If you go to make a list of the funniest women in comedy, Tiffany Haddish is most likely in the Top 5.
The up-and-coming comedian already has an impressive résumé, having starred in Girls Trip, hosted Saturday Night Live, hung out with Beyoncé and Jay-Z, and scored a plum gig as the spokeswoman of Groupon during the Super Bowl; and she's done it all without seeming to break a sweat. What can we say, the woman's a natural.
But, it turns out that Haddish's road to success wasn't as seamless as she's made it look. In an exclusive clip for Uncensored, TV One's new autobiography series which debuts on February 18 at 10/9c, Haddish explains she's had to fight twice as hard to prove her worth in an industry dominated by men.
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"Men say some of the craziest things," she said. "They're like, 'You're so beautiful, there's no way you could be a comedian. Why don't you come back to my place and tell me some jokes?'"
Haddish has opened up before about the kinds of sexual harassment she's experienced in the comedy world. Perhaps it comes as no surprise, but she's never been afraid to shut men down.
"Either give me some stage time or get the fuck out of my face," she said in the preview with a laugh.
Of course, she knows first-hand just how unfunny harassment is. In the preview, Haddish explained that she's witnessed so many women give up on their dreams because they couldn't deal with male comics demeaning them at every performance. She also saw some women quit comedy because they did wind up sleeping with men and were in turn harassed for that! It's almost as if women comics are forced into a lose-lose situation.
"I've had so many comics tell me, 'You need to just go ahead and get pregnant by somebody rich and quit this. I don't even know why you're doing this. You need to get you a governor or a senator,'" she said.
Instead of following the above terrible advice, Haddish kept her focus and proved that the best revenge is success.
"You know, them telling me I shouldn't be doing this just made me want to do it more," she said. "All those comics that told me I shouldn't be doing it or tried to, like, get something out of me or whatever, are all like, 'Yo, I gotta script. Hey, Tiff, I always knew you was going to make it. You always had that it factor. I always knew that.' I was like, 'Really, 'cause you told me I should quit. But, that's 'cause I was scared of you. You was scared of me!'"
Let 'em be scared, Tiff, and keep doing you.