What's With The Funny Business?

You might remember me revealing a harebrained idea here on the blog a few months ago. If you are thinking "Which one?" then you are no longer my friend.

Kidding.

But truthfully, being a writer means that sometimes my head is too far in the clouds. This most recent incidence of me getting cumulonimbus in my nasal passage happened when I had this great idea that I, Lori Folkman from Podunk, Montana, should write a sitcom.

But before I went out and spent my potential earnings from selling a sitcom, I did some research, because even though I'm a big dreamer, I'm also a realist. Guess what I found out? In order to sell a sitcom to a network, you actually have to work in the television industry. Weird, huh? An unknown, inexperienced screenwriter has virtually no chance of selling an idea to Hollywood.

Yes, I am a realist (oftentimes a pessimist), but this is one case where I am like Lloyd from Dumb and Dumber. "So you're telling me there's a chance?" I'm not letting my lack of skills and connections discourage me, because if it's meant to happen, it will happen. Well, not just happen: I'll have to work for it, but I am not afraid of a challenge. That is why I am planning on climbing Everest next year. (No, not really. I would have to sleep in a tent to do that, and you know how much I like my soft, cushy bed.)

So I am working on jumping over that hurdle, and still learning all that I need to know about writing for television and bam! There's another hurdle. It's my gender. Seriously.

I have learned that it is harder for women to break into sitcom writing than men. Apparently, there is the school of thought that men are funnier than women. Gasp! At first I was a little taken aback by this, but then the more I thought about it, I realized there might be some truth there. There are some female comedians who are truly funny, but a lot of them are just obnoxious and crude. And when you think about who was the class clown back in elementary school, was it ever a girl? Not that I can think of. Why do you think that is?

As far as funny female comedians, I can only think of a few who I really like:

Carol: such talent! So diverse! Can her show get picked up for another season?
And no one does it like Lucy. Yes, I love her.
Ellen is hilarious, but to be honest, I've never even watched more than snippets of her show. I don't watch daytime TV, because that is my writing time. I guess since I'm not into all the talk shows, I just don't know who is funny. Do you? Who tickles your funny bone? When you come up with your list, is it mostly male, or are there lots of funny girls on there too?

My favorite funny guys are: Bill Cosby, Jerry Seinfeld, Brian Regan, Steve Carrell and Rowan Atkinson. I feel bad about just listing a few because there are so many funny male comedians.This is also a hard topic because there are so many funny people who aren't necessarily categorized as comedians. But when you think of funny people, who tops your list? Do share!

And just a motivational thought: “If you don’t have a dream, how can you have a dream come true?” – Jiminy Cricket.  Wise little critter, isn't he?