American comedian Chelsea Handler posted another video on Monday desperately defending her “child-free” lifestyle. She pointed to a faulty claim by a “happiness expert” who misinterpreted data from the American Time Use Survey to assert that single women with no children are happier than married mothers. Handler’s shrill, shabby brief for the childless life did not help her case. The data show what it has always shown: Married mothers are happier.
In Monday’s video, Handler responded to a YouTube video of conservative television host Jedediah Bila criticizing her for encouraging young women to embrace sexual promiscuity and excessive alcohol consumption. Handler set up her camera in front of her “hyperbaric chamber,” sat down in it, and popped open a bottle of champagne. With bulging eyes and a forced laugh, she proceeded to brag about the money she spends on beauty and drugs rather than children.
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She then referenced an erroneous data interpretation by psychology professor Paul Dolan, who stated in his 2019 book, Happy Ever After, that single women with no children are happier than married mothers. Dolan’s sensationalist statement derived from a misinterpretation of the American Time Use Survey, which records how Americans spend their time annually. Referring to a section called “spouse absent,” he said: “Married people are happier than other population sub-groups but only when their spouse is in the room when they’re asked how happy they are. When the spouse is not present: f***ing miserable.”
Dolan’s claim was discredited by Gray Kimbrough, an economist at the American University’s School of Public Affairs. Kimbrough, who has done his fair share of research with the American Time Use Survey, said that Dolan interpreted the category “spouse absent” as meaning data recorded when someone’s spouse is out of the room. “Spouse absent” actually refers to married people whose spouses no longer live in their households.
Women were not revealing some big secret about their repression and misery to the American Time Use Survey when their spouses had left the room for a moment. Dolan admitted his error to Vox: “We did indeed misinterpret the variable. Some surveys do code whether people are present for the interview but in this instance it refers to present in the household.”
So, married people are happier than other population sub-groups. Spouses are not deceiving one another. And Handler’s attempt to appeal to science has failed her. The display is just as sad as her comedy routines.
Half of Handler’s material consists of tasteless “jokes” detailing the wonders of a child-free life and criticizing the choice to become a parent. She will often boast about the disposable income she has because of her decision not to have children. For example, her wisdom recently revealed to her that a waterslide is way cooler than a child.
She began her 2022 Netflix comedy special Revolution with a crack about the horrors of being a mother during COVID. (She would know since her siblings have children and her sister’s family moved in with her for a few days.) She went on for five minutes about the stresses of homeschooling and sacrificing “me time.” She sees it as a disastrous fate for women to have to stay at home with their loving husbands and attend to their children.
Handler’s routine suggests that the majority of mothers were drowning in despair during the pandemic. The numbers actually point slightly in the other direction, and data suggest that married mothers might have actually been better off during COVID. Sixty-five percent of American mothers aged 18 to 55 were satisfied with their lives, compared to only 61% of childless women. According to the same dataset from the 2020 American Family Survey, 56% of married people said the pandemic strengthened their bonds with their spouse.
Not only are Handler’s whiny quips redundant and unfunny, they are just plain untrue. Most of her skits are the feminist equivalent of men calling their wives “the old ball-and-chain.” As Bila remarked, the 48-year-old comedian’s immaturity is almost pitiful. Handler knows her cash and her mansion are incomparable to the value of a child. She does not have a leg to stand on.
For comedians’ skits to be effective, their jokes must retain a modicum of relatability and truth. Handler uses comedy to boast about her wealth and spread lies about parenting. She is a bitter narcissist exposed by the data.
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Briana Oser is a summer 2023 Washington Examiner fellow.