--- title: Disney Ex-CEO Michael Eisner Says Beautiful Women 'Usually Not Funny' description: Attractive, humorous women are "impossible to find" in Hollywood, Eisner says canonical: https://time.com/3945817/michael-eisner-beautiful-women-not-funny/ author: TIME article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-07-04T17:28:41.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-05T08:26:00.495Z og:title: Disney Ex-CEO Michael Eisner Says Beautiful Women 'Usually Not Funny' og:description: Attractive, humorous women are "impossible to find" in Hollywood, Eisner says og:url: https://time.com/3945817/michael-eisner-beautiful-women-not-funny/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf9b4d7b53b84c868/6988598de20a87c54aa8c250/michael-eisner.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2400 og:image:height: 1350 og:image:alt: Michael Eisner disney og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Disney Ex-CEO Michael Eisner Says Beautiful Women 'Usually Not Funny' twitter:description: Attractive, humorous women are "impossible to find" in Hollywood, Eisner says twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf9b4d7b53b84c868/6988598de20a87c54aa8c250/michael-eisner.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Former Disney Chief Says Beautiful Women 'Usually Not Funny' > Sponsored content. 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Terms and conditions apply. * Savings buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Savings Account. * No ATM fees from Ally Bank at Allpoint and Moneypass ATMs plus we reimburse for fees charged by other ATM owners nationwide up to $10 per statement cycle. * Early direct deposit offers eligible direct deposits up to two days sooner. * Spending buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Spending Account. ## Video: Michael Eisner Says Beautiful Women Aren't Usually Funny [Watch (HLS stream): Michael Eisner Says Beautiful Women Aren't Usually Funny](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/ONQyx5YT.m3u8) (1:02)  _Published 2015-07-05. Former Disney CEO Michael Eisner expressed his thoughts about funny women at the Aspen Ideas Festival, and as he suspected, that did not go over well._ by [The Hollywood Reporter](https://time.com/author/the-hollywood-reporter/) ## The Hollywood Reporter Jul 4, 2015 5:28 PM UTC Former Disney CEO Michael Eisner expressed his thoughts about funny women at the Aspen Ideas Festival, and as he suspected, that did not go over well. by [The Hollywood Reporter](https://time.com/author/the-hollywood-reporter/) ## The Hollywood Reporter Jul 4, 2015 5:28 PM UTC Michael Eisner thinks that funny, beautiful women are hard to find. That’s what the former Disney CEO told an audience Thursday at the Aspen Ideas Festival, according to The _Atlantic_. During an onstage conversation with Goldie Hawn, he theorized on why she’d been so successful: “From my position, the hardest artist to find is a beautiful, funny woman. By far. They usually—boy am I going to get in trouble, I know this goes online—but usually, unbelievably beautiful women, you being an exception, are not funny.” For her part, Hawn replied that she might owe her comedic talents to the fact that she thought of herself as an “ugly duckling” when she was young. “You didn’t think you were beautiful,” Eisner said. “I know women who have been told they’re beautiful, they win Miss Arkansas, they don’t ever have to get attention other than with their looks. So they don’t tell a joke. In the history of the motion-picture business, the number of beautiful, really beautiful women — a Lucille Ball — that are funny, is impossible to find.” Eisner, who served as CEO at Disney from 1984-2005, also held senior posts at ABC and Paramount Pictures. This [article](http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/disney-chief-michael-eisner-a-806748) was originally published at [The Hollywood Reporter](http://www.thr.com) ## Transcript Former Disney CEO Michael Eisner isn't known for headline making gaffes. But he might want to take this one back. During a conversation with Goldie Hawn at the Aspen Ideas Festival the former Disney Chief shared his opinion about successful women in Hollywood. From my position the hardest artist to find is a beautiful, funny woman, he told Hawn. He continued acknowledging the negative press he would likely receive from his next comments saying, " Boy am I going to get in trouble, I know this goes online- but usually, unbelievably beautiful women, you being an exception, are not funny ." His comments echo a 2007 Vanity Fair article by writer Christopher Hitchens. Hitchens made the argument that women are not funny because women have no corresponding Need to appeal to men this way. Hitchens continued, they already appeal to men, if you catch my drift. And back to Eisner. Along with his generalization that most female artists aren't funny, he went on to say they virtually don't exist. But we're thinking the all female cast for the Ghostbusters reboot might have something to say about that. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/3945817/michael-eisner-beautiful-women-not-funny/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/3945817/michael-eisner-beautiful-women-not-funny/"},"headline":"Former Disney Chief Says Beautiful Women 'Usually Not Funny'","datePublished":"2015-07-04T17:28:41.000Z","dateModified":"2026-10-05T08:26:00.495Z","description":"Attractive, humorous women are \"impossible to find\" in Hollywood, Michael Eisner says","url":"https://time.com/3945817/michael-eisner-beautiful-women-not-funny/","keywords":["Living","Culture"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf9b4d7b53b84c868/6988598de20a87c54aa8c250/michael-eisner.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"The Hollywood Reporter","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/the-hollywood-reporter/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltf9b4d7b53b84c868/6988598de20a87c54aa8c250/michael-eisner.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Michael Eisner disney","caption":"Michael Eisner disney","creditText":"Sylvain Gaboury—AP","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-living/","name":"Living"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/3945817/michael-eisner-beautiful-women-not-funny/","name":"Former Disney Chief Says Beautiful Women 'Usually Not Funny'"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Michael Eisner Says Beautiful Women Aren't Usually Funny","description":"Former Disney CEO Michael Eisner expressed his thoughts about funny women at the Aspen Ideas Festival, and as he suspected, that did not go over well.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/ONQyx5YT/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2015-07-05T17:22:17.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/ONQyx5YT.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/3945817/michael-eisner-beautiful-women-not-funny/","duration":"PT1M2S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/3945817/michael-eisner-beautiful-women-not-funny/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```