We love a lady who can make us laugh. Or cringe.
Everybody loves to laugh. Everybody loves sexy people. Sexy people who can make us laugh are… well, they're the best. And to that end, we're taking a look at the women who tickle our funny bones and… there's a joke here about erections, but we think you get the drift.
10. Megan Amram
A twenty-four-year-old Harvard grad who helped rocket herself to a writing gig on Parks and Recreation by being a Twitter wunderkind, Megan Amram avoided the usual "grueling years of standup" route that a lot of these other women have taken. She's also cultivated an online body of work that reads like the ravings of a hilariously unmedicated mental patient: if gems like “I never give homeless people drugs because I know they're just going to trade them for food” and “If you have an erection lasting four or more hours, immediately seek a HIGH FIVE” don’t do it for you, then laugh uncomfortably through your arousal with her fake ad for a phone-sex hotline.
9. Margaret Cho
The poster for Margaret Cho’s upcoming “Mother” tour shows her scantily-clad, heavily-tattooed, and straddling a motorcycle, which pretty much sums things up. We'll say it: she could probably throw us around, and we're really into that. Cho has spent her nearly two-decade career pushing boundaries, whether it’s with her impressive burlesque dancing skills, deeply personal one-woman shows, or frighteningly accurate Kim Jong-Il impression. She deserves props for her LGBT advocacy efforts alone, but it's ability to effortlessly combine her agenda with her stand-up makes her a sexy, fierce performer.
8. Mary Lynn Rajskub
It’s no small feat to make it out of playing a character called Gail the Snail (on It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia) with your dignity and sex appeal still intact, but it helps that Mary Lynn Rajskub had six years of experience as television’s hottest nerds. Rajskub is probably best known as Jack Bauer’s semi-sidekick Chloe on 24, but besides a television and film career that spans back to the brilliant sketch series Mr. Show, Rajskub has long been a supremely talented comic, and one not at all deserving of having salt thrown at her. We would rather pitch woo.
7. Jen Kirkman
Opinions vary on the subject of Chelsea Handler, but there's no ironic hate-watching when it comes to Chelsea Lately writer and regular roundtable contributor Jen Kirkman. "Southie" (as she's been dubbed by Paul F. Tompkins) tackles subjects from the difficulty of constructing a proper mental narrative to her increasingly limited use for straight men. Blonde vs. brunette is a battle that will rage until the end of time, but we prefer Kirkman's girl-next-door cuteness to Handler's Nordic sass.
6. Maria Bamford
Maria Bamford may very well be the only sexy "crazy dog lady" in existence. If she weren't one-fourth of the alt-comic dream team the Comedians of Comedy and a talented stand-up performer who carefully toes the line between "sad-crazy" and "funny-crazy," Bamford and her pugs Bert and Blueberry would be the kind of trio you avoided on public transportation. Her schizophrenic act riffs on such cheery topics as depression and anxiety, and her neurotic hotness is truly something to behold.
NEXT: "Her Michael Jackson is terrifyingly spot-on, which… is very sexually confusing for all of us…"
5. Amy Schumer
Amy Schumer is dark. And not just inappropriately-timed-Ryan-Dunn-joke dark, but basement-dwelling, traumatizing-memory-uncovered-by-years-of-therapy dark. On her wickedly funny debut album, Cutting, she drops references to AIDS, sex with minors, and self-mutilation as casually as Gallagher smashes watermelons, and her upcoming sketch show for Comedy Central promises an even deeper look into her brilliantly twisted mind. She's also just adorable-looking — the cognitive disconnect of someone so cute spewing such vitriol is half the joy of her act.
4. Garfunkel and Oates
Comedy folk music is powerful enough to make even the guys from Flight of the Conchords look like sex symbols, so using it to make dick jokes is irresponsibly sexy in the hands of songwriters Kate Micucci (Oates) and Riki Lindhome (Garfunkel). Their latest release — this year’s Slippery When Moist — expands their already impressive repertoire of songs about accidental go-kart masturbation, duck sex, and the smugness of pregnant women. Cute lady musicians who are also hilarious: why do we sense half of Brooklyn is hiding an erection right now?
3. Melissa Villasenor
Celebrity impressions might be low-hanging fruit, but the incredibly cute Melissa Villasenor elevates the tactic by virtue of her dead-on accuracy and powerful pipes. She made it all the way to last year’s America’s Got Talent semifinals, only to lose to one of those singers who lost his entire family in a barn fire or something equally sad. But Villasenor still won hearts and loins with some perfect impressions of Christina Aguilera, Natalie Portman, and more, and continues performing on her YouTube channel. Her Michael Jackson is terrifyingly spot-on, which… is very sexually confusing for all of us.
2. Anjelah Johnson
As a former cheerleader for the Oakland Raiders, Anjelah Johnson has basically cemented her position on any “Sexiest Comedians” list from now until the end of time. A one-time performer on MadTV, Johnson made an impact during her relatively short tenure on the show with her sassy Burger King cashier Bon Qui Qui, which is about as hilariously offensive as it sounds. Johnson has even recently released a single as Bon Qui Qui, starting a music career that is at least as legitimate as Kreayshawn’s.
1. Aisha Tyler
Aisha Tyler is so sexy she makes The Talk almost watchable. Aisha Tyler is so sexy that her character Lana on Archer is the only cartoon I can think is hot without all the usual associated shame and guilt. Aisha Tyler is so sexy she’s the only reason anyone would ever own the first season of Ghost Whisperer on DVD. But all of that is secondary to the fact that Aisha Tyler is a hilarious stand-up comedian. Her 2009 special Aisha Tyler is Lit just screams for a follow-up, and her podcast “Girl on Guy,” which regularly features her Archer co-stars, captures all the drunken revelry of an I.S.I.S. afterparty.