Jerry Lewis: Female comics 'set me back a bit'
Jerry Lewis: Asked who his favorite female comics were Thursday at a Cannes Film Festival press conference, Jerry Lewislisted Cary Grant and Burt Reynolds. He then added: 'I don't have any.'
Comedian Jerry Lewis poses for photographers during a photo call for the film Max Rose at the 66th international film festival, in Cannes, southern France, May 23.
Francois Mori/AP
CANNES, France
Ladies? Don't make him laugh.
Asked who his favorite female comics were Thursday at a Cannes Film Festival press conference,聽Jerry聽Lewislisted Cary Grant and Burt Reynolds. He then added: "I don't have any."
In 1998,聽Lewis聽famously said that watching women do comedy "sets me back a bit" and that he has trouble with the notion of would-be mothers as comedians.
Asked Thursday if he had changed his mind at all because of performers like Melissa McCarthy and Sarah Silverman, the 87-year-old聽Lewis聽said of women performing broad comedy: "I can't see women doing that. It bothers me."
"I cannot sit and watch a lady diminish her qualities to the lowest common denominator," he said. "I just can't do that."
Lewis聽was in Cannes for the premiere of "Max Rose," a drama directed by Daniel Noah in which聽Lewis聽stars as an aging jazz musician.
In her 2011 memoir, "Bossypants," Tina Fey alluded to聽Lewis' attitudes about female comedians: "Whenever someone says to me, 'Jerry聽Lewis聽says women aren't funny,' or 'Christopher Hitchens says women aren't funny,' ... Do you have anything to say to that?'
"Yes," writes Fey. "We don't f------ care if you like it."