In 2017, the "are women funny" question is offensive and prehistoric. It's also dumb, because women-led comedies are dominating television right now, as proven by the talented women nominated in the SAG Awards' comedy categories. At the ceremony on Sunday night, the Screen Actors Guild awarded Julia Louis-Dreyfus the trophy for Outstanding Performance By A Female Actor In A Comedy Series for her work in Veep. When she took the stage to accept the award, Julia Louis-Dreyfus used her SAG Awards speech to speak out against President Trump's immigration ban instead of giving the traditional laundry list of thanks.
The 2017 SAG Awards are another reminder than Louis-Dreyfus is one of the funniest humans in the world. Fittingly, her speech started out with a gag before it got serious. In an obvious parody of the rhetoric and "alternative facts" favored by Donald Trump, Louis-Dreyfus began:
"Whether the Russians did or did not hack the voting of tonight's SAG awards, I look out on the million or probably million and a half people in this room, and say this award is legitimate, and I won. I'm the winner. The winner is me. Landslide."
After accepting applause and laughs for that one, Louis-Dreyfus went on to say that she's proud to be a member of the actors' union and thanked her fellow members for her award. Then the speech took a somber turn, as the actor spoke about her immigrant father who "fled religious persecution in Nazi-occupied France." She called herself "an American patriot" and addressed directly the executive order signed by the president this weekend and protested all over the country. "And because I love this country, I am horrified by its blemishes," Louis-Dreyfus said. "And this immigrant ban is a blemish and it is un-American."
To close, the Veep actor read an excerpt from the response statement issued by the Writers Guild Of America:
"Our guilds are unions of storytellers, who have always welcomed those from other nations and of varying beliefs who wish to share their creativity with America. We are grateful for them. We stand with them. And we will fight for them."
