We’ve gathered some of the funniest and most relatable posts by women on X (formerly Twitter) that might make you chuckle. So get comfortable as you scroll through, upvote your favorites and be sure to share your own thoughts, feelings and experiences in the comments section below.
While women have been attempting to try their hands at comedy for as long as comedy has existed, unfortunately most ancient societies had a pretty dim view of female humor. The ancient Greeks, for all their literary and playwriting talent, would still use male actors for female roles.
Indeed, the common belief among ancient Greek men (which in some forms persists to this day) was that a woman’s sense of humor was based on her enjoyment of male jokes. However, they seemed to also be perfectly ok limiting a woman’s access to the stage to actually test this hypothesis, which might be pretty telling.
Part of the issue was that much of the paying power and thereby demand was skewed against female comedy. However, as women entered the workforce, they gained both the ability to “work” in comedy and to pay to consume it, like both arms of a set of bellows fanning a fire. By the 1920s, general demand for mass media, including comedy, finally gave some women the chance to shine.
However, let’s face it, it’s not like the media we consume is now a perfect and fair representation. In Hollywood, for example, there are roughly 2.24 male characters for every female character in all types of films, not just comedy. This same study also found that roughly only 30% of women's roles even involve speaking.
However, unlike the old, focus-group-worshiping executives deciding on who gets to star where, social media is a tad more democratic. Indeed, you don’t need to somehow try open mic after open mic, if you want a shot at comedy, you can simply make a post here and there and see what gains traction.
This is perhaps why, as of 2023, online comedy is popular among female comedians, with 92% of them using Instagram and 89% using Twitter. The internet is full of comedy gold, so perhaps take note of the posters who tickle your fancy and give them a follow.
Despite the clear and present evidence that women are, very regularly, funny, there still are sizable gender imbalances in comedy as well. UK comedy panel shows are, regularly, two thirds male, for example, limiting potential exposure for female comedians. The silver lining is that this is still a vast improvement from the 1980s, where women were just 3% of guests.
