Having A Laugh

The Baroness von Sketch Show’s Jennifer Whalen on women in comedy, dresses with pockets and taking on edgy material.

- Courtney Shea

Your show is a sketch-comedy series starring four female comedians over 40—a double rarity. Given our cultural obsession with youth, how big of a deal is this?

It’s huge. For a woman, you have this idea when you’re young that you can be whatever you want. But then puberty hits and you realize that a lot of your value is tied to what you look like. As you get older, that calms down, but then you don’t have a place in our society anymore. It’s such a waste. The minute I hit 40, I was just a smarter, better version of myself.

There’s also the fact that some men don’t see women as fully human, and here’s a show where women are fully realized people with their own agendas. I think that’s important.

What does each of the Baronesses bring to the group that’s unique?