America's highest paid comedians in 2018 were all either dudes, or dudes holding puppets
Forbes released its annual list of the top-ten highest-paid comedians in America this week, and it turned out to be another good year for those two most highly relevant of cultural demographics: Dudes, and dudes who stick their hands up puppets’ butts and make them talk. The list—topped, as usual, by Jerry Seinfeld, who brought in $57.5 million this year—contained zero women, of course, but two different ventriloquists: Jeff Dunham ($16.5 million) and Terry Fator ($18 million). We’re not mathemagicians or anything, but we’re pretty sure that means America values Dunham holding up a racist chili pepper on a stick infinitely more than it does the planet’s funniest women—twice.
Said puppet-bias was pointed out online by headliner Kathy Griffin, who noted that, in a year where Hannah Gadsby, Ali Wong, Cameron Esposito, and more all had amazing specials, not a single woman made the list. (That’s a step down from 2017, when a whopping single female comedian, Amy Schumer, rated consideration.) Kevin Hart came in second, which might explain why he was so quick to walk away from his Oscars money, while Dave Chappelle quietly strolled into third. At least Louis CK didn’t manage to somehow worm his way into the rankings, but that’s probably cold comfort to the wide swathe of women comics receiving a reminder of how little their work is valued, relative to their male/felt colleagues.