Shawn Levy has taken on an ambitious project, researching and writing about the pioneers of women’s stand-up comedy. In his author’s note, Levy says that while it may seem counterintuitive for a man to write about women comedians in this era of #MeToo, nobody else has done it, and because they are heroes, forging the way forward, performing for audiences that were frequently hostile. The result is in On the Joke, a well-researched book that tells the stories of the women that emerged from the vaudeville era to make history, roughly between the World War II era and Watergate.

My thanks go to Net Galley and Doubleday for the review copy. This book is for sale now.

There are eight chapters in this book, each dedicated to a particular type of comic. He starts with Moms Mabley, whom I had never heard of, and continues down the line with Totie Fields, Phyllis Diller, and several others, and ends with “The Scrapper,” Joan Rivers. I confess it was Rivers’ face on the cover that drew me to this historical work.

Levy has cut no corners, and the documentation is flawless; his style of reporting is conversational and written for a general readership. All told, he’s done a fine job here.

My only sorrow—and one that isn’t the author’s fault—is seeing what horrible things these women had to do to themselves in order to meet with success. One after another, women comics have mounted the stage, day after day, night after night, to make self-deprecating jokes, many of them downright vicious. They tell about how ugly they were as children, and how ugly they are now; they tear themselves apart like Christians diving voluntarily into the colosseum pit where the lions await. I expected to laugh my way through this thing, but most of the time I wanted to sit down and sob for these artists.

As I expected, my favorite among them is Rivers. Eventually she eased up somewhat on the self-attacks and began roasting other public figures. I saw some of her work when she was still alive, and at the time, I thought some of her jokes were too mean to be funny, but as Rivers pointed out to her critics, she always “punched up.” Using her well known catch phrase, “Can we tawk,” she eviscerated the most successful celebrities, politicians, and other newsworthy public figures, and a lot of her material was absolutely hilarious. In fact, I’d have finished reading and reviewing this book much sooner had I not kept setting it aside to watch old footage of her routines, as well as some of the others Levy covers.

If you are looking for a book to make you laugh your butt off, this isn’t that book, but it’s an excellent history of the women that paved the way for the likes of Gilda Radner, Tina Fey, Hannah Gadsby, and many others.
Recommended to feminists, and those interested in entertainment history.

The comedians profiled in Shawn Levy's In On the Joke are women whom I watched, often laughed with, and admired. Levy's introductory material, which I found to be the most useful part of the book, is very helpful in setting the context for readers, especially readers who did not share my experience. Having finished that introductory material I turned eagerly to the profiles, which for my taste are too long and surprisingly lacking in humor. I also found the endnote marking system very annoying and distracting; I would have preferred a numbering or lettering system rather than the string of various symbols that were used in the advanced readers copy. I hope that was changed before the book actually hit the sellers' shelves. In On the Joke is a rewarding read for people who seek in-depth information about the group of extremely talented and glass ceiling breaking women whom Levy has chosen to include in this volume.

This book was just not for me. I am not sure what I was expecting, but it wasn't this and as the book went on, I found myself bored and being reluctant to pick it up to read it. There were only two stories that I loved [Minnie Pearl and Phyllis Diller] and the rest just didn't work for me.

Thank you to NetGalley, Shawn Levy, and Doubleday Books for providing this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Short Bios of the Women Who Made Their Mark in Comedy

The author is a man, but he does an excellent job of highlighting the lives and struggles of the women who made their names in comedy. It wasn’t easy for any of them. From vaudeville to television, these women had to fight hard to compete in a male dominated area.

Many of the women were familiar. I loved Phyllis Diller and Joan Rivers. My father’s favorite was Minnie Pearl. I can still remember her with her hats. Besides a trip down memory lane, these short bios highlighted how committed the women were and had to be to succeed. The women had to fight for recognition not only from audiences but from agents, directors, male comedians, and often their own families.

Each chapter is an in depth biography. I thought the author did an excellent job of bringing each woman to life with her successes and failures alike. I enjoyed the book. It’s a good addition to the history of women’s success in the professions that were once closed to them.

I received this book from Penguin Random House for this review.

Eye-opening! Obviously, there has always been and likely will continue to be, sexism in anything once dominated by men. I was never aware of the bawdy, envelope-pushing women in comedy who came before my time, but I am very glad to know of them now. I truly enjoyed this book and will likely add it to my personal collection as well as for the library.

Author Shawn Levy's deep dive into these trailblazing women will be out everywhere on April 5, 2022. The publisher Doubleday Books allowed me to review an early galley for an honest review.

