The League of Extraordinarily Funny Women ― 50 Trailblazers of Comedy

A celebration of the most groundbreaking women in comedy who used humor to shake up the status quo and change perceptions of gender and comedy forever.


Step aside, Seinfeld. It's time for the brave, hilarious women of comedy to finally get the recognition they deserve. The people who say women aren't funny are actually saying something else: that humor in the hands of women is radical and scary. Nevertheless, women have persisted for generations now, deploying their wit in game-changing ways. The League of Extraordinarily Funny Women is a beautifully illustrated book that showcases fifty women -- past and present -- who use humor to deliver cutting social commentary, tangle with sensitive subjects, challenge traditional ideas about femininity, and, above all, do anything but sit still and stay quiet when laughs are on the line.

The result is a sisterhood of empowering and often under-recognized figures who have gone on to become standups, writers, and actresses, including Mae West, Lucille Ball, Gilda Radner, Tina Fey, Amy Sedaris, Wanda Sykes, Ellen DeGeneres, Mindy Kaling, Jessica Williams, and many more.

Sheila Moeschen, PhD, is a Boston-based gender and pop culture writer with a doctorate in gender and theater studies. She has played an active role behind the scenes at the Women in Comedy Festival since its launch in 2009. She is the author of Acts of Conspicuous Compassion: Performance Culture and American Charity Practices and her work has appeared on the Huffington Post, I AM THAT GIRL, RYOT, Red Line Roots, and Feminine Collective. Sheila has been a featured contributor on NPR and on Trailblazers with Walter Isaacson.