My Female Bible is an incredibly popular Instagram account, as it has amassed an impressive 4.3 million followers through posting over 1,300 pics. The content is pretty straightforward: memes directed towards women. But as you’ll see from this list, many of these experiences are relatable for anyone who’s ever walked the planet or been in a relationship. Regardless of your gender, you’re welcome to enjoy these pics!
To learn more about why it’s important to center female voices in comedy, we reached out to Lynne Parker, Founder and CEO of Funny Women. Funny Women is an acclaimed non-profit community for women to build self-confidence and develop their own distinctive voice. Lynne describes it as her "life’s work," providing a safe, diverse, creative platform that empowers women to perform, write and use humor in business and everyday life.
First, we wanted to hear Lynne’s thoughts on why it’s important to have more women’s voices in comedy. “Back at the end of the last century when I asked a comedy promoter why he never booked any women, he told me that ‘women aren’t funny’ and ‘there are no funny women,’” she shared.
“I was working as a publicist for a comedy club at the time, and my knee jerk reaction was to prove the promoter wrong. I went on to create Funny Women, and now, over 20 years on, the need for a female and female-identifying safe space in comedy is more important than ever.”
“As recent news about the treatment of women in entertainment, medicine, football and more demonstrates, we are still subject to abuse and misogyny in the workspace, and this needs to be called out,” Lynne noted.
“Female comedy performers, writers and creators are at the forefront of popular culture and have a strong voice, so they will often be the first to speak up and say it like it is.”
But the comedy expert says Funny Women doesn’t focus specifically on catering to a female audience, as they’ve always had many men supporting and enjoying their shows as well.
“It should always be a case of ‘funny first’ regardless of gender, and Funny Women is there to ensure that as many women get to showcase their talent to the same audiences as their male counterparts,” Lynne explained.
“It’s more important to book shows to suit the location and demographic of an audience, and, without doing a comprehensive survey, comedy geared towards a female audience would probably include as many men as women.”
We also asked Lynne about any misconceptions about women in comedy she’d like to dispel. “The obvious and most annoying one!” she told Bored Panda. “Women ARE funny, as we have proven over the last 20 years. We’ve just had the final of the 2023 Funny Women Awards, and our Stage Award winner, Kate Cheka, is following in some pretty impressive footsteps.”
“Many of our Awards alumni have gone on to become ‘household names’ as performers, writers and broadcasters including Katherine Ryan, Sara Pascoe, Zoe Lyons, Susan Calman, Sarah Millican, Bridget Christie, Kerry Goldliman, London Hughes, Gemma Whelan, Sooz Kempner, Rachel Parris, Jayde Adams, Desiree Burch, Sindhu Vee and many more. Check out our impressive Hall of Fame.”
“Gender parity is vital,” Lynne added. “I’ve personally seen thousands of women performing and creating comedy over the last 20 years, so please don’t tell me that there aren’t any! Look what happened last time!"
And if any women out there are interested in getting into comedy, Lynne recommends getting involved with Funny Women. “There are so many opportunities both in person and online,” she shared. “As a non-profit community, we work very much at ‘grassroots’ encouraging women to get involved with comedy and use humor both professionally and personally. We run regular comedy workshops and courses, so do check out what’s coming up here.”
“Plus it’s really important to watch comedy, particularly live as it’s very different on the circuit to how it translates on television,” Lynne says. “We have lots in planning at the moment working with our community here in the UK, plus Dublin, Paris and Amsterdam.”
