Why Outraged Women Aren't Funny

The only thing I enjoyed about Christopher Hitchens' article in January's Vanity Fair was the anticipation of the outraged letters I knew would follow. In case you missed it, Hitchens' wrote an essay about why he believed women aren't funny. Hitchens claims we're not funny because we don't have to be. We've got other appeals.

I imagined the inboxes of Vanity Fair staffers clogging with witty, eviscerating prose.
But, unfortunately the letters were painfully un-funny.
One female comedian writes: "As a male-dominated industry, it's a long, hard fight for women until the numbers start to even out. What would help to even them out? If people would stop publishing article claiming that women aren't funny."

There's nothing less humorous than talking about humor. That's why Hitchens' essay failed. He disproved his own point.

The vast majority of people, men and women, think they're funny when they're not. I don't think there's any gender inequity in that sad fact.
Hitchens does get the last laugh. His response to the letters:
"I took care to distinguish females from female comics. Some of these chicks can't even read."