Defending Adam Carolla (A Losing Proposition)

I know that too much time has passed to reasonably comment on the "Adam Carolla is sexist allegations." But, I feel compelled to anyway.

Full disclosure, I would consider myself a fan of Carolla. His podcast is in regular rotation on my long walks to class or commutes to work and I find him to be occasionally hilarious, often thought-provoking, and sometimes any number of "ists."

Carolla exists in an interesting comedic space. He's a lifelong Angeleno from a blue-collar background who decided to take some classes with the Groundlings and eventually found himself hosting several different television and radio programs, often with Jimmy Kimmel. His podcast is the most downloaded on iTunes and he has guests from every spectrum on, and -- for the most part -- treats them with respect.

His working-class roots show through in his show. He often pontificates on things like race, gender, and class with a level of temerity and certainty that you'd be unlikely to find from anyone who has spent substantial time in liberal arts courses. Any subject where my first statement would be, "Well, it's a nuanced situation..." is expounded on with unassailable confidence by Carolla. He shines a light on unpleasant truths, like the breakdown of the Black family structure, the notion that AIDS is an "equal-opportunity killer," and the contemporary American tendency to obsess over non-issues like peanut allergies, second-hand smoke, and the barbarism of sports.

All of this seems out of place in the relatively learned echelons of popular comedy which is, for the most part, occupied by neurotic, left-leaning folks who take pride in being somewhat enlightened.

Which would make one think that these sorts of people would be turned off by Carolla, but that doesn't seem to be the case. Almost every comic that I like (and some that I don't) have stopped by his show and interacted well with him. From Aisha Tyler to Patton Oswalt to comedy pariahs like Carlos Mencia -- Carolla hosts everyone and they all get along.

I can only think of three instances where a guest appeared uncomfortable on the show.

On a recent live episode with Wyatt Cenac in New York, Carolla aimed a few racially tinged jokes his Cenac's way, and Cenac seemed to stiffen.

Ira Glass once got a little standoffish about the fact that Carolla had been awarded the Guinness record for most downloaded podcast, but even he seemed to enjoy the change of pace from This American Life.

Lastly, Ben Schwartz lampshaded Carolla's tendency to refer to Adam Carolla Show newsgirl Alison Rosen as "babydoll," (which makes me cringe as well) but Rosen doesn't appear to mind and Schwartz played along after he pointed it out, referring to Rosen as "babydoll" himself.

What I'm trying to say is, I find it odd that there exists this perception of Carolla as some sort of neanderthal on the fringes of comedy, when he seems to get along swimmingly with most other comics.

I posit instead, that Carolla is subject to so much backlash because critics and comedy fans have deemed his humor "the wrong kind of comedy."

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Let's examine this most recent kerfuffle.

On June 16, Carolla did an interview with the New York Post where he made the following statements.

The lesson you learned from a sexual harassment seminar was “Don’t hire chicks.” Do you hate working with women?

No. But they make you hire a certain number of chicks, and they’re always the least funny on the writing staff. The reason why you know more funny dudes than funny chicks is that dudes are funnier than chicks. If my daughter has a mediocre sense of humor, I’m just gonna tell her, “Be a staff writer for a sitcom. Because they’ll have to hire you, they can’t really fire you, and you don’t have to produce that much. It’ll be awesome.”

The interviewer followed up.

The “are women funny” debate has grown very contentious. You’re not worried about reactions to this?

I don’t care. When you’re picking a basketball team, you’ll take the brother over the guy with the yarmulke. Why? Because you’re playing the odds. When it comes to comedy, of course there’s Sarah Silverman, Tina Fey, Kathy Griffin — super-funny chicks. But if you’re playing the odds? No. If Joy Behar or Sherri Shepherd was a dude, they’d be off TV. They’re not funny enough for dudes. What if Roseanne Barr was a dude? Think we’d know who she was? Honestly.

Obviously, Carolla is painting with a very very broad brush, but it helps to illustrate my point. His thesis should have been, "You know more funny dudes than chicks." Now, this is empirically unprovable, but I'm comfortable saying that I am familiar with more men who make me laugh than women. Instead of jumping to the conclusion that men are therefore inherently funnier than women, it behooves us to examine why Carolla and I find that there are more funny men than women.

The easiest answer is that comedy is subjective, and Carolla's tastes tend toward male comics. Another, less comfortable (but I think possibly more true) answer is that men feel a societal pressure to be funny that is not as strongly impressed on women. Lastly, of course, we can't forget that existing societal structures may make it more difficult for women to find an outlet for their comedic voices. (Although, in the age of the internet, this is less of a concern).

The interviewer's assertion that there is an "are women funny debate" is ridiculous, of course funny women exist. Carolla himself lists three. I may be shooting myself in the leg here, but Tucker Max of all people had a reasoned take on this at HuffPo.

So this interview, which certainly doesn't reflect highly on Carolla, has comedy nerds and the media up in arms. A Google News search for "Adam Carolla Sexist" turns in 86 results. The majority of which have some play on him being either unfunny or the chauvinistic clown from The Man Show, or it just provides a list of successful, funny women.

The first two characterizations are baseless, sheer numbers attest to the fact that someone finds Carolla funny, and the second accusation has no legs since The Man Show was largely a tongue-in-cheek send up of masculine stereotypes.

