Women Can Be Funny, Too

“I was a musical virgin until now,” quipped the eccentric, silver haired woman on stage.

“Have you ever heard the song ‘My Neck, My Back’?” she asked the audience. “I played it for a friend of mine, and her 16-year-old daughter yelled at me, ‘You can’t play that for my mother!’”

There was no silver bell tinkling laughter from the women in CCSU’s Alumni Hall; there were bold, thunderous shrieks and wails.

“Silver bell tinkling laughter happens when we’re around men,” Regina Barreca, author of “Babes In Boyland” and “I’m With Stupid” explained.

Acting out a man who had a terrible, absurd joke to tell, she then switched roles to the woman being forced to listen. Out of her mouth came a squeaky laugh that Disney princesses perfected.

Barreca, a professor of English and feminist theory at the University of Connecticut, is dedicated to focusing on women’s trials and tribulations, yet she fails in coming off too feminist. Barreca combines her wit and knowledge into a comedy routine that can make the most uptight woman or impossible man unravel.

“Real laughter from women has a slightly less feminine sound,” Barreca said. “Some definite signs are bust holding, mascara wiping, and the exclamation, ‘Don’t make me pee my pants!’”

Her topic of the afternoon was exploring women and comedy; how men find it difficult to believe that the opposite sex has a sense of humor. For 20 years, Barreca has investigated why men don’t find women humorous. Narrowing it down to three reasons, she showcased ridiculous pop culture references that, while men find them funny, women are turned off and reject them completely.

“Women don’t like the ‘Three Stooges’, the fart scene in Blazing Saddles, or Jackass: the Movie,” she said.

Mentioning the scene in Jackass when one of the men is walking over an alligator pit with a Perdue chicken in his pants, Barreca asked, “Can you imagine a woman putting chicken fingers in her brassiere? No, women don’t do it.”

While some women might contest to actually enjoying atypical male-driven antics, realistically it is because they want to be ‘one of the guys.’ There is nothing wrong in this, but women need to understand that enjoying it doesn’t automatically make them a hit at the water cooler.

“Men torture each other,” she said. “Women nurture. We don’t insult other women; we compliment each other. Then we explain why the other is wrong for complimenting us.”

Barreca explained how making things up is unnecessary in our everyday lives that are filled to the brim with hilarious anecdotes.

“Women make a story about everything,” she said nonchalantly. “We don’t tell jokes, we’re not genetically inclined. Women being forced to be funny is like cross-dressing.”

“We’re lying and being disingenuous to ourselves,” Barreca said, singling out her gender in the audience. “We try to minimize; we tend to think we’re too much.”

To be meek and modest is not in Barreca’s profession. When interviewed recently by BBC about the global economy, Barreca’s solution was simple: “Allow middle-aged women to spend money on clothes that fit them!” she said as a matter-offactly. “That will bring a flood of liquidity back into the market.”

A side note that sent the audience into a fit of gender seperation was the accusation that women can’t handle money.

“I googled ‘men can’t handle money’, but it just comes up with how women can’t,” Barreca said. “Haven’t we seen the former evident in the economy currently?”

Diverting her animated character into another story, Barreca spoke of an interesting moment in her life when she tried something just to have a comical story to tell. Living in London for two years when she was a young adult, Barreca was a freelancer, and had an attractive British boyfriend in tow. She was approached to be a contestant on a television show called “Mastermind”.

“’We’ve never had an American on before,’ they told me. ‘You’ll make a fool of yourself,’ my boyfriend contested. I accepted.” Barreca said. As they fired questions at a young Barreca, she realized she didn’t know the answers, and would utter ‘pass’ after each.

“They were watching this American girl setting herself on fire,” she told Alumni Hall. Sensing how uncomfortable it was, the show’s host switched subjects and asked, “What animal is a guppy?” “It’s a fish!” Barreca yelled at the top of her voice, and the crowd went wild; she said little old English ladies approached her in the supermarket the next day, fawning over her television appearance.

As embarrassing, awkward, or odd it may have been, Barreca wanted to reach out to the audience to urge them to do anything and everything; that life is just a series of hilarious anecdotes and situations. “It’s a story,” Barreca said. “Do it. Go out.”

