In early ’07, pundit Christopher Hitchens — whom the Washington Post once poetically dubbed “a raffish provocateur” — penned a Vanity Fair essay claiming women aren’t funny. Last month, the magazine rebutted with a “Queens of Comedy” cover story yet still felt the need for the defensive headline: “Who Says Women Aren’t Funny?”

Indeed, who does? Certainly not network execs who’ve been programming female-fronted sitcoms since everyone started loving Lucy in 1951. In the ’60s, the star of I Dream of Jeannie sure wasn’t the astronaut and Samantha’s muggle husband on Bewitched was so interchangeable they literally interchanged him (from actor Dick York to Dick Sargent). The next few decades were similarly filled with the Mary Tyler Moore Show, Rhoda, Maude, Kate and Allie, Designing Women, Roseanne, Ellen and Murphy Brown — not to mention the perennially popular Golden Girls.
The success of the chick-com continues unabated, led by TV’s funniest comedy 30 Rock, which returns at long last this week with “MILF Island,” an episode about a Survivor-esque reality show involving 25 MILFS, 50 Grade 8 boys and one island.

30 Rock might be an ensemble show, but it’s the Emmy-winning baby of creator-writer-producer-star Tina Fey, who ensures its feminine funniness — from Liz Lemon’s struggles with relationships and being the boss of an all-male writer’s room to Jane Krakowski’s hilariously slutty self-absorbed star, plus plum guest spots for the powerful likes of Carrie Fisher, Isabella Rossellini and Edie Falco.

The most successful newbie comedy of the season is Samantha Who? Already renewed for a second go-round, this charming sitcom about an amnesiac ad exec who wakes from a coma to discover she used to be a real bitch succeeds thanks to Christina Applegate’s underrated comedy chops and the always-welcome presence of Designing Women’s Jean Smart.

There are inevitable bombs, of course. The Return of Jezebel James was supposed to be the triumphant return of Gilmore Girls creator Amy Sherman-Palladino to the traditional sitcom (she began as a Roseanne writer). It even featured indie heroine Parker Posey and Six Feet Under’s Lauren Ambrose. But the show sucked and was axed after three episodes. Somewhat better was Miss/Guided with Arrested Development’s Judy Greer as a geeky girl who returns to her high-school alma mater as the new guidance counsellor. It wrapped up its mini-season last week, but with meagre ratings, it is unlikely to return.

CBS’ The New Adventures of Old Christine also finished its season last week without a renewal notice. But a ratings-boosting appearance from star Julia Louis-Dreyfus’ old Seinfeld pal Jason Alexander bodes well. Albeit conventional, this female-created comedy is reliably amusing as Louis-Dreyfus nails another self-absorbed sitcom character — though its secret weapon is Wanda Sykes (Curb Your Enthusiasm), who boasts such impeccable delivery that pretty much everything she says is funny.

Tracey Ullman, however, is hit or miss, as the Brit impersonator takes on America in State of the Union. Her Renée Zellweger, complete with “chronic narcissistic squint,” and her venal take on Lindsay Lohan’s mom are hilarious while her soldier-mother trying to parent during a three-hour furlough and the airport security guard who diagnoses uninsured friends with the baggage x-ray machine are nicely biting. But her Bollywood pharmacist and her David Beckham just aren’t funny and what’s the point of attacking environmentalist Laurie David when nobody knows who she is. (That would be Larry David’s ex, and producer of An Inconvenient Truth.) 

Ullman also does also a mean Arianna Huffington — similarly obscure, but with a funny Greek accent — and even Christopher Hitchens would be amused by the sketch about him molesting Huff’s Hispanic maid: “I know he did that thing to you with the leaf blower….”