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Emma Thompson believes comedy is “orgasmic” in nature.
Long before winning an Academy Award, Emma was a member of the Cambridge Footlights sketch comedy group alongside the likes of Stephen Fry, Hugh Laurie and Sandi Toksvig.
The 55-year-old star, now with decades of experience behind her, believes she’s found some connection between sexual experiences and laughter.
"Women's comedy is more circular,… [it] goes hand in hand with our sexual, our orgasmic nature,” she said at a BAFTA and BFI screenwriters lecture in London on Saturday night, according to Deadline.
"I think you need a punch line when you are a boy, because men's jokes are essentially something that goes on and on, leading to an ejaculation," she continued. "You have to react at the end. You have to laugh at the end."
Emma recalled experiencing sexism early in her career. She remembers Footlights being “quite male-dominated” when she became a part of the group at age 18, and the barriers she faced as a result.
“It was difficult to get in sideways because Stephen and Hugh were so wonderful,” she said. “Sandi Toksvig and I did an all-womens’ revue called Woman’s Hour, though it wasn’t an overtly feminist revue. We auditioned women, because we were very exercised by the fact that people would say women aren’t funny. We’d say, ‘Yes they are, we laugh all the time.’ Then we auditioned quite a lot of women who weren’t funny at all.”
Despite the irony, ultimately the star believes there’s no intrinsic differences between women and men.
"Our brains are not [all that] different," she insisted.
"The Venus/Mars thing is so awful… [writers] really have to come to terms with the fact that our brains are essentially the same."