones that try, sometimes, are a little aggressive
for my taste. I’ll take it from a guy, but from a woman, sometimes, it just doesn’t fit too well’
(quoted in Zoglin 2009: 192). This male dominance in stand-up comedy is reflected in the
current British live stand-up comedy circuit. Of the 58 comedians described as ‘Comedians
on Tour’ on the Chortle: The UK Comedy Guide website in early April 2011, only seven (or
12 per cent) are women (including Zoe Lyons, Sarah Millican, Shappi Khorsandi and Shazia
Mirza (Chortle 2011)).
Nilsen and Nilsen (2000) outline a number of reasons to explain the gender imbalance in
stand-up comedy performers. They argue that stand-up comedy is highly competitive, and
male stand-up comedians, who do not wish to have increased competition, have endeavoured
to maintain separate gender stand-up comedy factions; female stand-ups are more likely to be
heckled and criticized; some comedy promoters insist that female stand-ups are not loud or
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strong-enough performers to close/headline performances; and that some audiences, despite
the advances and reforms of the feminist movement, are not prepared to afford women the
powerful position that a stand-up comedian has the potential to adopt. Furthermore, Ross
(1998) and Gray (1994) have independently pointed out the myth that exists that maintains
that women do not possess a sense of humour, which is perceived as hindering their comedy
creation and appreciation.
Some journalists and comedy critics perpetuate negative stereotypes surrounding funny
women and hold them liable for what some comedy critics view as detrimental changes in
stand-up comedy styles. Hitchens (2007) commented in Vanity Fair that successful female
comedians are ‘hefty or dykey or Jewish’, and St John (2005), in the article ‘Seriously, the
Joke is Dead’, blames women for the demise of the ‘short-story-with-a-punchline jokes’
(along with political correctness and the Internet) due to their observational-type humour
(cited in Carr and Greeves 2007: 157-158). As suggested by Nilsen and Nilsen (2000),
audiences also seem to perpetuate male dominance in stand-up comedy. In 2005, the men’s
magazine FHM voted the UK’s funniest women as ‘none of them’ (Carr and Greeves 2007:
165), and in April 2010, in an audience poll conducted by Channel 4 entitled, the ‘100
Greatest Stand-Ups of All Time’, only six women made it to the top 100. Victoria Wood was
the woman who was ranked the highest at 10th place, with Jo Brand reaching 30th, Jenny
Eclair at 70th, Roseanne Barr at 93rd and Shappi Khorsandi at 99th. The focus of this article,
Joan Rivers, was ranked 57th (Channel 4 2010). These polls reflect the findings of scientific
studies, such as those conducted by Provine (1996), which suggest that both males and
females laugh at male comedians more than they do at female comedians. Joan Rivers herself
seems to perpetuate the masculine discourse surrounding stand-up comedy. She has argued:
I don’t like funny women. I come out of that generation where a woman should be
beautiful and sexy and a wonderful flower attached to a man, even though my whole
life has been the antithesis of this. To this day, you don’t expect a woman to be funny.
(Horowitz 1997: 103)
However, a number of women, from Victoria Wood and Dawn French to Jo Brand and Jenny
Éclair, have productively negotiated this male-dominated performance space, have successful
stand-up comedy careers, and challenge the masculine stand-up comedy discourses. There
has been a steady increase in the number of female stand-up comedians performing in
American comedy clubs. In 1990 Time magazine reported that in 1970 2 per cent of stand-up
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comedians were female compared with 20 per cent in 1990 (cited in Nilsen and Nilsen 2000:
137). One of the most successful female stand-up comedians is Joan Rivers. Although she has
argued:
Comedy is masculine. To stand up and take control of an audience verbally is very
difficult. Women are oppressed in childhood and not allowed to do this. Also, women
want to be attractive, and comics are not supposed to be that way. (Horowitz 1997:
107)
Joan Rivers has a comedy career spanning five decades and thus is, to some comedy industry
professionals and comedy audiences, a funny woman. The foundations of Rivers’ comedy
career were laid at a time when the comedy industry was more male-dominated than it is
today. As she has continued to be successful across five decades, it is important and
interesting to consider the dynamics of her stand-up comic performance in terms of gender. It
is to such dynamics that we turn our attention by closely examining Rivers’ performance. The
chosen performance is Live at the Apollo (Wheeler 2007) originally broadcast on 10
December 2007. It was hosted by Joan Rivers and included Patrick Kielty as the guest
comedian. Data for the article were gathered from two YouTube videos of this broadcast –
Part 1 (9 minutes and 56 seconds in duration) and Part 2 (6 minutes and 11 seconds in
duration) – in which we see Rivers open and close the show.
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Balancing the gender-imbalanced comedyscape
Much of Rivers’ stand-up performance at Live at the Apollo is aggressive in tone and
content.
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This aggression is directed towards either herself, through the use of self-
deprecating comedy, celebrities and/or image-obsessed Western culture. Across her comedy
career, and in the clips chosen for analysis in this article, Rivers has joked about her
nonexistent love life. Whether single, married or widowed, the main thrust of Rivers’ comedy
persona has remained the same – ‘Joan is the sexual loser, the ugly girl whom no man wants’
(Horowitz 1997: 98). For example, in the Live at the Apollo performance, Rivers’ topics of
conversation suggest she has few, if any, sexual relationships with others:
Cos it’s all about looks. This is my message Great Britain. This is my message. Looks
count, education pah. Looks count. I’ve had no sex appeal and it has screwed me up
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for life. Peeping Toms look at my window and pull down the shade. You have no
idea. My gynaecologist examines me by telephone. (Part 1, 9:01–9:22)
Rivers also discusses her childhood experiences and her difficult relationship with her
parents:
My parents hated me OK, we’re all gonna hear the story ‘my parents hated me too’.
All I ever heard, all I ever heard growing up was ‘Why can’t you be like your cousin
Sheila, why can’t you be like your cousin Shelia?’, Sheila had died at birth. They just
hated me. (Part 1, 6:01–6:23)
Self-deprecating jokes were used by other women who shared the comedy landscape with
Joan Rivers in the 1960s when there were fewer female stand-up comedians than today. For
example, Phyllis Diller and Totie Fields both joked about their appearance and body
shape/size in a derogatory manner (see Horowitz 1997). Such self-deprecating comedy used
by these female stand-up comedians is based on negative female stereotypes, which are
exaggerated for humorous effect (Horowitz 1997). Self-deprecating comedy is used by some
stand-up comedians as a rhetorical strategy. When explaining her own use of self-deprecating
comedy, Jo Brand maintains:
I’ve always felt that the putting-yourself-down stuff did give you a bit of a ticket to go
on and lay into someone else. Also, it gets it out of the way. Because as a woman you
know when you come on stage the first thing you’re judged on is your appearance.
(Wagg 1998: 134)
As Horowitz argues, self-deprecating comedy eases the resistance to the idea of a woman
comic – ‘the logic being that if you’re doing something women aren’t supposed to do, you
might be accepted if you show that you don’t think much of yourself as a woman’ (1997:
103).
Furthermore, Gray argues that self-deprecation ‘only works if it is clearly perceived to be an
act’ (1994: 137, original emphasis). Some of the self-deprecating comedy in Rivers’ stand-up
performance does appear to be an act. Rivers is a sophisticated woman – her carefully
manicured nails, a face and body manipulated by cosmetic surgery, her expensive jewellery
and her well-groomed hair suggest that she is far removed from the woman she describes as