What in the World?!: A Southern Woman's Guide to Laughing at Life's Unexpected Curveballs and Beautiful Blessings

What in the World?! is a story about one woman’s journey to her career as a stand-up comedian, following Leanne Morgan as she struggles to balance the demands of her family and conventional gender roles with her desire to perform. Through her story, the narrative explores the great strides that women have made in comedy over the years, paving the way for Morgan, while also delving into how women have carved out a place for themselves in the male-dominated field. For many years, stand-up comedy was essentially a man’s game, and early female comics had to fight against prejudice and stereotypes. Early female comics like Diller and Joan Rivers relied on self-deprecating humor and focused on domestic topics, while others, like Goldie Hawn in her original role on Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In, relied on a combination of sex appeal and slapstick humor to further their careers. 

However, in the 1960s and 1970s, female comics like Carol Burnett and Lily Tomlin were also becoming more established on television, and The Carol Burnett Show won 25 Emmys during its 10-year run. With the advent of Saturday Night Live in 1975, female comedians became even more of a mainstream focus, with comedians like Gilda Radner and Jane Curtin firmly establishing themselves among a younger, edgier comedy crowd, alongside other popular cast members like John Belushi, Dan Ackroyd, and Chevy Chase. 

By the 1990s, female comics were more commonly starring in their own shows, following the example of Carol Burnett. Roseann Barr’s Roseanne rose to critical acclaim for portraying the everyday life of a working-class woman. Ellen DeGeneres made television history with the popularity of her sitcom, Ellen, on which, in 1997, the lead character came out as gay, a television first. Wanda Sykes, a popular Black comedian, won an Emmy for her work on The Chris Rock Show and was named one of the 25 funniest people in America in 2004 by Entertainment Weekly. Saturday Night Live continued to prove to be an important launching pad for female comedians like Amy Poehler, Tina Fey, and Leslie Jones. Comedians like Sarah Silverman, Amy Schumer, and Ali Wong have continued to revolutionize and diversify the role of women in comedy.

Although women play an important role in the modern-day comedy scene, Morgan’s story shows how women still have to fight for their place on the stand-up stage. In her comedy journey, Morgan faced obstacles because of her gender, including expectations that she had to stay home and care for her children, and therefore could not participate in the grueling work of touring and late-night shows that are the bread and butter of stand-up comedy. She also often worried about not being taken seriously as a woman and intentionally downplayed her looks on stage. Furthermore, the late-night crowds she often performed for consisted of rowdy, drunk college students, not the ideal audience for her jokes about T-ball, pregnancy hemorrhoids, and menopause hormones. Nevertheless, Morgan found success, illustrating both the universality of comedy and women’s desire to see themselves and their experiences reflected on stage.