Here are some photos of Jerry Lewis at the TCL Chinese Theater (formerly Grauman’s), doing his hand and footprint ceremony. Quentin Tarantino was on hand to introduce Jerry. I’m sort of surprised Sean Hayes wasn’t there too, because Hayes played Lewis in a TV movie (and Hayes played him brilliantly). Lewis is 88 years old, and I’m sort of surprised he’s never had a handprint ceremony before. Anyone else surprised? His career is crazy-long. He has survived almost all of the actors and comedians in his age group.
Anyway, a few years ago, Lewis said some not-so-nice things about lady comedians. In the 1990s, Lewis complained about women in comedy, saying something about how women grow life in their wombs, thus they can’t do comedy or something. Then last year, he said he “didn’t have any” favorite women comedians and “I can’t see women doing that. It bothers me. I cannot sit and watch a lady diminish her qualities to the lowest common denominator. I just can’t do that.” So, during his TCL Chinese Theater event, he was asked about it again. This was his “clarification”:
Jerry Lewis says women are funny, but not as crude standup comics. The 88-year-old entertainer was criticized for expressing his distaste for female comedians a few years ago, but in clarifying his comments, he called Lucille Ball “brilliant” and said Carol Burnett is “the greatest female entrepreneur of comedy.”
Ball “went to the lowest level of the barrel, and she was brilliant because of it,” Lewis said Saturday after leaving his hand and footprints in cement outside Hollywood’s Chinese Theatre.
“Seeing a woman project the kind of aggression that you have to project as a comic just rubs me wrong. And they’re funny — I mean you got some very, very funny people that do beautiful work — but I have a problem with the lady up there that’s going to give birth to a child — which is a miracle,” Lewis said. “But when you have women like Carol Burnett, that’s the greatest female entrepreneur of comedy. I just saw Carol at the Smith Center at home in Vegas, and I was stunned by how brilliant she is and how brilliantly she brings the audience right up to her.”
I mean… he’s 88 years old. I hardly think his views represent the broader public, although there are probably more old dudes like him in Hollywood, running the studios. Maybe I’m having a brain fart (Jerry Lewis judges me for typing that), but I just don’t understand how “women can have babies” somehow equals “women can’t be brass or obscene or funny.” What does one thing have to do with the other? I guess if I really try to put myself in his shoes, he’s trying (and failing miserably) to say that he puts women on a pedestal and he hates it when they voluntarily hop off that pedestal to tell a dirty dong joke. Still… it doesn’t make much sense. It’s like being mad at women for making their own career choices…?
Photos courtesy of Fame/Flynet.
*pats Lewis’ hand reassuringly*
There there, dear, stfu.
*pours more tea*
Perfect response. He’s so very very not worth it at this point.
Yes, dear…pat…pat…women can’t do comedy because they are pure vessels that bear children…pat…pat…just like you shouldn’t do comedy because you’re not funny…look, Dame Snarkweek brought you a biscuit….
GNAT
You made me sputter. Ridiculous of me to have read this while *actually* drinking tea. Snark karma? Lol.
Had he ever seen a baby being born? Dude, us ladies be gross AND miracle makers.
It strikes me as a refined Madonna/Whore argument. Women are supposed to be pure and delicate and graceful. Eff that noise Jerry.
Humor is so subjective. I’m tired of general statements on what jokes are funny, which gender is funnier, etc. I’ve never found Jerry Lewis funny despite being French (he’s a icon here, weirdly), and I find gross-out humor boring in men and in women.
As long as someone makes you laugh, it’s all good. Otherwise, you’re probably depressed so find a good doctor.
Interesting. I always wondered why he was so popular in France. I never found him funny in the least. (I’m American). I thought maybe his humor translated better there.
Chère Sara,
ne t’y mets pas toi aussi…personne ne trouve Jerry Lewis drôle en France…depuis les années 60-70; c’est juste ce que pensent certains américains et je me demande bien pourquoi.
Because we have always been told he was wildly popular in France. I wonder why as well.
So what I take from this is that he thinks women can be funny but not raunchy? That’s his opinion, I feel differently.
