Which is stupid, because Amy Poehler (and the others listed above, and more) is really, really funny. America is still a systemically patriarchal society, and comedy is still struggling to shed its identity as a boys club. Until 1994 (Whoopi Goldberg), no woman had hosted the Academy Awards in the show’s seven decades, and Goldberg remained the only one to do so until Ellen DeGeneres hosted in 2007. Until Fey, no woman had ever been the head writer for SNL. No woman has yet landed a late night television hosting gig. Even now, in a television and film landscape showcasing Poehler, Fey, Rashida Jones, Mindy Kaling, Ellie Kemper, Melissa McCarthy, Maya Rudolph, Ellen DeGeneres, Kristen Wiig, Amy Schumer, Carrie Brownstein and countless others, the collectively assumed default for a comedian is still a (white) dude. There have always been hilarious and successful comediennes, but for a long time, funny women were fighting an uphill battle against public and corporate perception. So if she’s so funny and successful, why do I feel the need to even give this resumé? Because comedy, until recently, belonged to the boys.

Amy Poehler is as good as it gets in the world of comedy. She hosted the Golden Globes twice with her partner in crime, Tina Fey. She left Saturday Night Live and, rather than fading into obscurity or making a string of middlingly funny and predictable comedy movies like most SNL alumni, developed and starred in one of the most creative and beloved television sitcoms of the current century with Parks and Recreation. She starred on Saturday Night Live for years, even serving for a stretch as one half of the only all-female Weekend Update anchor team the show has ever had. She co-founded the Upright Citizens Brigade. Poehler’s comedy resumé is awfully impressive.

Amy poehler memoir