Who do you think is the most influential female comedian of all-time?

[WI_DEM]

[Orsino]

1. Phyllis Diller broke the stand-up barrier, didn't she? n/t

[chaska]

2. Hey, you stole my answer. Mom's Mabley (sp?) too.

[mitchum]

3. She certainly did!

and that's why she gets my vote

[Az]

4. Lucy broke more barriers

Just saying.

[Xithras]

5. Lucille Ball by far.

Prior to Ball, television comedy was considered a mens game, and was fairly well off limits to women. Many people in television thought that it was simply inappropriate for a woman to do comedy until Ball turned the industry on its ear.

Her influence reached far beyond comedy, however. Prior to Ball, women were NEVER cast as the primary characters in television shows. They were always the wife, girlfriends, hostess, or dame waiting for rescue. The focus and story always revolved arount the man. CBS would never have cast her as a single woman, but her show was a huge step as the focus followed a female character, and the husband was simply a co-star.

Then there's the whole pregnancy thing. When Ball got pregnant with her first child, the studio wanted to throw her off the air. Similar things had happened with other female actresses, but Ball refused to cave and went to war. The studios insisted that ANYTHING that even HINTED at female sexuality was inappropriate for the airwaves...and yet men could be highly sexual without raising an eyebrow. She won her war, and in so doing established that "womens issues" had a place on TV and shouldn't be hidden away like some kind of shame.

Interestingly though, they never could call her "pregnant" on the show...they had to say that she was "expecting". The word pregnant was considered vulgar back then :)

[Orsino]

8. If the question hadn't specified "comedian"...

...I'd certainly have gone for Ms. Ball. She did great things for women in general, and was a wonderful comic actress.

[jbane]

6. I voted for Carol to help her numbers but it can only be Lucy.

I think Carol is second and everybody else is just that until one of them make a larger footprint. I think Ellen is on the upswing and Whoopi is fading.

[Catfight]

7. Rosanne Barr brought the woman out of the home into the spotlight. nt

[ohiosmith]

9. Joanne Worley

[SammyBlue]

10. Sadly, I wouldn't consider any of the ones up there funny

I really strain trying to come up with a comedienne at the level of Lenny Bruce, or Richard Pryor, or Eddie Murphy, George Carlin, Chris Rock or Bill Cosby.

[johnnie]

11. .

:popcorn:

[terrya]

12. You could add Margaret Cho to that list.

I'm just sayin'. :-)

[La Lioness Priyanka]

14. me too

[DrDan]

13. I voted for Lucy - but. . . . .

I don't find her at all funny

she was influential, however

[GoddessOfGuinness]

15. Gotta go with Lucy

She was phenomenal!