I expected this to be an oral history of comedians so I was a little surprised at how much space was given over to improv and writing for sitcoms. Not that it wasn't interesting but I kept wondering when we'd be getting back to the comedians. A lot of the focus of the book is about women breaking into the largely male arena of stand-up comedy and the perception, by some people, that women aren't funny. There is some rehashing of well-worn topics like how hard women had it on Saturday Night Live, and other not so well known, like how supportive Janeane Garofalo was