Tiffany Haddish won Best comedy Album at the Grammys for “Black Mitzvah.” It was her first bidn in the category and her second overall following her Best Spoken Word Album nomination for “The Last Black Unicorn” in 2019. She was the only woman nominated in the comedy race this year, and the Grammys have been shockingly stingy to female comedians, so this win was especially noteworthy. Check out the complete list of Grammy winners here.
In the last 34 years, only one other woman took home Best Comedy Album: Kathy Griffin in 2014 for “Calm Down Gurrl.” Before that only four other women claimed this trophy: Jo Stafford (“Jonathan and Darlene Edwards in Paris,” 1961), Elaine May (“An Evening with Mike Nichols and Elaine May,” 1962), Lily Tomlin (“This is a Recording,” 1972) and Whoopi Goldberg (“Whoopi Goldberg: Original Broadway Show Recording,” 1986). This also makes Haddish just the second Black woman to win the award.
The historical shortfall is certainly not for a lack of female comedians in the running. The last five years have included Lisa Lampanelli, Margaret Cho, Tig Notaro, Amy Schumer, Sarah Silverman and Ellen DeGeneres among the nominees. But awards in those years went to Louis C.K. (2016), Patton Oswalt (2017) and three in a row for Dave Chappelle (2018-2020). What’s more, the recording academy nominated exclusively men in 2019, so there wasn’t even a chance for a woman to prevail.
This year Haddish was up against first-time nominee Bill Burr (“Paper Tiger”), six-time contender Jim Gaffigan (“The Pale Tourist”), aforementioned past winner Oswalt (“I Love Everything”) and three-time nominee Jerry Seinfeld (“23 Hours to Kill”). Luckily for Haddish, the undefeated Chappelle was absent from this particular lineup.
