What the hell is Sarah's deal?

Note: This post is a response to Johnny's: Sarah Silverman: Viciously Innocent or Innocently Vicious?

Great question, Johnny.

First of all, I really enjoy Sarah Silverman and although I haven't tuned into her Program nearly as often I'd like, I think I understand the elements at play here. My feeling is that there must have been a point early in her career when she contemplated the following:

Gross is funny.
Mean is funny.
I am hot on the outside.
I am rather gross and mean on the inside.

And ultimately: Hot is in no way funny.

Although a pretty face can get you in the door, or get a viewer to stop on your Program, strong female comic characters are RARELY sexualized. Think about it. America may laugh at Kathy Griffin, Whoopie Goldberg or Amy Sedaris. They may cheer in delight for Rosie or Ellen or Roseanne. But laughter and desire are mutually exclusive. I know I may have picked a fairly repugnant bunch (with the exception of Sedaris, whom I am extremely fond of) but that is just the point, accepted funny almost never fills the same void as accepted hot.

Many would argue that this brings us to the brass tacks of American culture: If you are pretty, you don't have to try to be funny because people will like you regardless. But I think this quandary may be a symptom of something greater. We, as a society, fear the total package, and furthermore, the total package isn't funny. We are a jealous lot and if someone is going to be as attractive as Sarah Silverman, she'd better be gross and mean or find a different line of work. We don't want our starlets to be hilarious or our laugh riots to be seductive. Comedy, in and of itself, exploits flaw for humor.

This is true even for our beloved Liz Lemon. Like Sarah, Lemon (though attractive) is fairly asexual in her own right. Although she is in a position of power, she is basically clueless on how to be a success with men, which is a major crux of the series. Even attractive successful women (see Ally McBeal, the Golden Girls) need to have disastrous love lives in order to keep the audience interested.

We laugh at Sarah for be being flawed: heartless and crude. But if she took on a protagonist role that was both fall down funny and overtly (and successfully) sexy, it would be a catastrophe. And although everyone marks 'must have a sense of humor' heavy on the list for a potential mate, this conundrum has yet to be unraveled.

So when we're in the bathtub wondering 'Sarah Silverman, you are funny, smart and gorgeous...why am I not attracted to you?' The answer is because she cannot allow it. Her cache in the comedy world would implode.

We must always believe that if we were to start making out with her, she'd fart and call us a douche nozzle.

I love you Sarah, stay the course.