Yes, girls can be funny

The symbolic derobing of disgraced Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein has changed a lot of things for a lot of people.

But it seems the resulting Me Too movement has left some things untouched, too.

‘‘It’s a great thing and a fantastic movement, but it won’t stop people commenting on [social] posts saying ‘Women aren’t funny’,’’ says Rose Matafeo.

It must be confusing for them, then, when they see something like Matafeo’s television series, simply - and maybe they think awkwardly - called Funny Girls. For those people, seeing that in the TV listings must read like some sort of typo.

‘‘[The idea that women aren’t funny] exists because one person read an article once by Christopher Hitchens. It’s probably one of the earliest instances of fake news, in terms of fake-ass science and biology. It’s f...... bulls...,’’ Matafeo says, understandably with a fair amount of passion and more than a little frustration.

But why? How does someone think it’s OK to say women, or any one group of people, isn’t capable of making anyone else laugh?

‘‘In an uncertain world, people love to be certain about things they don’t know anything about. And a lot of people latch onto stuff like that. I think it’s a much less-commonly held belief now, because it’s just unacceptable to think that, and even acknowledging that sense of power.

‘‘But then, some people just genuinely straight-up hate women. You know, stick to your guns. If you hate women, you’re probably not going to think we are funny. I can’t convince you otherwise.’’ She probably could though. Now into its third season, Funny Girls, which also stars Laura Daniel, Kimberley Crossman and Brynley Stent among others, is hitting its stride, pushing the boundaries of what local sketch comedy can be, and proving you don’t have to do all that much digging to find out it’s our women, rather than the boys, who are really nailing this comedy thing.

Almost nothing is off limits, from a song about how sexy it is when lads take off their jumpers, gags poking fun at baby gender reveal parties and laughing about the stigma attached to period chat.

Matafeo says while the Me Too movement, which took hold late last year, has helped move the female-centric conversation along, it hasn’t changed the MO of what the cast of Funny Girls are trying to do.

‘‘We’ve always made comedy, and made comedy for women. It’s not like we’ve done more stuff because of [Me Too] – we’re not capitalising on a movement, something pretty horrific, and something we’ve all been aware of for many years. Working in comedy – and any woman working in comedy – knows that thing is a reality.

‘‘We were never held back from making those kinds of observations anyway. But it’s a comedy show, so it’s finding the comedy in the tragedy of it all.’’

She might be just 26, but Matafeo has been doing comedy for almost a decade. Between her stand-up shows (the latest is called Horndog) and Funny Girls, she has a pretty solid platform here, in Australia and the UK, where she lives, to get across whatever message she wants.

Recently, Matafeo has also taken the step into films – appearing for a brief, but crucial, scene in the Kiwi comedy The Breaker Upperers, alongside her Funny Girls director, Madeleine Sami.

Working with her, and other women at the top of their game, has made Matafeo push herself to believe she is capable of on and off screen.

She says she always has a five-year plan – currently, the goal is more writing and maybe trying her own hand at directing.

‘‘I’m glad to be where I amat 26. This is decent, I’m very proud to make a living doing comedy – but I amalso very aware it could all come crashing down very fast. Comedy is not an incredibly stable career – for some people it is, but not for people like me, who hate performing live!’’

And yet, while she’s happy to tick the comedian and writer box, she’s still very much a reluctant actor.

‘‘I am friends with a lot of actors, and I imagine actors to be someone who has gone to drama school. I would have wanted to become an actor in high school, but then I started comedy in high school – I thought that might have been a weird desertion from [comedy].

‘‘But I act. I think I don’t feel worthy of saying ‘I’m an actor’. But then, there are a lot of actors who do say that and they are terrible at acting.’’

Whatever you do though, just don’t try and call her a role model to young women, men or wannabe comedians.

‘‘I feel like, thankfully, people don’t really look up to comedians as role models. No parents are there going, ‘Yeah, she’d be a good role model for my child’, because it’s probably not the best – it’s not like being an astronaut or anything.

‘‘The people I looked up to when I was youngster were people who were relatively true to themselves. Comedians can sometimes be like that but that sounds so wanky. Look, my role models growing up were all pretty messed-up - bad role models beget bad role models.’’ ● Funny Girls returns at 9.45pm this Friday.