International Women's Day is this Friday (March 8), and I wanted to take the week leading up to it to talk about the women in the world who give us all the greatest gift possible:  laughter.  INTERNET laughter.

Comedy is not an easy thing to begin with, but putting that comedy out onto the world wide web is akin to putting yourself before a slice of humanity that reeks of troll dung and mothers' basements.  The risks are great, but so are the rewards.

The women on this brief list are just a tiny sampling of an entire world of comedians ready to brave on onslaught of negativity for the moment where they succeed in making someone, somewhere, feel better about life.  Maybe it's just a smile.  Maybe it's a laugh-out-loud.  Maybe, just maybe, they manage to drive home a thought-provoking moment.

I can't speak to their motivations or their aspirations, but I can speak to what they give to me, and to others.  And for that, I think it's high time somebody out there recognized them and gave them their due.

These are my five favourite funny-women of the Internet!

#5:  Lindsay Ellis AKA The Nostalgia Chick

Lindsay Ellis' tenure as an internet purveyor of jokes and movie knowledge can roughly be traced back to her start on comedy critic website That Guy With The Glasses, working alongside the semi-infamous Doug Walker, AKA The Nostalgia Critic.  Walker, primarily known for his furious, curse-laden rants against bad films, held a contest in 2008 to search for a female counterpart to his schtick.  The winner of this competition would be dubbed The Nostalgia Chick.


Ultimately, there emerged not one but three winners:  Ellis, Kaylyn Dicksion AKA Marzgurl, and Krissy Diggs AKA ThatChickWithTheGoggles.  Ellis, however, was the one who retained the title of "Nostalgia Chick" for her scathing review of Disney's Pocahantas.

When she started out, Ellis' reviews felt like something of an extension of Walker's, with a similar brand of humor and editing style.  As she has progressed, however, Ellis has developed a very distinct style and character that conclusively merits her own show.

She approaches films from a very analytic, historical perspective.  Bringing in her experience through film school, Ellis is able to address topics that other critics might completely brush over.  Her Little Mermaid review, for instance, accurately brings into sharp focus the inherent problems with Ariel as a protagonist with weak motivation and obstacles.


On top of this, Ellis is, well...really goddamn funny.  She's got a sharp wit and a sense of humour as dry as the Sahara, and she knows when to play with a movie as well as when to laugh at a movie - this is not as easy as it sounds.  Her popularity on the internet has merited a guest appearance on Rifftrax with fellow internet funnyperson Noah Antwiler AKA The Spoony One.

These characteristics and achievements alone would merit her a spot in my good books, but what really sets Ellis apart from the slew of internet commentators for me is her unique ability to broaden social discourse.  Perhaps the best-known and most poignant example of this is Ellis' documentary short, "The A-Word".  This bold autobiographical piece tracked Ellis' pregnancy and subsequent decision to have an abortion, and her experiences with pro-life and pro-choice advocates, personalities, and mothers.  Unfortunately, I have yet to see it firsthand - whether it is possible to still obtain a copy of it remains to be seen - but the segments available online are already engaging and interesting.  Hopefully I will be able to track it down.

My personal favourite of Ellis' work, however, has to be her look at Orson Scott Card's "Ender's Game".  This, to me, is what good humour should do:  it makes us laugh to teach us a lesson.  To me there is no finer showcase of Ellis' talent.  This is a short movie that asks a serious question in the guise of a joke:  can we separate a work of fiction from the author's personal views?

What really makes me love her Ender's Game review is that she presents BOTH sides of the argument, her own positions, and leaves the question open for her audience to discuss and address.  Guess what?  That's what good discourse should do!

In North American media, there's a huge drive right now to polarize politics into "right" and "wrong", "socialist" and "fascist", "with us or the child molesters", etc.  We need people like Lindsay Ellis to remind us not only to remember both sides of the issue, but also that we need to laugh at ourselves and each other.

Cheers to you, Nostalgia Chick!  Keep on making us laugh, and making us think.