The third response is valid, if patronizing. If anything, it just makes the concept of a funny woman seem more remarkable. Let's also not forget that successful, "funny" women have subjected us to three different Chelsea Handler vehicles and two Whitney Cummings atrocities, which do a pretty decent job of setting female comics back all on their lonesome.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

To get back to my larger point, these critics appear to be attacking Carolla because he traffics in the "wrong kind of comedy."

The modern comedy fan is cultured. He or she listens to Marc Maron's podcast and supports Louis C.K and Aziz Ansari's independent comedy releases. They watched Arrested Development before it was cancelled. If he or she is as cool as me, they may have this spectacular Bill Murray print.

Comedy is for people with degrees that love Dr. Who and their iPhones, not former carpenters from the Valley. I bet Carolla hasn't even read A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius!

It's the same level of entitlement one finds in the AV Club comments section whenever the site deigns to review an episode of Workaholics. (Which honestly perplexes me. The Mail Order Comedy guys are clearly comedy nerds like everyone in that comment section aspires to be, and yet they are lampooned for being "bros").

Carolla might be a dick, and he might be backward, but that doesn't mean you need to go around white knighting for females everywhere. If they're funny enough they'll prove it without your help.

I'm tired of it, you guys. People can be funny without being your cup of tea. Stop using someone else's words to prove how enlightened and comedy-forward you are. You're ruining it for everyone else.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have to go talk about what an asshole Dane Cook is.

BONUS

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Hold on, I just found this EW story that demands an FJM-ing. (Fire Joe Morganing, for those of you not in the online sports-comedy know).

Adam Carolla just turned the tables on himself. The funnyman became the laughingstock today after word got out that he told The New York Post that female comedy writers were usually the least funny people in the room. "The reason why you know more funny dudes than funny chicks is that dudes are funnier than chicks," Carolla cracked while promoting his new book, Not Taco Bell Material. Given a chance to, er, explain, he continued: "When you're picking a basketball team, you'll take the brother over the guy with the yarmulke. Why? Because you're playing the odds. When it comes to comedy, of course there's Sarah Silverman, Tina Fey, Kathy Griffin—super-funny chicks. But if you're playing the odds? No."

Leaving the other problems with that statement by the wayside for now, let us introduce Carolla to a whole bunch of funny people, dudes and chicks alike... 

"Wait, Adam Carolla, is he the one who did the voice of the parrot in Aladdin??? He makes me giggle," tweeted Girls creator and star Lena Dunham.

This is not funny, and Girls is a terrible, self-indulgent show.

"Currently collating today's 50,000 Twitter jokes about Adam Carolla by gender. Should be able to settle this shortly," noted record-setting Jeopardy! champ Ken Jennings.

Not a dig at Carolla, but a decent joke. Ken Jennings is pretty clever and worth a Twitter follow.

"The biggest impact this whole Adam Carolla scandal has had is discovering 95% of people have no idea how to spell 'Carolla,'" tweeted writer and comedienne Jenny Johnson.

Jenny Johnson is pretty funny as well, once again, this isn't a dig at Carolla.

"Thank you, Adam Corolla. Your terribleness gives all of us the opportunity to scream how NOT TERRIBLE we are!! YAY!" added Chappelle's Show cocreator Neal Brennan, who perhaps unintentionally proved Johnson's point as well.

Brennan appears to be taking Carolla's side right here by trying to do what I'm doing with this blog in >140 characters.

MORE: Christina Applegate in Anchorman Sequel: "She Will Be Back," Predicts Producer Judd Apatow; Miley Cyrus Wows in Sheer Top; Jessica Simpson's Super Low-Cut Top

These are other stories that I accidentally copy and pasted into here. I'm glad EW is here to protect us from sexism.

 And the tweets from assorted actors, comedians and writers went on:

John Ross Bowie: "Adam Carolla saying women aren't funny is like cancer saying women aren't funny."

Danielle Corsetto: "In an ironic twist, 'women aren't funny' ranked number one funniest thing Adam Carolla has ever said."

Dave Holmes: "Why are we ruining our perfect not caring what Adam Carolla thinks streak?"

I don't know who these people are.

Kelly Oxford: "You know what Adam Carolla said about women not being funny is bull, at a party last week I made him laugh three goddamn times."

Molly McAleer: "I don't take Adam Carolla saying women aren't funny seriously. He once told a caller on Loveline to eat a used tampon, y'know?"

Morgan Murphy: "lets all stop being sexist and just admit that PEOPLE aren't funny." 

Lauren Ashley Bishop: "adam who?"

I don't know who these people are.

Carolla had a fleeting chance to not be the object of quite as much scorn, but he only dug the hole deeper on The Talk this morning. Asked by Sara Gilbert how he feels about gay people, he said, "That's dangerous—not being gay! Listen, I wish more people were gay. If you've driven over to the gay section of Los Angeles, it's like a golf course...Real estate values go boom!" But then the former Man Show host acknowledged making cracks about gay people in his comedy routines, saying, "Nice doesn't get laughs, especially on stage, that's what I'm saying...When did we start holding comedians up to the level of politicians and school teachers? We're comedians. We're supposed to say these things."

Perez Hilton, who was also a guest on The Talk today, tweeted: "Ugh. Adam Carolla is attempting to explain his homophobic jokes and failing miserably."

Perez Hilton draws penises on people for a living.