Growing up in the 1970's, I got the opportunity to experience several of the featured funny ladies in this book via television appearances. To me, they were very much part of what I considered mainstream. I never once thought about how they had to fight for their seat on the couch on the afternoon and evening talk shows. They just were always there.

Levy's book, however, gave me a much deeper education in how hard each and every one of them worked to blaze a trail in a field that was dominated by men for so long. His research is thorough and delivered in a manner that kept me engaged, moving from one chapter and one story to the next. I always appreciate when authors do their homework to give the readers all the pertinent details as was done here. I also learned about several performers who very much deserved to have a spotlight shone upon them.

Very much recommended for anyone who has a fascination with the history of comedy and entertainment.

Oh my goodness... Shawn Levy is right. These ladies are the QUEENS of Standup and I just had to read this book. I appreciated Levy's take on these women and blatantly saying that he realizes he is a white man writing about these women who of course are in their own realm. He does a wonderful job of writing a factual piece about each icon, but also inserting comedy here and there with dashes of their colorful personality that made us all fall in love with the comediennes in the first place. Each chapter built on the next and wove an amazing tale of the glass ceiling breaking with these amazingly funny ladies and what they've done within the comedy realm. I laughed with these ladies and with Mr Levy and found myself loving this book

I love this type of bio - a collection of short biographies following some sort of theme. The theme in this case was pioneering female comedians and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Most of the subjects were familiar to me from seeing them on TV during my late 60s - early 70s childhood, but I knew very little about their histories or personal lives. I particularly enjoyed the chapters on Minnie Pearl (my father was a huge fan of Hee Haw) and Totie Fields (a frequent flier on the Merv Griffin and Mike Douglas shows which were also staples of my childhood television). In all cases, though, the stories were interestingly and respectfully told.

Thanks to NetGalley for providing an ARC copy for my review.

In on the Joke is a well-researched set of biographies about the great female stand-up comedians. Each chapter is about a different person. Levy obviously did a lot of research, and the book is packed with information. The writing isn't captivating in itself, so it's not a good book to sit down and breeze through. One unfortunate thing about the book's setup is the chapters in the index don't indicate who is featured in which chapter. If you want to read about a specific person, you have to read the first couple paragraphs of each chapter until you get to the right one. Hopefully, this is only the case for the early ARC.

I really enjoyed one of Levy's other books, so I grabbed this. And was glad I did.

Levy says right up front that he is aware of being a white man writing about women, in particular, non-white women, but the paucity of work out there covering these women inspired him to take it on. Then he squarely into the background as he presents the facts, quoting each woman plentifully in order to let her speak for herself. I got little sense of "mansplaining" as he outlined the life of Moms Mabley in particular, who was a real groundbreaker, moving from the rough world of Vaudeville to mainstream in spite of being Black.

Solid research, an enjoyable style, and excellent choices of women who paved the way for women in standup, made this an excellent read.

Women in comedy did not begin and end with Amy Poehler and Tina Fey! As annoying as it is that even now, people are asking “can women be funny?” Shawn Levy’s “In on the Joke: The Original Queens of Standup Comedy” provides ample proof that not only ARE women funny, they have been for quite some time!
A thoroughly researched history of the lives and careers of funny women such as Moms Mabley, Rusty Warren, Belle Barth, Elaine May, Phyllis Diller, and Joan Rivers, each chapter of “In on the Joke” builds on the next, showing how the highlighted woman broke in, found success, and paved the way for the next. Even for the women that I knew about before reading this book (Joan Rivers, Elaine Mays) the author goes into deep details that I’d never heard of before, that shine a light on their unique situations and points of view.
If you are a comedy nerd, history buff, or just a fan of awesome women, I’d recommend this book. While I received an ARC of “In on the Joke” from NetGalley for free, this had no bearing on my rating and review. Thank you to NetGalley and Doubleday!

Currently reading and immensely enjoying. I have long told my wife, I am looking forward to a one woman show portraying the wonderful, funny, and brave women who pioneered the world of female stand up comedy. I am just in the beginning of the book, but loving it. I was lucky enough to see Joan Rivers workshop in the early 70s at Ye Little Club in Beverly Hills, and it was a revelation. I even wrote and sold jokes to her (all those years ago). She was a marvel to watch her work and develop material. I, of course, saw her over the decades and she made everyone laugh. I am sorry that I missed Totie Fields (other than TV) and Moms Mabeley (who I remember from The Smothers Brothers), and the great Minnie Pearl (there is a book out with her jokes and stories, well worth reading). Well, this book looks extremely promising and I look forward to being fully absorbed by the book. Looks great and it delivers.

