SOURCE: “What Is There to Laugh?,” in Grace Paley: Illuminating the Dark Lives, University of Texas Press: Austin, 1990, pp. 46-67.

In the following essay, Taylor discusses cultural stereotypes about women and humor, and examines the use of comic wit in Paley's fiction. Taylor contends that Paley's subversive humor—earthy, optimistic, and distinctly Jewish—serves to expose the absurdity of patriarchal society and to foster a sense of survivalism among marginalized women.

Naturally it was a joke, only what is there to laugh?

—“Zagrowsky Tells,” Later the Same Day; hereafter cited as LD, 160.

Publicly funny women are rare in our culture. This is not particularly surprising given the widespread cultural beliefs that women lack a sense of humor and that public displays of wit by women in mixed groups are somehow inappropriate. Although changes have begun to occur here as elsewhere, female comedians and female-authored comic strips, for instance...