I don't presume to speak for John Belushi (who knew a thing to two about comedy), but I don't disagree that there have been some very funny women. But the very idea that there are a lot more funny men, or that men, in general, are funnier than women sends a lot of feminists into hysterics.
I saw Rosanne Barr and Ellen DeGeneres each do stand-ups in the late 80's that were hysterical. They were even a bit vulgar to. But it wasn't vulgarity for vulgarity's sake, if you get my point.
Men like Gallagher, P&T, Carlin, Dennis Miller, even Eddie Murphy (who would have been as funny w/out cursing) were very creative in their jokes and routines. The new crowd just says something, adds a curse word, and calls it a joke. They think its funny, but I don't get it.
Barr and DeGeneres were the other two HBO “Women of the Night” comedians I was talking about. When they first started out, they were great.
Their “ HBO Men” counterparts were Louie Anderson?, Jerry Seinfeld, Sam Kinnison (talk about raw and funny as hell), maybe Rodney Dangerfield (one of the funniest comics ever and similar to Henny Youngman in his material/approach), and one other.
Smart comedy doesn’t have to be crude comedy. Richard Pryor and Eddie Murphy, among others, drifted to using curse words way too often and lost their comedic value.
Some of the best black comedians never used curse words in their general public performances - Nipsy Russell, Godfrey Cambridge, Slappy White, and Redd Foxx (on TV, but I heard that he was wildly risqué in private clubs), and a few others. Rochester, of “The Jack Benny Show”, was hilarious with just a few words, as was Robert Guillaume of the show “Benson”.
Bill Cosby was great. I saw him when he first started (we both went to Temple Un.), and he was a street observant smart man. Sherman Hensley could be very funny, as was JJ “Dynomite” Walker.
Good humor needs to be “intelligent humor” not gross humor. That is why Lenny Bruce and Mort Sahl went into decline. They became bitter comedians and lost that “edge” they once had. The same for Dick Gregory, who was one of the pioneering black comedians of the late 50’s, early 60’s. He went Left and Bitter and never came back.
I nominate the Carol Burnett Show cast as the funniest ensemble around (Burnett, Harvey Korman, Tim Conway, Vicki Lawrence) aided by Mel Brooks, the late Morrie Amsterdam and his female cohort (one word name), Sid Caesar, Imogene Coca, Carl Reiner, and their out-of-their-mind writers group/performers of the 50’s.
There is a lot of truth in the phrase “Oldies But Goodies”.