Great book about the history of women in comedy. Going in, I didn't know much about women in comedy, which is unfortunate because I do really enjoy comedy. However, even today, the media focuses on men in comedy as if women can't be funny. (Pete Davidson has never made me laugh and I stand by that.) Levy does a great job showcasing each woman's role in comedy and how she came to grow. I especially enjoyed learning about Joan Rivers. However, the book did feel a bit long. Overall, a very entertaining and informational read!

One of our premier chroniclers of popular culture takes on a fascinating subject, bringing a keen approach to the task. Shawn Levy, as always, has done his research; as his survey of women comedians spans the decades, you're always firmly grounded in time and place. That diligence never gets in the way of the genuine affection he feels as he writes about trailblazers like Moms Mabley and Minnie Pearl. The chapter on Elaine May is particularly enlightening, with Levy delving into several of the "boy/girl" acts that followed in the wake of Nichols & May (like the far longer-lived Stiller & Meara) and also making a bold choice in how he handles the greatest debacle of May's career, her movie ISHTAR (1987). Throughout, Levy draws smart parallels between these pioneers and contemporary women comics. After reading this engaging history, be prepared to spend a while on YouTube looking up clips of Phyllis Diller and Rusty Warren.

Before i read this book I didn't know there was so much to know about women in comedy. Now I feel I know more of the story.

I totally enjoyed reading this well written book.Getting to learn about these pioneer comedians from Moms Manley to Phyllis Diller Joan Rivers.The strength determination it took to become successful,Joan Rivers life in particular had so many ups and downs her feud with Johnny Carson her husbands suicide and she still fought to get on the stage& make us laugh.This book had moments that made me laugh out loud and others had me admiring these comedians.#netgalley#doubledaybooks

Great story about the many different ladies of comedy and all that they had to go through to get on the stage and make money. I learned about some new comics and some I had heard of. It was sad about Joan rivers. I had some idea of the feud between her and carson but didn't know that it took after 9 years for her to go on the fallon show.

With "In on the Joke: The Original Queens of Standup Comedy," bestselling author Shawn Levy meticulously explores the careers of women who paved the way for today's female standup comics and comedy performers.

We're talking the truly early days when comedy was considered the domain of men and even the presence of a woman was considered more than a little jarring.

Names like Moms Mabley, Rusty Warren, Belle Barth, Elaine May, Phyllis Diller, and Joan Rivers pack the packages of "In on the Joke," a 400-page book that is remarkable in its research and detail and vivid, almost connect-the-dots, journey through the careers of these women as they fought their naysayers to stand at the mic and make it clear standup comedy was never meant to be a boys' club.

While not everyone in "In on the Joke" is a household name, Levy beautifully brings to life each woman's importance in the growth of women on the comedy circuit and paints a powerful portrait of the adversities they faced from the likes of family to friends to peers to managers to critics and many more.

Levy is at his strongest with his most emotionally resonant accounts such as with Jean Carroll and a book-ending Joan Rivers. Other times, "In on the Joke" starts to feel a bit like an "And then..." book, the kind of book that reads more like play-by-play and engages on a lesser scale. It's in these times that I found myself more than a little exhausted reading "In on the Joke," less immersed in the stories and more needing to take regular breaks from them.

Yet, there is no denying that I was always anxious to return to "In on the Joke," a book that benefits from Levy's obvious knowledge and curiosity and a book that is so comprehensively researched that each and every chapter gives you a deeper appreciation for the women represented.

Levy delves deeply in "In on the Joke," each chapter almost surprising in its length and detail and the ways in which Levy refuses to create literary sound bytes. While most authors would be content to create a few pages for each comedy queen and to only skim the surface of their remarkable stories, Levy infuses "In on the Joke" with a remarkable depth of meaning that individualizes each woman and their journey.

These stories are intelligent, passionate, inspiring, and occasionally quite touching. Levy himself speaks early in the film of the extra burden of being a male writing about female comics and that acknowledgement lays a solid foundation for a book that avoids mansplaining (in fact, quite often calling it out) in favor of writing from a place of respect, admiration, and truth-telling.

While there were moments I disconnected from "In on the Joke," mostly those where I struggled to sync with Levy's literary rhythms, "In on the Joke" gave me a deep appreciation for these women and their powerful influence on the world of comedy and the journey for female entertainers.

Shawn Levy's In on the Joke" gives us the inside scoop on the women who entertained us and how hard those women fought for that right. Filled with rich detail and a stunning amount of resources, "In on the Joke" is a must-read from one of America's most gifted entertainment writers.