IRVINE, Calif. — Comedian Adam Carolla responded in an exclusive interview with The Daily Caller to the attacks he received after suggesting men are generally funnier than women.
In an interview with the New York Post published last week, Carolla told the paper, “dudes are funnier than chicks.” Since making those comments — which Carolla said were prompted by a direct question from the interviewer — Carolla has been subject to harsh attacks, some even accusing him of being a misogynist.
“I’ve never lifted a hand to a woman, I’ve never done anything negative to a woman, I’ve always been monogamous,” Carolla told TheDC. “I have a daughter who I love very much, I hire women, I’ve worked with women, I’ve never had an issue with women.”
“I’m a misogynist?” he continued. “Go ask my female producer from my morning show who I worked with for three years or my female producer for ‘Loveline’ for 10 years if I’m a misogynist. Go ask my female boss essentially, what I’ve ever done to them. And the answer is nothing.”
Carolla decried what he called the “witch-hunt mentality” that the Internet facilitates.
“This whole sort of witch-hunt mentality, this Internet witch hunt thing, I thought the Internet was going to be about buying car parts and looking at porn,” he said.
“I didn’t know it was going to be this one big, huge homeroom where everyone was like ratting everybody out and passing notes and doing a bunch of, you know, chicken shit.”
Carolla defended his essential argument, saying the facts are that men happen to be better than women at certain things and women happen to be better than men at certain things.
“Every once in a while somebody comes up with some, you know, a study from Stanford which finds out that 9-year old girls are better with language than 9-year old boys,” he said.
“And everyone goes, ‘oh, well, there you go.’ But no one goes, ‘that’s an outrage. That’s an attack.’”
“There are certain things women are better at than men,” he continued.
“There are certain things men are better at than women. There are certain cultures, you know, it’s hard to argue with Kenyans when it comes to long distance running … Does that mean every Kenyan can outrun every Eskimo? No, there’s definitely a handful of fast Eskimos I’m sure and there is a handful of funny women.”
While standing by his position, Carolla said his essential point had been distorted to suggest all men are funnier than all women.
“I’m not Andy Kaufman, you know, like I wasn’t like I’m twice as funny as Tina Fey,” he said. “I said men are funnier than women but Tina Fey and Kathy Griffin and can’t remember who else I mentioned in that group – I said those are funny women.”
Carolla, who spoke to TheDC before performing his podcast live at the Irvine Improv, said the comedy club owner validated his point that very evening.
“I just sat here with the owner of this club and he said ‘we do 50 headliners a year and 3 of them are women,” Carolla said. “Like that’s the stats. What do you want me to say?”
Describing suggestions he’s a misogynist as “fucking insane,” Carolla explained that he essentially didn’t care about the backlash.
“You’d think I’d care more, but I don’t,” Carolla said.
“First off, my six-year-old daughter, all she knows is she lives in a big house and she’s got a big swimming pool and she’s got a daddy who’s helping her on the balance board for two hours today. And my wife drives a nice car and I never beat her and everyone’s happy, you know.”
But, he said, the ease with which people are called misogynists or racists ultimately dilutes the seriousness of the terms.
“So this whole thing of like you’re a racist, you’re a homophobe, you’re a xenophobe, you’re a misogynist, like, there’s nothing there,” he said.
“You have to show me an incident. It’s like were at the point we’re calling people murderers but there’s no bodies, you know, and if you think about it, it’s pretty destructive. Calling someone a pedophile is a pretty big deal if in fact the guy’s never touched a kid. And calling someone a racist is a pretty big deal if they never done anything that’s racist to any other race, you know, outside of making jokes.”
Despite the attacks, Carolla says he has received support from his friends.
“There has been some support,” he said. “I think whenever they attempt to crucify someone for nothing there is a little groundswell of support for that person because I think as a society we’re tired of everybody going bananas on everybody over nothing.”
Check back next week to read more of TheDC’s interview with Carolla in which he discusses his new book — “Not Taco Bell Material” — and being a conservative in Hollywood.