­Last week, I wrote about the controversy over the “Save Second Base” breast cancer fundraising campaign at Princeton University. I wasn’t th­e only one. My friends Amelia and Gracie wrote an op-ed column in our college paper, The Daily Princetonian, explaining why the slogan “Save Second Base” was problem­atic for so many members of the campus community. Neither Amelia nor Gracie nor I received much support from members of the campus community. We were called some pretty unpleasant names, accused of some pretty awful things (one of my friends described me as being “on a crusade to ensure that women lose their breasts to cancer”), and were generally chastised for pulling funding away from a worthy cause simply because the advertising for that cause didn’t suit our tastes (for the record, we think it’s an incredibly worthy cause, and we all donated last week). 

But one of the most common, and, frankly, predictable criticisms we heard was “Good God, get a sense of humor!” If you read the comments on the Prince article, you’ll notice numerous people telling us to stop whining and take a joke, to appreciate the humour in the campaign, even if it is a little sexist, and to just generally pull the big kvetchy sticks out of our feminist asses.

Ah, the humourless feminist. Along with the angry feminist and the ugly feminist and the lesbian feminist, the humourless feminist is one of the most commonly invoked myths about feminism. It has two main purposes.

The first is to make women afraid of feminism: if you’re a feminist, men won’t like you because they’ll think you’re a angry ugly lesbian who can’t take a joke. The second is to silence women who take issue with campaigns like the Save Second Base one, which blends humour with objectification. The phrase “it’s just a joke” covers all manner of sins, and sexism is one of them. If you object to a campaign like this one, you’re clearly just a humourless feminist, and your objection isn’t a valid one.

The humourless feminist is such a common trope, and it’s deployed against feminists so often, that it’s even become a joke among feminists. To wit:

Q: How many feminists does it take to change a light bulb?

A: That’s not funny.

Thanks to my very funny, very feminist friend Fannie for that one.

The humourless feminist is a myth. Yes, feminists take seriously aspects of culture that are often taken lightly. We take issue with the “small“ issues. We deconstruct jokes and pop culture and other things that are prefaced with the phrase “it’s just” because we believe that sexism lives in jokes and pop culture and we believe it’s our duty to expose that sexism, even if we can never fully eliminate it.

Some feminists “pick their battles” and pick the larger battles – the wage gap, reproductive rights, sexual assault. But all feminists recognize that the attitudes and ideas that allow the wage gap to persist and make sexual assault or harassment acceptable in 2009, attitudes about men and women and their worth as human beings, are embedded in our culture. They are inherent in our jokes, buried in our language, reflected in our pop culture. So yes, some feminists take these things, these things that are seemingly “not a big deal,” rather seriously.

But to suggest that all feminists are humourless is sheer lunacy. As proof, I’ve compiled a list of video evidence, featuring some of my favourite funny feminists. Some of them are professionally funny, and some of them aren’t. This list certainly isn’t exhaustive and I encourage your to add your own in the comments.

To start us off, Ms. Wanda Sykes, Funny Feminist:

Next, Ms. Rachel Maddow, Funny Feminist:

­Presenting Nellie McCKay, MetaFunny Feminist:

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Tina Fey, Funny Feminist

Margaret Cho, Funny Feminist and gay rights activist: and finally, Amy Poehler, funny feminist whose show, Smart Girls at the Party, is about putting feminist girls on TV:

So next time­ someone tries to tell you that feminists don't have a sense of humour, I suggest you laugh in their face, and tell them that that's the funniest thing you've heard all day.