I think he is just old as f— and so his comprehension of what a women “should” be is stuck in an other era…the guy was born in the beginning of the last century for christ’sake
I guess he never met my great grandmother–who died at 98 two years ago. Looking at her, you would think that she was a prim and proper housewife, who raised eight children, in a strict, Catholic household–at least that was what her eldest daughter wanted us to think at her funeral.
If you really knew her, then you’d know that she raised eight children, liked to drink beer every day (she said it was what kept her living so long) and LOVED to go out drinking with her girlfriends on the weekends. And guess what? She was married to a man who never, ever diminished her, because she was a woman, and the only condition he had about her drinking was that she didn’t drive afterwards…..
your great grandmother seemed like she was truely someone! what an inspiration!
But yeah he seemed like he never met someone as truely inspirational like your great-grandmother!
Yes, Jerry Lewis is an old fart. Next.
Congrats to Jerry …however, I was never a fan…his silly, idiot humor just never made me laugh…give me Carol Burnett, Joan Rivers, Totie Fields, Lucille Ball, Roseanne Barr, Erma Bombeck, Wanda Sykes, Tina Fey, Amy Pohler, Kirsten Wiig, etc. The list of brilliant female comedians is endless, and yes, we can make people laugh AND bring life into the world…SUCK ON THAT JERRY!
Agree with all of this 100%.
and women collectively care about this old fart’s opinion because…?
WTH? Whatever… Ok Grandpa Jerry, tell us again about walking to school… in the snow… uphill… both ways…
And I still think his opinion doesn’t matter.
I still remember as a child in the very early 80’s, women not being allowed in the fire stations. And once they were, it was only as nurses doing EMT & paramedic work.
His thoughts aren’t antique. But I am bias. He’s my first childhood crush.
@Dame Snarkweek
*pats Lewis’ hand reassuringly*
There there, dear, sthu.
*pours more tea*
That cracked me up. That’s exactly something Carol Burnett would say. (except I had to replace the f with and h for Jerry’s sake. *wink)
You’re awesome 🙂
Never found him funny at all. Either sex can be very funny or not funny. What I don’t find funny is excessive gross out humour
Female comedians can be extremely raunchy, so I don’t understand his point.
Females, as a gender, can be raunchy.
I think what Jerry is saying is that women can only be Madonnas or whores. Madonnas aren’t allowed to be raunchy and whores should just shut their mouths.
Same old same old.
I think he thinks he’s giving women a compliment with by putting them on a pedestal because they can bear children. The problem with that is then any woman who doesn’t live up to his idea of how pure vessels of childbirth should behave is doing something “wrong” in his eyes. It’s just another way of holding women back. We’re too sweet, too pure, too delicate, too emotional to do what he does every day. We should stay in our soft, pretty, safe little place.
Suck it, Lewis. I hope I said that in a ladylike manner.
you totally did ! 😉
I love his early movies. But, once he started trying to do more serious roles he was painful to watch. He was best as a sidekick with his leg in the air and a confused look on his face.
*Nice booties*
Does he have kids? Because I can promise him that childbirth (that “miracle”) and humour are not mutually exclusive. Your little miracle emerges in a puddle of filth, and you probably pooped while delivering him – most of the women I know did. And if you can’t find the humour in a baby – constant slapstick, gunge, poop, spew – then you aren’t going to last long as a parent.
I held my baby over my head, playing at flying. She spewed milk in my mouth. It was simultaneously gross and hysterical and she found it as funny as I did. That’s comedy, Jerry.
I propose he’s locked in a room with Chelsea Handler and the best man wins.
I was still a fan until I read this write-up of one of his recent shows where he was bitter and mean and showed a profound lack of grace when dealing with his fans, who came because they ADORED him.
http://www.vice.com/read/jerry-lewis-is-still-alive
Very, very sad. 🙁
The author and Jerry seem like a match made in heaven, imo.
Now I really want to clog his mailbox with links to Jenna Marbles videos, especially the ones where she yells, Show me your dick! Actually, please don’t!
When I read statements like these it makes me very grateful that I was born in 1972 instead of 1932 (or 1922, etc). It’s crazy to think that he was one of the biggest comedians of the 1950’s and 1960’s. He’s a product of his era. Thankfully attitudes towards women have changed since his heyday!