Riona (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
rionaleonhart) wrote2010-05-31 05:59 pm
rionaleonhart) wrote2010-05-31 05:59 pm
Entry tags:
If We All Ran At Him, He Wouldn't Be Able To Do Anything.
I really shouldn't look at forum comments about You Have Been Watching, because they just end up making me angry.
it could've been improved by ditching that Holly Walsh bint and replacing her with someone who's actually funny and would have contributed to the show
No, Internet. No. Shut up. Holly Walsh contributed, if I recall correctly, more than Mark Watson, but you're not criticising him; chances are you just ignored her contributions because she's an attractive young woman and so you assumed she wouldn't have anything to say worth hearing before she'd even opened her mouth.
It is fine not to find her funny! It is the blatant untruth of saying that she didn't contribute that makes me suspect differences in comedic taste aren't the only factor at work here.
Maybe they could have the next series with a regular panel of David Mitchell, Robert Webb, Reginald D Hunter and Victoria Coren - to look pretty.
OH MY GOD, INTERNET, SHUT UP.
The different standard to which female panel show guests are held really does make me seethe. It is fine not to like Victoria Coren or Josie Long or Holly Walsh or Sue Perkins or Jo Brand or Sarah Millican or Shappi Khorsandi or Lucy Porter or Catherine Tate or Miranda Hart as a performer. It really is. Some of them I love; some of them I can take or leave. It's the same with male comedians; I'm generally not a fan of Frankie Boyle's material, but I understand he's a popular comedian, and I've never really found Andy Parsons funny. They're just not to my tastes. That's fine.
But so often women are simply dismissed as the 'token panel show woman'. So often people seem to assume, the second they see that a panellist has breasts, that she isn't going to be funny, and of course if the viewer is already working under that assumption any woman on the panel is going to have to work much harder than the men to impress them. I know this attitude exists, because, to my shame, I've had to catch it and train it out of myself. Then there's the appearance paradox, which I simply haven't seen in comments about male comedians: women in comedy are criticised if they're attractive, because obviously in that case they're just there to provide 'eye candy' (as we all know, if you spend all the points you gain on levelling up on Charisma, you won't have any left to spend on Intelligence, and I see no reason why we shouldn't apply RPG logic to real life), and they're criticised if they're not attractive, because then what's the point of having them there?
THEY ARE THERE TO MAKE HUMOROUS COMMENTS, INTERNET. THEY ARE THERE TO BE FUNNY. AND, IF YOU GAVE THEM A CHANCE, YOU MIGHT FIND THAT THEY SUCCEED. THEY GET SOME RESPECT; YOU ENJOY PANEL SHOWS MORE. IT IS A WIN-WIN SITUATION.
Perhaps it's easier to name truly outstanding male comedians than it is to name female ones, but I suspect that's just because there are fewer female comedians, and, given the way they're treated, is that a surprise?
In conclusion: shut up, Internet. Shut up, shut up, shut up. There are good female comedians, but you are never going to realise this unless you gain enough respect for women to be able to laugh at them.
(This rant isn't directed at any of you; I just felt it needed to be said.)
it could've been improved by ditching that Holly Walsh bint and replacing her with someone who's actually funny and would have contributed to the show
No, Internet. No. Shut up. Holly Walsh contributed, if I recall correctly, more than Mark Watson, but you're not criticising him; chances are you just ignored her contributions because she's an attractive young woman and so you assumed she wouldn't have anything to say worth hearing before she'd even opened her mouth.
It is fine not to find her funny! It is the blatant untruth of saying that she didn't contribute that makes me suspect differences in comedic taste aren't the only factor at work here.
Maybe they could have the next series with a regular panel of David Mitchell, Robert Webb, Reginald D Hunter and Victoria Coren - to look pretty.
OH MY GOD, INTERNET, SHUT UP.
The different standard to which female panel show guests are held really does make me seethe. It is fine not to like Victoria Coren or Josie Long or Holly Walsh or Sue Perkins or Jo Brand or Sarah Millican or Shappi Khorsandi or Lucy Porter or Catherine Tate or Miranda Hart as a performer. It really is. Some of them I love; some of them I can take or leave. It's the same with male comedians; I'm generally not a fan of Frankie Boyle's material, but I understand he's a popular comedian, and I've never really found Andy Parsons funny. They're just not to my tastes. That's fine.
But so often women are simply dismissed as the 'token panel show woman'. So often people seem to assume, the second they see that a panellist has breasts, that she isn't going to be funny, and of course if the viewer is already working under that assumption any woman on the panel is going to have to work much harder than the men to impress them. I know this attitude exists, because, to my shame, I've had to catch it and train it out of myself. Then there's the appearance paradox, which I simply haven't seen in comments about male comedians: women in comedy are criticised if they're attractive, because obviously in that case they're just there to provide 'eye candy' (as we all know, if you spend all the points you gain on levelling up on Charisma, you won't have any left to spend on Intelligence, and I see no reason why we shouldn't apply RPG logic to real life), and they're criticised if they're not attractive, because then what's the point of having them there?
THEY ARE THERE TO MAKE HUMOROUS COMMENTS, INTERNET. THEY ARE THERE TO BE FUNNY. AND, IF YOU GAVE THEM A CHANCE, YOU MIGHT FIND THAT THEY SUCCEED. THEY GET SOME RESPECT; YOU ENJOY PANEL SHOWS MORE. IT IS A WIN-WIN SITUATION.
Perhaps it's easier to name truly outstanding male comedians than it is to name female ones, but I suspect that's just because there are fewer female comedians, and, given the way they're treated, is that a surprise?
In conclusion: shut up, Internet. Shut up, shut up, shut up. There are good female comedians, but you are never going to realise this unless you gain enough respect for women to be able to laugh at them.
(This rant isn't directed at any of you; I just felt it needed to be said.)