The Official SCBWI Blog: FEMALE IS FUNNY TOO: Analyzing humor and gender in children's content

By M.R. Woodward

Are funny male kid lit writers more successful than female?

Sometimes I wonder what would happen if I had changed my name to a male pen name or used my initials (like above). Would I have better luck selling my funny picture books? Would I get higher advances?

I'll never know the answers to these questions. And perhaps it's all in my head. But here's something I DO know from working at a children's book store: The general consumer knows a LOT more funny male children's book authors than they do female. People know to ask for Mo Willems, Ryan Higgins, Mac Barnett, Jon Klassen, Oliver Jeffers, Dav Pilkey... etc.

And even if they don't know their names, their books are the ones they know: DRAGONS LOVE TACOS, THE BOOK WITH NO PICTURES, THE DAY THE CRAYONS QUIT, I WANT MY HAT BACK, DOGMAN, DON'T LET THE PIGEON DRIVE THE BUS, DON'T EAT YOUR CLASSMATES... The funny picture book best sellers are mostly written by men.

Now, I know many of you are thinking: "Hey, I know TONS of funny female picture book writers!" Well, guess what, I DO TOO! But, like me, most of you reading this are kid lit writers. Thus, we have a vast knowledge of picture books and other kid lit, that regular parents and their kids don't have.

Yes, you and I, can sing the praises of funny (and prolific) female picture book writers like Tara Lazar, Deborah Underwood, Doreen Cronin, Tammi Sauer, Keiko Kasha, Dev Petty, Kelly Dipucchio, Shannon Hale, Laurie Keller, Ame Dyckman, and many many more... but can your brother-in-law? Can your mom? Can your best friend from high school? Ask them to name some funny children's authors without looking at their bookshelves-- see what names they produce-- they might come out with Beverly Cleary, Judy Blume. Maybe Sandra Boynton if they have a toddler. But my guess is that they'll name way more men-- especially for picture books.

I don't know the exact numbers on who makes the most money selling FUNNY kid lit (and I don't have time to do that research). But I have an inkling it would skew male. I'd love to see accurate numbers on this if anyone has them.

However, just for funsies-- I checked eleven "Funniest picture book lists"-- some were from publishers, others from bloggers, some from libraries, or booksellers like Bookshop-- in other words, NOT the general public-- but people with expert knowledge of the kid-lit industry. They were just the first lists that popped up when I googled "funniest picture books." But I made sure they were lists compiled within the last two years. To be fair, some of these lists were about even, and a few of them even had slightly more female writers, but most did not. When I averaged it all out, 64% were male.

*I also looked at a few funny MG lists, and these seem to be much more evenly gendered. Which is so great to see!

Sure, 64% isn't terrible. It's probably much better than it would have been 15-20 years ago. But considering that the majority of people compiling these lists (kid lit editors, authors, bloggers, and booksellers) are ALSO female, you'd think these numbers would lean the other way.

All that being said, I DO think we're headed in the right direction. And if bloggers and other people in the kid-lit industry as starting to realize that women are funny, hopefully the general public will catch on too!

Maybe some day soon, someone will walk in and ask if we carry any books by Marianna Coppo. And I will be thrilled, because she is hilarious.

Are funny characters in kid's content mostly male?

Recently, I've been reading a lot of middle grade fantasy. Three books I've read recently, HUNT FOR THE HOLLOWER, THE SPIRIT GLASS, and THE WIZARDS OF ONCE, that are all written by women and have female protagonists, also have hilarious sidekick characters-- who are all male. (I highly recommend all of these books by the way!)

It got me thinking about funny sidekick characters in kids' movies as well. Pretty much every animated Disney/ Pixar movie has a funny sidekick. But how many can you name that are female? I thought of two: Dory from FINDING NEMO, and Sisu in RAYA AND THE LAST DRAGON. There might be a few more, but I think it's safe to say that the "funny sidekick" role is VERY male dominated.

Then started thinking about picture book characters, especially animal ones. I realized that most funny animal characters are written as male. (Again, I don't have any exact numbers on this. I just started looking at the characters on all these funny picture book lists, and most were male.) And even if the gender is never mentioned in the book-- like the pigeon in Mo Willems' books, I had thought of them as male-- and reviewers or book blurbs had also described these characters using he/him.

Why do we do this? How can we change?

I'm pretty sure the answer lies somewhat in representation. The more funny female characters we see in movies, books, TV, etc, the easier it will become to believe that female characters are funny. So as writers, let's put them in! Next time you sit down to write a funny picture book-- think about your lead character. What is their gender? Why? If you wrote a funny male character, is there ANY reason at all they can't be female instead? Other than your own bias of... I just think he's funnier as a male. And if that's your answer, then maybe you need to examine why it is you think that way.

Because the world definitely needs more Olivias!

Also, when you read to your kids, you can do what Lisa Tolin, author of HOW TO BE A ROCK STAR, did and change all the funny male characters to female. That way your kids grow up thinking girls are funny too! Check out her article here.

Of course men can be funny, but so can women

By no means am I disregarding the talent and humor of funny male kid lit authors! The male authors and their books I mentioned above ARE hilarious (with the exception of a few of them that I personally think are way overrated.) Is Jon Klassen brilliant in his own unique brand of humor? Of course he is! The problem is that I've picked up so many hilarious books by women and thought, "This is so funny. Why isn't she a household name?"

I hate the phrase "dad jokes." It implies that only men can make the kind of corny cheesy jokes that rely on stupid wordplay and make everyone laugh and roll their eyes. It's just another contributing factor in why our society doesn't believe in funny women-- "Dads are the funny ones!" I propose we change it to "parent jokes" or maybe just "eye rollers." LOL.

And if any of your friends need funny picture book recs... give them suggestions written by women! Let's try to even things out a little.

If you have other suggestions for changing the narrative around WHO we think is funny, comment below!

**There are MANY more funny female (and male) kid lit authors who were not mentioned in this blog. If you're looking for more, just google "funny picture books" and lists will come up!

Here are some other articles/blogs detailing how the children's book industry is still mostly male (and white) despite the fact that more women work in kid lit, and there are more women pursuing kid lit careers.

https://phys.org/news/2023-08-children-whiter-male-society.html

https://emmawaltonhamilton.com/blog/where-the-women-are-tough-questions-about-the-gender-disparities-in-childrens-publishing

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0260566