This Is No Pity Party

We Killed: the rise of women in American comedy by Yael Kohen (Sarah Crichton Books, an imprint of Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2012).

Almost anybody who is, and was, anybody in the field has a say about the status of women in comedy in this anecdotal history.  While the choppy format is a bit annoying (a string of attributed vignettes), the stories and opinions from the 150 comics, writers, producers, actors, and critics, from Phyllis Diller to Chelsea Perretti, elicit anger and awe.  No one whines here or feels sorry for themselves. 

The book opens with a helpful "Cast of Characters," a list that identifies all the interviewees, both female and male, and their relationship to comedy.  Each chapter represents an era, starting with the 1960s and ending in 2011.  Interspersed among these chapters are sections that spotlight one outstanding person who changed the playing field:  Carol Burnett, Merrill Markoe, and Ellen DeGeneres.  While Elayne Boosler, Tina Fey, and Amy Poehler are discussed, but not interviewed, the most notable absence in these pages is that of Amy Schumer, whose thunderclap appearance on the scene happened just as this book was hitting the shelves.