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While writing a preview of Paula Poundstone‘s upcoming D.C. stand-up gig for this week’s newspaper (full disclosure: I was kinda into to Poundstone as a kid, during my cat phase) I stumbled upon Maxim‘s list of the “Worst Comedians of all Time.” Of the 12 comics listed, six—-Judy Tenuta, Kathy Griffin, Sandra Bernhard, Margaret Cho, Whoopi Goldberg, and Poundstone—-are women. And I’m pretty sure it was deliberate.

First of all, all of these women are listed as less funny than Carlos Mencia, which we all know is impossible.

Second, Maxim rarely recognizes women as accomplishing anything other than being hot, so it’s a bit suspicious that the one time the magazine takes note of women who are actually successful at their jobs, it’s in the context of them sucking at them.

Third, why isn’t Dane Cook on this list? I’m so on to you guys!

Fourth, while devoting half of the list to female comedians may appear to level the playing field—-women are so successful at comedy now that we can point out when they’re unsuccessful at comedy!—-it’s still much more difficult for women to be taken seriously in the comedy business. So when Maxim picks six unfunny men, they’re picking from a pool of thousands of funny guys. When they pick six unfunny women, they’re choosing from a pool of, like, seven. Essentially, Maxim took a list of successful female comedians and changing the name to “Worst Comedians Ever,” because it’s easy.

Finally, while the men on Maxim’s list are criticized for making careers out of one-note comedic shticks—-Yakov Smirnoff does the “Communist” thing! Louie Anderson does the “fat” thing! Carlos Mencia does the “Mexican” thing!—-the women on the list are basically all derided for doing the “woman” thing (also, for being ugly). But Mencia isn’t not-funny because he’s Mexican-American, Anderson isn’t not-funny because he’s fat, and if you think these women aren’t funny, it’s not because they’re women. It’s more likely that you don’t find them funny because you are not a woman.

And that’s why Dane Cook isn’t on the list. Sure, he’s not funny, but at least he’s not-funny in a Regular White Dude Who Likes Chicks way, and not in a fat post-Communist Mexican woman way. The list, actually, is built entirely around the same terrible one-note jokes Maxim pretends to reject—-Kathy Griffin isn’t funny because she looks like a “gay man”! Sandra Bernhardt isn’t funny because she’s “ugly”! Margaret Cho isn’t funny because she talks about Korean shit!—-instead of the actual skill of the comedians. Just because Maxim readers aren’t into jokes about tampons or whatever doesn’t mean that the jokes suck. Similarly, targeting Maxim crowd—-making jokes about getting drunk, sexin’ hot chicks, and being a dick—-can be pretty unfunny as well.