5/21/2023 0 Comments We Killed by Yael KohenBut it’s been a remarkable trip, as the more than one hundred people interviewed for this riveting oral history make clear. Like all revolutions, it’s suffered false starts and backslides. There were battles to fight and preconceptions to shake before we could get to where we finally are: in a world where women (like Tina Fey, or, whether you like them or not, Sarah Silverman and Chelsea Handler) can be smart, attractive, sexually confident - and most of all, flat-out funny. The Sixties saw the appearance of smart, edgy comediennes (Elaine May, Lily Tomlin), and the women’s movement brought a new wave of radicals: the women of SNL, tough-ass stand-ups, and a more independent breed on TV (Mary Tyler Moore and her sisters). Joan Rivers and Phyllis Diller emerged as America’s favorite frustrated ladies the joke was always on them. We start in the 1950s, when comic success meant ridiculing and de-sexualizing yourself. In We Killed, Yael Kohen assembles America’s most prominent comediennes (and the writers, producers, nightclub owners, and colleagues who revolved around them) to piece together the revolution that happened to (and by) women in American comedy.
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