Spotlight on: Frangela

If you don't know who Frangela is, you obviously don't watch Best Week Ever. That's understandable if you don't have cable. However, if you do have cable, there is no excuse. It's a funny show! Even better than I Love New York. And Celebrity Fit Club. Who else thinks Dustin Diamond may have "gained weight solely for the purpose of appearing on the show"?

Back to Frangela. They are one of my MySpace friends, and I wrote them a message a couple weeks ago. They were super-duper nice and they wrote me back pretty quickly. Their message totally made my day. Among other things, they said I had "the cutest photo thingy ever!"(Exclamation point theirs.) They also said my email was "mature and respectful." I do try. I was so excited that I told my mother about what they wrote. Mummy was less excited than I was because she doesn't watch the teevee. But she was happy for me anyway.

Frangela was supposed to have a show on Fox last year, but for whatever reason, the pilot didn't make it on the air. I guess Fox had to make room for comedy gold like The Ringer, 'Til Death, American Dad and The War at Home. I would have watched the show. Not just because Frangela makes me laugh, but because I too have trouble finding black friends. I definitely don't have enough of them to invite to a party.

A story that Frangela shared in their email also got me thinking that they should write a book. I've read many articles and seen many television specials concerning the history of American comedy. I saw Looking for Comedy in the Muslim World, which was a less-than-humorous film about the fact that Indians don't think Albert Brooks is funny. I also watched SNL in the 90s yesterday, which was a 2-hour long circle jerk that would have made the Bush administration blush. The problem with most of these self-congratulatory compilations is that they feature white American males talking about why other white American males are so funny. Sometimes a few black guys (Richard Pryor, Bill Cosby or Chris Rock) or a couple of white women (Lucille Ball, if we're lucky) slip in there. And at one point, I saw about a minute total on Freddie Prinze. But that's it.

There are no mainstream compilations of women's contributions to comedy. Or to entertainment in general. I know that women who work in comedy have some amazing stories to tell. I've heard a few tales from Janeane Garofalo, Margaret Cho, Judy Gold, Kathleen Madigan and pamie.com. But I'd like to hear more, and read more. I'm sure other women, and men, would like to hear them, too.

I bought I'm the One That I Want. I bought Yeah, I Said It. I'd buy Frangela's book, too.