The Best of the Women - Wanda and Janeane

I would like to start this blog off with an under appreciated comedian that we have discussed in class. Out of all six or seven females we looked at this week, Wanda Sykes deserves a round of applause. She ousted her counterparts during Monday’s class. To that point in the class all the females we looked at were bad, to say the least. The crickets in the room quickly vanished when Wanda was turned on. The week’s focus was on style, timing, and appearance and Wanda had it all. She is a well-dressed black female, and she acted the part to a T. Her jokes were appropriate for her appearance and her language was synonymous with her act. I really enjoyed her feminist form contrasted with her aggressive male style. Her timing was almost too good. Joke and joke, she probably had twice as many punch lines as Margaret Cho earlier in class. She didn’t pause on stage and she knew her stuff. I congratulate Miss Sykes on her raw jokes in conjunction with well executed punch lines.
For me, the best comedian we saw on Wednesday was the young and beautiful Janene Garofalo. For the most part, her appearance matched her comedic style. Her tom-boy attire made her jokes seem more masculine to me. I hope I speak for the guys when I saw she was a man’s woman. Not in the attractive sexual way, more the association between the sexes. Her offensive aggressive jokes were much more appropriate coming from her than coming from Nora Lynch. Janene's overarching theme was a sort of resistance to society. We discussed this briefly in class, but I think that it the best way to say it. Most of her jokes marketed to men, but they also dealt with society at her time (mid 80’s?). The funniest joke I can remember was her sarcastic criticism of the all-versatile Steven Segal.
As for the best of the rest, Caroline Ray had some pretty smart jokes. Her skit started rough and once she got into her groove the punch lines kept on coming. I enjoyed her short satire of contraceptive devices (more specifically, the use of sponges).