Have you ever check out the “stand-up comedy” Wikipedia entry? If not, please do so. If so, you can probably agree it’s pretty fucked. Of the many problems, the biggest is the inclusion, or lack thereof, of female comedians. In the “United States history” section, not one female comedian is mentioned. To make it worse, here is the paltry “Female Stand-Ups” section:
You are correct, that isn’t how you spell “Janeane Garofalo.” This isn’t a “are women funny” issue; it’s an accurately accounting history issue. It portrays women’s contribution to comedy as “also some girls told jokes but it wasn’t a big deal or anything.” They shouldn’t get their own section, they should be as fit in the main entry. Joan Rivers had as much of an influence on Louis C.K. as she did on Sarah Silverman. She’s not a “women comedian,” she’s a comedian. Fortunately, Wikipedia was designed for the informed to make edits. You are the informed, so inform the robots and nerds who write Wikipedia. [Via]
UPDATE:
As you can see there are now way more female comedians listed, with correctly spelled names and everything. Still, there are no women in the Wikipedia entry for “United States history.” So, our new mission is to at least partially remedy this. I recommend two easy edits: 1) Put “Joan Rivers” before or after “Don Rickles” in that section and 2) in that sentence that reads, “These comedians would serve to influence the next generation of comedians, including,” throw a couple of choice names in there. And… break!
UPDATE #2:
The “Female Stand-Ups” section was removed. Something’s happening here, what it is isn’t exactly clear.
