Jerry Lewis: Female Comedians Still Don’t Make Me Laugh; `It Bothers Me’

Stop me if you heard this one. Jerry Lewis says female comedians still don’t make him laugh. Asked to name his favorite female comedians at a press conference at the Cannes Film Festival, the 87-year-old comedic legend Jerry Lewis said other than Cary Grant and Burt Reynolds, “I don't have any.”

This isn’t the first time Jerry Lewis’ female comic bias has made the funny man seem out of touch. Jerry Lewis said watching women comedians “sets me back a bit.” Lewis said he has trouble with the idea of would-be moms as comedians in 1998.

On Thursday, Lewis was given a chance to take all that back. The former Nutty Professor was if asked new performers like Melissa McCarthy or Sarah Silverman tickled his funny bone, he said he couldn’t watch women perform broad comedy. He said "I can't see women doing that. It bothers me. I cannot sit and watch a lady diminish her qualities to the lowest common denominator. I just can't do that."

Lewis was in Cannes for the premiere of "Max Rose," which Lewis stars in as an aging jazz musician. “Max Rose” was directed by Daniel Noah.

Tina Fey, the former head writer of “Saturday Night Live” and writer/creator/star of the immensely funny, but sadly cancelled “30 Rock” and a funny women herself, has gone on record as saying he’s out of touch. In “Bossypants,” Fey’s 2011 memoir, she discussed Lewis' comments about female comics. She wrote "Whenever someone says to me, 'Jerry Lewis says women aren't funny,' or 'Christopher Hitchens says women aren't funny,' ... Do you have anything to say to that?' Yes. We don't fucking care if you like it."

 by Tony Sokol

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