Lisa Lampanelli

About Lisa Lampanelli

Lisa Lampanelli (born Lisa Lampugnale; July 19, 1961), often called the Queen of Mean, is a Grammy-nominated American stand-up comedian and "insult comic". She is noted for her extremely racy, raunchy, style of comedy, which frequently includes 'taboo' subjects such as racism.

Lampanelli was born in Trumbull, Connecticut and graduated from St. Joseph High School in Trumbull, CT. Lampanelli graduated from Syracuse University in 1983 with a degree in journalism and went through a graduate program at Harvard in 1986. She worked as a copy editor at Popular Mechanics and an assistant at Rolling Stone. She was also a fact checker and the first chief of research for Spy magazine; a book about Spy describes her then as "your average decked-out-heavy-metal-head-next-door." Speaking later to Maxim Magazine Online, Lampanelli remarked, "I was a real journalist for Rolling Stone, Spy, Hit Parader. I interviewed those fuckin' hair bands: Cinderella, Slaughter. They were dumb as a post."

Lampanelli began her stand-up career in New York in the early 1990s. She made her break at the 2002 New York Friars' Club roast of Chevy Chase, and went on to participate in the roasts of Pamela Anderson, Jeff Foxworthy, Flavor Flav, and William Shatner. Lampanelli released a comedy special on DVD entitled Take it Like A Man, appeared in the 2006 motion picture Larry the Cable Guy: Health Inspector, and had a cameo appearance in the VH1 sitcom So NoTORIous. She also landed a deal with Fox for a sitcom pilot with the tentative title Big Loud Lisa, which was considered a candidate for the network's 2006-07 television season.