If Girls Proposed to Guys It Might Go Like This

Massachusetts-based sketch comedy group Fatawesome flipped gender roles in their latest video, entitled "If Girls Proposed to Guys," and the results were, surprisingly, kinda funny. Normally when confronted with titles like this (switching genders is a pretty common idea in comedy), I internally roll my eyes and prepare for the onslaught of "OMG isn't it so funny when guys act like sissies?? Look, he's being emotional and bad at math!" and "This girl is the breadwinner of the relationship. Isn't that hilarious?" These videos might be superficially funny, but they say quite a bit about the state of gender roles and (in)equality at the time they're made. The entire conceit is based on the idea that there are fundamental differences between men and women; otherwise, the video wouldn't be funny.

That being said, "If Girls Proposed to Guys" manages to mostly sidestep this issue by focusing less on shaming women for wanting to get engaged and more on the ridiculousness of expensive engagement rings in the first place. Although it does work off of the assumption that all women are materialistic whiners who pressure their significant others into marriage and purchases they can't afford, the video is funny because it highlights the uselessness of rings as a symbol of engagement by replacing them with something equally mundane, and possibly more useful.

This takes the focus off blaming women for wanting to get engaged and shifts it to the ridiculousness of society — and let's not forget the jewelry industry — for insisting that you only love someone as much as you can afford to spend on them.

The sketch also sheds light on the current idea of equality between genders. The fact that hearing a man say "I'm not getting any younger" is funny in that it serves to highlight the banality of the phrase. Nobody, in fact, is getting any younger, so why does everyone insist on pointing it out to older women? On the other hand, it was nice to see that the idea of the woman spending $8,000 on a lunchbox was funny because of the unreasonable price tag, not because she couldn't possibly have that kind of money to spend in the first place."If Girls Proposed to Guys" is, honestly, a pretty funny video. Despite the inherent pitfalls in gender-flipped sketches, the tone isn't mocking. So kudos to Fatawesome! Now I'm just waiting for the day when these sketches aren't funny anymore because people aren't stereotyped based on gender.Yeah, this might take a while.Image: Getty (1)