Hysterical is a fantastic documentary about women in stand up comedy.
Some of the strongest, funniest, edgiest women in comedy got together and talked about their lives on the road, making people laugh and the challenges they’ve faced during the climb.
You might think you’ve seen this before, a group of women lamenting the struggle with no end in sight raising awareness about what they’ve been through on the journey.
This isn’t that.
Yes, Hysterical details the struggle of women in comedy, but it also calls out the abject insanity of the misogynistic point of view that has permeated comedy for a long time. “Women aren’t funny.”
Nonsense.
It was always nonsense.
You are reading the words of a man who used to listen to Phyllis Diller on vinyl as a kid.
She was funny then, she’s funny now.
Hysterical honors the pioneers of women in comedy in a real way, educating us about the women who paved the road.
Hysterical is also about empowerment and transformation.
Empowerment comes in the women of comedy lifting each other up, producing women only shows and smashing the booker’s mentality that they can’t have women back to back on a lineup. Transformation is demonstrated as the film moves forward and you begin to see the power the top women in comedy are beginning to wield.
One of the fascinating parts of this film highlights Lisa Lampanelli’s journey from a comic who did really edgy racial material to someone who walked away from comedy and has built a new career in self help. Comedy and trauma have always gone hand in hand and I found it really fascinating that in processing their own trauma several of the women in Hysterical discussed using their power and platform to help others through difficult times.
This is a film by women, about women for everyone who is a fan of comedy. There wasn’t one negative segment or comment, but there were definitely a couple of conspicuous absences that made me wonder why they weren’t included. Sarah Silverman was not included in any of the commentaries or archival clips and aside from a jump cut during a montage, it was like she didn’t exist. I thought this was weird.
The other real conspicuous absence was Robin Quivers.
While Robin isn’t a traditional stand up, she has been the emotional anchor and moral center of one of the longest running comedic duos of all time. Howard Stern lives throughout this documentary because a lot of the women highlighted were regular if not frequent guests of the Howard Stern show and there were numerous clips from the show. I think her perspective would have been valuable. This is a little inside baseball, but Jess Kirson, one of the producers of the film and a brilliant stand up, has done work for the Stern show for a long time, so getting access to Robin was certainly within her grasp. Be that as it may, these are more just curious thoughts than criticisms of any kind.
This is not a stand up film. While there are little clips and bits of the stand up content interspersed throughout the film, the power in this documentary is the women talking about their experiences and how they feel about the direction of female comedy. Luckily for us, these are some very funny people so the way they approach the subject is fun and amusing.
This is a fantastic documentary from beginning to end and it details the emerging power of women in comedy while honoring the trailblazers that helped make it possible.
4.5 out of 5 stars
* * * * *
Produced by Ross Dinerstein, Rebecca Evans, Carolina Groppa
Directed by Andrea Nevins
Featuring Kelly Bachman, Margaret Cho, Fortune Feimster, Rachel Feinstein,
Marina Franklin, Nikki Glaser, Judy Gold, Kathy Griffin, Jessica Kirson, Lisa Lampanelli,
Wendy Liebman, Carmen Lynch, Bonnie McFarlane, Sherri Shepherd and Iliza Shlesinger
