This tweet perfectly sums up gender inequality in comedy

It’s hard out there for a female comedian. Sure, we might be living in the age of Tiny Fey, Amy Poehler, Mindy Kaling, Amy Schumer, Abbi and Ilana . . . but there are a lot of people out there who are still shocked when a new funny woman bursts onto the scene.

You would think we’d moved beyond that whole “women aren’t funny” thing, yet time and time again female comedians are treated vastly different from their male counterparts. Not only are they basically absent from stand-up nights at comedy clubs (in 2014, only 7.8% of the headliners at Caroline’s on Broadway were female), but when they do get on stage, their routines are often critiqued far more harshly than the routines of men.

For these reasons, and so many others, we’re totally loving comedian Sara Schaefer’s tweet about different standards set for male and female comedians. While men are just told to go out there and be funny, women are told to go out there and be funny — but not like, that funny. Oh, and could they maybe try and solve climate change during their 15-minute routine? Just a thought.

Schaefer herself is a long-time comedian, and even has an Emmy for her work on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, where she was the head blogger. But even with that comedy cred to her name, it’s still not as simple as “being funny” for female comedians.

Hopefully one day soon, the scales will truly be balanced between when the genders when it comes to comedy. Until then, at least we’re thankful for all the smart, funny women out there like Schaefer who reveal dark truths and make us laugh at the same time.

Related reading: 

Under-the-radar female comedians who kill it on the regular

Image via YouTube