The twitter war against @mocktheweek has finally ended. It could most closely be described as akin to a battle in which cannonballs are fired at a person who, protected by an imaginary brick wall, simply denies that the cannonballs, the wall, gravity, or any form of Newtonian law exists.
The social media face of Mock the Week, known only as "@mocktheweek", refused, in the face of all reasonability, to accept that there is anything sexist about a panel show in which women comedians are a: rarely booked and b: hate appearing when they do get booked. I can't be bothered to explain, again, why it is very, very, very, very, very sexist, so I will simply recall here that the all-female episode of Whose Line is it Anyway was one of the funnier ones. Just saying. Four comics who were women did comedy on a stage and it was funny. Anyway, if you are confused about why Mock the Week is very, very, very, very, etc, sexist, go on twitter, search 'mocktheweek', and scroll down the exchanges. I'm not linking.
Anyway, and instead, let us feast our ears on a compendium of comedians who, if they were men, would probably be Mock the Week regulars/would by now have their own road-shows and a pile of free money gifted to them by the BBC:
1. Isy Suttie:
In exhibit A (above, literally just above) we see a comedian making funny jokes to a large audience of people who are laughing. That comedian happens to be a woman, and therefore either a: will not be booked to appear on Mock the Week, or b: will not appear on Mock the Week because it is a particularly nasty atmosphere for women comedians - see Jo Brand.
2. Sarah Kendall [Edit 22/1/12: transphobia warning at around 11.30 mins]
One of my favourite comedians who probably won't ever be on Mock the Week. Unlike Russell Howard, who gets to be a regular in virtue of having a real penis, probably. I hope Sarah Kendall does go on it, but if she is her jokes will probably get edited out in favour of some look-at-me-mummy-i'm-clever-now nonsense.
3. Shazia Mirza
Bit of an obvious choice, but also, why the hell doesn't she already have her own show?
4. Josie Long
Pretty well known and stuff. Pretty funny. Probably hasn't been on Mock the Week, and I hope she doesn't go on it. I have a suspicion her style would get lost in the celebratory cockfest. She's spot on with the bit about turning 'go on then, make me laugh' guests into 'I like drinking water out of sponges' guests.
5. Here, to finish, is a trailer from the Funny Women awards of 2010. What's that about female comedians just 'not existing'?
Other things to look at -
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/03/09/52-female-comedians_n_833214.html - because they have women comedians in America too.
What's that? Another women comedian talking about how Mock the Week is horrible? http://www.birminghammail.net/what-is-on-in-birmingham/birmingham-comedy/2009/12/11/comedy-shappi-khorsandi-takes-on-the-male-world-of-stand-up-97319-25366685/
Good stuff on the most recent sexism debate: http://minority-thought.com/culture/2011/09/twitter-diversity-audits-and-mock-the-week-why-the-bbc-is-failing-its-audience
yay for all those women!
ReplyDeleteOne of my fave comedy moments was when Josie Long took down Frankie Boyle on 'you have been watching' when he made a 'joke' about lesbian plumbers and she told him in v funny terms how this wasn't the 1950s and won the argument.
SHE ROCKS!
Funny how you ignore the fact that Mock The Week does book women. You write like it never happens.
ReplyDeleteCheck out @DaraOBriain's tweets on Monday evening to get an accurate depiction of the comedy industry and why less women are booked for MTW than men.
Hi @Anonymous
ReplyDeleteIf you look at my article, you will see that I wrote, of Mock the Week, that "women comedians are a: rarely booked and b: hate appearing when they do get booked."
I suggest you read the article before commenting next time.
Also, I would recommend that you check out Dara O'Briain's tweets. You will see that feminists have been repeatedly explaining to him why his views are simplistic and incorrect.
All the best.
Would a more parsimonious explanation be that the sample size of "comedians booked for Mock the Week" is quite small, and they have chosen funnier ones, and the higher proportion of men is a result of the individuals in the small sample?
ReplyDeleteWe could argue that they thought that more men were funnier because they are sexist and so find men funnier, but how could we show the influence of their sexims besides looking at the numbers...in the small sample?
Your argument seems a bit self-contradictory.
ReplyDeleteIf you're right that the style of this particular panel show doesn't suit many female participants, would that not explain and justify why there aren't many women booked?
Um, I was really enjoying this, and thank you for linking so many good comics. But I was caught completely off-guard by the Sarah Kendall "isn't it freakish when a woman has a penis" humour. I wonder if you can add a transphobia warning to the video, because it's not nice to run into that without warning, especially once you're already on-side with a comic.
ReplyDelete@Hugh, @Jason W
ReplyDeleteYawn. Do try to keep up.
@radtransfem
I've added in a warning. Really sorry for not picking up on that before!
Eh? When did Shappi say that being on Mock The Week was horrible?
ReplyDelete