As Bridesmaids prepares to go head to head with The Hangover Part II, which is shaping up to look nowhere near as stellar as Part I, there is a rising question as to whether women can be as funny as men in movies. Do they have the same balls-out, funny or die tendencies, and can the “funny gal” ultimately draw the same box office cash and ride that wave as long and far as their male counterparts.
Funny women in movies are a no-brainer, they have been cracking us up since the moving picture began. They are queens at the subtle jibe; the smirking, snarky retort; the cutting, dry humor; or even flat out hilarious physical comedy, but mostly it’s about being funny and fun, yet still feminine and alluring. It would seem that only recently women have been free to do funny in a way that’s self-deprecating, real, honest, possibly unattractive, and, with a little more, well, testosterone than in the past. The question though, in all the gross out humor, does the realization that (gasp!) ladies have bodily functions and are just as spastic, clumsy, aggressive, and overt as any Seth Rogan or Adam Sandler make it difficult to retain the “heart” of the film? Continue reading