Does Hollywood misunderstand women or is it the other way around? Responding to the recent onslaught of studio films featuring unemployed, socially maladjusted men and the bland (and usually blonde) bombshells who love them, Los Angeles Times film critic Carina Chocano recently wrote an essay about the lack of substantial roles for comedic actresses. “The idea that a girl might play anything other than ‘the girl’ in a studio comedy,” wrote Chocano, “is so far out of the mainstream that it’s considered an experimental concept, not to mention a major financial risk.”

Carina Chocano and Meghan Daum visit Zócalo for a thoughtful and witty conversation about women and humor, women and Hollywood and whether or not there’s any truth to the increasingly conventional wisdom that diminishing female roles are a direct result of diminishing female audiences.