Belding Visits Central

Babies of the eighties remember the early nineties television at its peak. From the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles to the Power Rangers, and every early morning cartoon in between, these technicolor heroes always had positive messages underlying every suspense filled episode.

In 1988 however, a new mentor came to early morning cartoons, but wasn't drawn onto paper. With his trademark laugh and his “Hey hey heys”, Saturday morning got its first sitcom on the air, and with that, America's favorite principal, Mr. Belding, played by Dennis Haskins.

10 years later, Haskins is still mentoring the younger adults by visiting college campuses, talking about his experience in the acting business, and giving advice about following dreams and achieving personal goals.

Last Tuesday, October 14th, Haskins visited Central Connecticut State's Welte Hall amidst a buzz of 350 students, all eager to see the most adored principal in television history, in similar ranking with Mr. Feeny from Boy Meets World.

Students yelled their favorite characters, episodes and quotes all throughout the two hour experience as Haskins stood on-stage, recalling memories of high school and acting try-outs and callbacks. In an interview conducted by Central senior Prince Prescott III, Haskins answered questions about when he first caught his big break, and when he almost didn't get the spot for Mr. Belding.

Hailing from Chattanooga, Tennessee, the 58 year old actor dreamt of being an actor ever since he was in high school. In sixth grade, Haskins got a taste of his dream by starring in Pinocchio with college aged students, and eventually became a theater major in college at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.

“My first shot at television involved a Louisiana outdoor drama,” said Haskins. “I played a bad-ass in a show with cars jumping up in the air and girls in daisy dukes.” Haskins was speaking of cult classic, The Dukes of Hazard. After filming the pilot episode however, he was skeptical about the career path. “I called my mom on a pay phone and told her it wasn't going to work,” he recalled.

Wanting to go to California to catch what he thought would be his big break, Haskins drove there with only $1800 in his pocket. “I slept on the floor for two years in a sleeping bag working part-time jobs,” he said. “I still have that sleeping bag.”

Saved by the Bell started off as a Disney television show entitled Good Morning, Miss Bliss, which didn't get far off of the ground. Disney halted production, but were not tearing down the set, nor throwing away the costumes and props. “The wardrobe guy told me to keep my suits,” said Haskins, as he hypothesized that if he kept in touch with the producers, they'd let him in on the next project.

Roughing it out to the final casting calls, Haskins was positive he could top his last, single opponent. The producer rejected him, and this baffled the young comedian. Haskins walked out of the building and called the producer from a pay phone while glancing up into his office window. “It's a no-no to call a producer after a rejection,” he said, but in this case, his persistence paid off. The producer accepted, and Haskins was on the path to becoming the tough talking, yet lovable, Mr. Belding.

“It was a good show with a message,” Haskins said of the new to Saturday morning Saved By The Bell. It took a while to catch onto the rest of America, but Haskins recalled the specific moment when he knew it had become famous. “The cast went on a mall tour and got their clothes ripped off,” he said. “That's when we knew it was a hit.”

“What made the show successful?” asked Prescott III, during the interview on stage. Students in the audience started yelling out answers, such as A.C Slater's mullet and simply Kelly Kapowski herself, played by Tiffani-Amber Thiessen.

Favorite episodes were then discussed, and of those mentioned, students laughed at recalling when Screech's pet salamander died, and when Jessie OD'ed on caffeine. Haskins favorite? “I have two,” he admitted. “The original graduation episode and the other is when Mr. Beldings brother Rod ruined a prospective rafting trip.” In the rafting episode, Rod promised a trip to the students and blew them off. Mr. Belding scolds his brother for breaking a promise and takes them on the trip instead; it was one of Mr. Belding's many fatherly figure moments.

After more of the episodes and favorites were mentioned and time with the audience winded down, Haskins left plenty of time to pose for photos with every Central student, smiling. Not only did he pretend to be a caring individual, he showed the audience how much he cared about young adults striving to accomplish their dreams. “Life is a series of connect the dots,” he said. “If you want it badly enough, you will have it. Find what you love to do.”

Haskins also connected the current state of the economy with being a college student. “The world sucks right now,” he said. “So stay here as long as you can.”