Battle of the sketches: Short form and feminism in the comedy mode

Abstract

The screenwriting of sketch comedy and, in particular, how female writers of sketch comedy engage with this form to illuminate female experience, are topics not yet widely theorized. This article reviews the scholarship, in order to bring together histories, definitions and distribution of sketch comedy from which to investigate how this form of comedy screenwriting can contribute to feminisms that ‘engage openly and playfully with humor and irony as weapons of choice’ (Willet et al. 2012). Drawing on anecdotal accounts and available archives from A Black Lady Sketch Show (2019–present), French and Saunders (1987–present), Inside Amy Schumer (2013–present), Wood & Walters (1981–82) and others, this article considers these against the theories of writing sketch comedy to draw some conclusions on how this short form, combined with its most popular form of distribution, can accommodate multiple perspectives and serve their audiences. This article offers itself as a starting point in identifying the unique challenges and strategies for women writing sketch comedy, and the possibilities offered by the form more broadly, while highlighting the need for further empirical exploration of the creative practice of female sketch comedy writers, and further critical attention to short form comedy screenwriting.