Beaten to the Punch Line

Maria Bamford, above, a California-based comedian, says the unspoken rule of having no more than one female comic on a bill is "a prejudicial hiring practice." Comics such as Lisa Lampanelli, left, and Sarah Silverman, right, have taken a more male-oriented approach to their acts. (By Marsaili Mcgrath -- Getty Images)

Comedy Central, perhaps the most reliable outlet for stand-up talent on TV, isn't a much better place for women, either. That's primarily because Comedy Central's target audience is young men, and young men generally have been shown to prefer an edgy, sometimes crude style of humor -- in other words, the humor that male comics are more likely to produce. An early Comedy Central hit was, indeed, "The Man Show."

Over the years, Comedy Central's breakout stars have been such men as Dave Chappelle, Stewart, Colbert, Lewis Black, Steve Carell, Dave Attell and Carlos Mencia. The network was also instrumental in promoting the career of Dane Cook, possibly the hottest stand-up comic of the past few years.

"In all of the programming we do, we're always looking for something original and innovative," says Lauren Corrao, who heads original programming and development for Comedy Central. "But at the same time, it has to be provocative and edgy. That doesn't preclude a woman. It's just more of a male style of comedy."

Comedy Central's newest star is Sarah Silverman, whose self-named sitcom was so popular in its short run this past winter that it has been renewed for a second season this fall.

Silverman's shtick is to play broadly against type. Sweet and innocent in manner, kewpie-doll adorable in appearance, Silverman specializes in unexpectedly outrageous situations and utterly shocking observations. During the show's debut season, for example, Silverman scoffed at dying children, sneered at a wheelchair race and had a sexual relationship with God.

Yep, crude and earthy -- in traditional comedy terms, more like a man than many men.

That's been Lampanelli's ticket, too. The 45-year-old comic is often billed as a female Don Rickles, who ridicules just about every ethnic and racial group in her act (her 2002 concert DVD is titled "The Queen of Mean"). She can be particularly savage toward women, typically referring to them by a crude word for a certain part of the female anatomy.

Her "tough-broad" persona is starting to pick up a wide following. Lampanelli's stand-up special on Comedy Central in January was third highest-rated in the network's history, after a special featuring the four "Blue Collar" stand-up comedians and another special starring George Lopez.

Lampanelli says fewer women succeed at comedy these days because of their material. She faults other women for staying with safe and predictable subject matter: shopping, PMS and "their Coach bag collection."

"I push the envelope all the time," Lampanelli says. "Most guys can't get away with what I do. I get away with it because people like me. I'm lovable. I'm not angry. Well, we should push it. We're not senators. We're comics."

Ah, that crude thing again. Yes, men love it, Lampanelli says: "Men respond to my kind of comedy." In true Lampanelli fashion, she adds, "If a guy wants to hear a yapping bitch, he'll just stay home with his wife."

Appealing to the male sense of humor might not be just shtick; it's practically an economic strategy. Lampanelli, who has graduated from clubs to playing bigger theaters, notes that fans of stand-up comedy tend to be male. "Women aren't buying the tickets," she says. "It's the men, really the men who are 18 to 39, who are spending the money at the clubs."

But vulgar isn't for everyone, says Allyson Jaffe, manager and part owner of the D.C. Improv, the city's premier comedy club. Although acknowledging that female comics do have to combat audience expectations that they will present predictable "female" material, she says the best performers -- male or female -- have a universal appeal.

Jaffe cites a comedy-club veteran such as Kathleen Madigan: "A man or a woman could say what she does and it would be funny.

"It doesn't matter what sex she is. It's just funny."