Comedy is a deceptively powerful genre. It can challenge norms and provoke discussion whilst providing joy and escapism. This extends to female-led comedies, which, at their best, provide a richness and diversity of comedic storytelling.
The online discourse surrounding these films is mired by disrespect and dismissal of their success and reinforces an industry gender bias that these film’s success should be dismantled.
As a case study for this, the reception of Paul Feig’s Bridesmaids and Ghostbusters represents the way women’s success in comedy is framed and discredited repeatedly.
Bridesmaids’ box-office success in 2011 made it a standout film. In contrast to other female-led comedies, it centred on female friendships and allowed women to be as crude and outrageous as their male contemporaries. This runaway success even led to two Oscar nominations (Supporting Actress for Melissa McCarthy and Best Original Screenplay for Kristen Wiig and Annie Mumolo), a rare achievement for any comedy.
Despite this unprecedented success, the decade-plus since then has seen little ripple effect from the film, and the industry has written it off as a fluke. Fieg followed this with two further successful comedies, The Heat and Spy, both with McCarthy, but his follow-up to those films undone this.
Fieg’s Ghostbusters reboot in 2016 infamously was on the receiving end of bad-faith criticism right from announcement to release. Despite this, Ghostbusters did manage a respectable gross of $229 million worldwide, but the wave of misogyny and racism, targeted towards star Leslie Jones, undermined and drowned out any positive takeaways from the film.
Both these instances show how, at varying ends of success, female-led comedies are demeaned regardless of their strengths, and any leeway given to Feig and his collaborators Wiig and McCarthy was taken away after Ghostbuster’s divisive reception.
This dismissal of female-driven comedy extends beyond Fieg’s work. McCarthy’s work separate from Fieg, has been consistently criticised, despite her obvious talents. This is an all too common issue with stand-up comedy too, as Ali Wong’s transgressive work on female desire and the horror of childbirth is labelled ‘too female-centric’. Then Amy Schumer, who, like Wiig with Bridesmaids, wrote and starred in a runaway success in Trainwreck was devalued by intense scrutiny her male peers are not subject to.
Schumer is a controversial comedian and not above criticism, but the way Trainwreck and her other films have been criticised for their brash and uncouth humour exemplifies a double standard in how comedy is discussed, as these complaints are not as dominant in the discussion of male-led comedy. The way Schumer challenges and defies conventional roles for women and discusses her sexuality in an unapologetic way should be celebrated rather than demonised.
The systemic bias against female-led comedies makes their success an uphill battle. The common idea that women simply aren’t as funny as men, or at all, is a belief held by many creatives and viewers.
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This mindset is never negated by the success of movies that directly refute the idea women are not funny. There is always great pressure placed upon these films, and any failure or opportunity for criticism makes them greater targets.
This makes it especially difficult for female comics and writers to get their pitches greenlit. Even the ones that make it through the system receive minimal funding and promotion, and when they succeed in spite of this, they’ll be written off like Bridesmaids.
To rectify this imbalance, it’s crucial that these films receive support from audiences and that their success isn’t soured by bad-faith criticism and double standards. There needs to be audience engagement with these films that drown out the minority who revel in their failure.
Furthermore, critics and film reviewers have a responsibility to evaluate these comedies with more fairness. They can’t go into these movies expecting them to be bad because they’re women-led. It’s time we laughed with women, not at them, and appreciated their comedic talents.
