Seinfeld, Carolla, Hitchens: What if White Men Really Are Just Funnier — to Other White Men?

It’s happened again. A white male comedian has told us that non-white-men — in this case, “Asians and chicks” — just aren’t funny.

This time, it’s Adam Carolla (um, remember “The Man Show”? In the ‘90s?)

This past February, it was two other white men. From Michelle Dean’s What Jerry Seinfeld and Lorne Michaels Are Really Saying: White Men Are Just Funnier:

“Once we shove the straw men out of the way, the only remaining question is whether these men really believe it to be the case that white men are simply funnier and more competent comics than just about everyone else. They might say no in the abstract, but then they have these results in front of them, these oceans of comics who only answer to a couple demographic descriptors. Somehow whiteness and maleness seems to be baked into their concept of funny.”

From Tommy Christopher’s What’s the Deal with Jerry Seinfeld’s Racial Diversity Answer?

“…Seinfeld is reacting to an accurate observation, that black and female comics are underrepresented in the admittedly small sample of guests on his show. That means that something is missing. Either black or female comics are undeservedly missing from Seinfeld’s sample, or they are missing the talent necessary to make it onto Seinfeld’s radar. Jerry’s response, that he doesn’t care about factors like race and gender, only funny, leads to the conclusion that the natural result, intended or not, is such underrepresentation.”

And of course, Christopher Hitchens (whose writings on atheism, boozy living, and mortality I otherwise enjoy) gave life to this canard with his 2007 Vanity Fair essay, Why Women Aren’t Funny, in which — it must be noted — the dearly departed Hitch makes an exception for women who are “hefty or dykey or Jewish.”

Allow me to suggest: It is very probably true that white men are “just funnier” — to other white men.

Now, obviously, there are exceptions. No need for white men in the comments to tell us how much they love Dave Chapelle or Tina Fey or anybody else. Of course. We’re talking about broad averages and Nielson ratings here.

On that score, plenty of men still regularly express the opinion that women aren’t funny. Or they think one particular female comic is funny and then they want to be seen as a hero for acknowledging that. (These are the same men who tell you breathlessly on a date that they recently read a book by a woman author! Wow, you really took one for the team! Sex is now owed to you!)

And white male comedy bigwigs still respond to questions about diversity with, “Who cares?” The followup to sentiments of this nature is always along the lines of, “I just care about what’s funny! I don’t care if they’re black, white, purple, man, woman, whatever.”

(Note: I have heard this facetious list of “types of people I am color/gender-blind to” on many occasions, and it’s never good. Why are there no women on your board? How come everyone you called in for an interview is white? As soon as the response turns to “black, white, purple…”, you know you are about to be treated to an argument about how it’s not the speaker’s fault that some people are just better at things.)

Here is what Seinfeld actually said: “People think that it’s the census or something. It’s gotta represent the actual pie chart of America. Who cares?”

And then, “Funny is the world that I live in. You’re funny, I’m interested. You’re not funny, I’m not interested. And I have no interest in gender, or race, or anything like that.”

This seems to imply that there are people out there — people who do care about diversity — who don’t want comedy to be funny. That seems unlikely. I do think some of us doubt that Jerry Seinfeld — or anyone — can be an impartial judge of what is funny.

It might be a more reasonable explanation that white people tend to know a lot of other white people and to invite them to do things like appear on TV shows. It might be a more reasonable explanation that a white male comic would be drawn to the work of other white male comics.

So what if it turns out to be true, on average, that white men really are funnier to other white men? That doesn’t surprise me. I find Tina Fey and Amy Poehler generally pretty hilarious. And I am extremely demographically similar to Tina Fey and Amy Poehler. Shocker!

See, here’s the consequence of white men denying that diversity is important in comedy — their comedy will be eventually come to be known as “white men’s comedy.” Not just “comedy.”

If that’s what you want, white guys, you’ll find yourself in the same situation as all the other comedians who aren’t white men. That’s not a terrible thing. You just have to think about your whiteness and maleness a little more.

As long as there has been a black comedy scene, black comics have strategized and made choices. There are black comedians who find their fans almost exclusively among black audiences and in black comedy clubs. There are black comedians who aim to appeal to mostly-white audiences. And, of course, there are black comedians who aim to appeal as much as possible to everyone. And plenty of women comedians can tell you that they do very different work at an all-women event than in a rowdy, male-dominated comedy club. Everyone has their preferences and career strategies. No judgments. I’m just saying that comics who aren’t white men generally have to think about this stuff more.

White men — in comedy as in society at large — have been presuming that their work is “universal,” while everyone else is some kind of novelty or niche performer.

According to this worldview, there are women comics, there are Asian comics, there are gay comics, there are comics that are more than one of the above — and then there are just comics, like Jerry Seinfeld.

This is not the case.

I’ve done a bit of comedy. About seven years of comedy, enough to get paid, travel, entertain the troops in the Middle East, and do Boston’s Women in Comedy Festival a couple of times. I love the Women in Comedy Festival. There’s no need to leave a comment telling me I am not funny and never have been. You can, but it won’t hurt my feelings. I think I was funny sometimes, mostly for certain niche audiences (specifically, feminists and book festival attendees — YOU ARE MY PEOPLE).

And, in fact, what I’m arguing here is that white men are also sometimes funny only to a certain niche audience of other white men. White male comics cannot assume they are forever the mainstream, either as performers or as audience members. There is nothing universal about white male comedy.

I also don’t love comedy clubs, where audience members are often told where to sit and consequently packed into a space where they will be subjected to a great deal of racism and sexism and will be physically unable to leave without being publicly made fun of.

My mother told me when I was four that when someone tells a racist joke, you’re supposed to say something. This is a basic ethical rule that I was taught as a small white child in 1982. (I think because I was four and it was 1982, I was taught to say something like, “It’s not funny to be prejudiced.” I’m not sure why the word “prejudiced” has since gone out of style.)

If I’m at a comedy club, I won’t be able to do that. I guess I could “say something” by blogging about it later. But that’s not the same. Add in the total lack of elbow room, and that sounds like a terrible night out all around. (Ooh, how can I pay money for that and also a two-drink minimum! Sign me up!) And I’m not the only one who thinks so.

I once performed in a benefit show for a YWCA that worked with victims of domestic violence. We did this in a basement somewhere. I think there were folding chairs and bowls of tortilla chips. All the comics were women, and the show was attended almost entirely by the staff at the YWCA, all of whom were women, and mostly women of color.

And we, the comics, heard repeatedly: “I didn’t think I could ever go see comedy,” or “I didn’t know comedy could be like this.” By “this,” the speaker meant “funny to women who don’t think violence against women is funny.” By which I mean: funny.

As society wakes up to the fact that white male experience and tastes are not universal, I imagine we will begin to develop stereotypes about white male comedy.

One prominent swath of white men’s comedy falls into the, “If you can take a dick, you can take a joke, lady” category. In 2012, Daniel Tosh called out a woman in the crowd with, “Wouldn’t it be funny if that girl got raped by like, five guys right now? Like right now? What if a bunch of guys just raped her….” There was a minor outcry, at least on women’s blogs. The owner of the club where this had taken place remarked, “If you don’t want to get insulted don’t go to comedy clubs.”

If you’re a white man doing comedy, you’re welcome to try to change this perception by doing better comedy. In the future, when people write articles on the topic “Are White Men Funny?”, we will all be able to cite your hilarious, anti-sexist, anti-racist comedy as proof that white men can indeed be funny.

You can’t have it both ways. Either we need more diversity in comedy, or you are a white man making white men’s comedy. Pick one.