Amy Schumer Appreciates All Your Input About Her Face

“Thank you so much for everyone’s input about my face!” 

That was Amy Schumer’s sardonic response to online chatter about her recent appearances on The View and The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon. Some fans — and no doubt, her haters — have felt the need to comment on the puffiness of Schumer’s face as she promotes a new season of Life and Beth.

“I’ve enjoyed feedback and deliberation about my appearance as all women do for almost 20 years,” Schumer wrote, the words dripping with sarcasm. In reality, the online “feedback” is pretty ugly — go to x.com and search “amy schumer face” if you really want to know what she’s up against here. Whether or not you think Schumer’s comedy is funny, the conversation around her looks is pretty disgusting.

As it turns out, there’s a medical reason for the moderate change in the comic’s appearance. “You’re right it is puffier than normal right now,” she posted. “I have endometriosis an auto immune disease that every woman should read about. There are some medical and hormonal things going on in my world right now but I’m okay.”

It’s the latest chapter in the ongoing saga of comedy fans evaluating the attractiveness of female comics. It’s a weird history, with physical beauty once considered a barrier to being funny. “For the most part there weren’t a lot of pretty female comics,” says Just For Laughs Festival’s Jeff Singer in Yael Kohen’s We Killed: The Rise of Women in American Comedy. “You’ve got Elayne Boosler, Roseanne Barr, Phyllis Diller, Joan Rivers. You could go on. Those weren’t considered attractive women.”

But that perception was partly because the comics were forced to downplay their looks. Diller, who by her own account had “a good figure,” created a stage persona outfitted in oversized, shapeless dresses and outlandish accessories. According to Shawn Levy’s In on the Joke, The Original Queens of Standup Comedy, the garish outfits underlined Diller’s routines about being a sexual turnoff.

The same went for Rivers. “Her whole thing is ‘Nobody wants me,’” notes comedy writer Treva Silverman in We Killed. “But she was really an attractive woman and pretty adorable.”

The myth that attractive women couldn’t be funny was perpetuated by Johnny Carson, who once said, “A woman is feminine, a woman is not abrasive, a woman is not a hustler. And the ones that try sometimes are a little aggressive for my taste.” 

A generation of women comics have changed that perception but looks are still part of the equation in a way that male comedians never think about. Schumer would appreciate it if the online mob would give everyone a break.

“A woman doesn’t need any excuse for her physical appearance and owes no explanation,” she posted. “But I wanted to take the opportunity to advocate for self love and acceptance of the skin you’re in. Like every other women/person some days I feel confident and good as hell and others I want to put a bag over my head. But I feel strong and beautiful and so proud of this tv show I created. Wrote. Starred in and directed. Maybe just maybe we can focus on that for a little. I had backup dancers on Fallon but my face is the headline hahaha anyway I hope you enjoy life and Beth. Love and solidarity. Amy”