Funny Looking

This is a blog about style, but it's also a blog about things that I find funny.

My friend Camille recommended that I check out a book by Mindy Kaling, the actress from The Office who plays Kelly. I didn't know who Mindy Kaling was, so I looked her up and found her website, where I stumbled upon this post about funny women and their looks.

Of course, the lady is on to something. Really good looking people are supposed to be too preoccupied with their looks to crack jokes, and people cracking jokes are supposed to be too funny to care about their looks. This is especially true for women. So, I made this list. I'm going to steal a line here from the movie Clerks - these rules aren't broad generalizations, but rather generalizations about broads!

The Funny Looking Rules for Women

1. As a woman, if you want to be taken seriously at being funny, then you can't be too attractive.

2. If you are attractive, make sure that everyone perceives you as incidentally attractive. This is because good looks distract from your sense of humor. Looking good is for pageant queens, not comedians!

3. If you're not so good looking, be sure to point out your physical flaws and mock them whenever you can.

Lookin' good but not too good: Tina Fey.

4. Whether you're a looker or not, anticipate critiques of your body, and always be the first to say that you're a fat ho with Cro-Magnon hands! This is something that Tina Fey does, and also Amy Sedaris, and look how successful at being funny they are! 

5. Never be serious about being sexy. If you're just a few crumbs away from being a total sex muffin, joke that you used to be a gargoyle before the prosthetics.

6. Make fun of female beauty routines. Be sure to mock your own weekly eyebrow thread/Brazilian wax/mani n' pedi.

7. It's a challenge to ride the wave of social acceptability, meet the beauty quotient, and be funny all at the same time! Just remember, ladies, you gotta take some hard knocks when you want to succeed in comedy.

Looks aside, I love books by funny women. I once read the entirety of Tina Fey's Bossypants in a Barnes & Noble's. I didn't buy it, though, because I didn't want to cough up $25 for the hardback. (Sorry, Tina!) Amy Sedaris' cooking/entertaining book is a winner too. I once read it cover to cover while my friend was cleaning her apartment before a party. There's an irony there!

Treadin' the fine line between straight up sexy and comically sexy: Amy Sedaris.

And one of my favorite books by a funny woman is How To Catch A Man, How To Keep A Man, How To Get Rid Of A Man by Zsa Zsa Gabor. I found a copy of this book in a train station in Seattle, and it now holds a special spot in my book collection. The title sounds pretty dumb, but you'd be surprised!  Zsa Zsa is a clever and sharp-witted lady, and has some strong opinions - so you bet I'd invite her over for some gin and tonics!

Now who you callin' funny looking?