Everyone needs some comedy, which accounts for the popularity of shows like Anger Management, Big Bang Theory and Modern Family these days. A recent trend is to have shows with female protagonists, be it New Girl, Melissa and Joey and Samantha Who? The latest to join the club is Whitney on Comedy Central, which premiered this month. Starring comedian Whitney Cummings (also the creator) as a fictionalised version of herself, and her live-in boyfriend, Alex (Chris D’Elia), it is about relationships and the winding road to commitment.
Women on top
Cummings, who was a cast member on the MTV television show Punk’d (2004), believes this is the perfect timing for female comedi-ans. “I imagine there’s a lot of opportunity for women to have powerful roles. Or it’s just that there are more women writing TV. They tend to maybe write strong women-led character roles,” says the comedian who is the driving force in the show about a tough woman who is a little crazy. But she cautions us saying, “women necessarily don’t always write like women. I was a writer on the Comedy Central Roasts for a while, and I always wrote jokes that people assumed were written by men.”
The sitcom format
When it comes to content, the creator tries to bring her stand-up into her sitcom. “The things I’ve done in the clubs, I really try to bring that into the content of the show,” says the comedian. The actress has her hands full as she is also the creator of Primetime Emmy winning show, Two Broke Girls, currently in its third season. A fan of Friends and Seinfield, she believes “sitcoms are the best format for stand-up comedians.”
Whitney airs on Comedy Central, Monday -Wednesday at 10 pm