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So women aren't funny? Well, Joan Rivers had the last laugh, guys So women aren't funny? Well, Joan Rivers had the last laugh, guys
(35 minutes later)
Joan Rivers's death was a shock – she seemed like one of those performers who'd live into their 100s, if only to spite her enemies. Now the plaudits are rolling in, about her spitfire one-liners and devilish wit. But this being the era of the keyboard iconoclast, there's also censure and hatred, much of it focusing on her recent remarks that Palestinians "deserved to be dead".Joan Rivers's death was a shock – she seemed like one of those performers who'd live into their 100s, if only to spite her enemies. Now the plaudits are rolling in, about her spitfire one-liners and devilish wit. But this being the era of the keyboard iconoclast, there's also censure and hatred, much of it focusing on her recent remarks that Palestinians "deserved to be dead".
Taken just as remarks, Rivers's comments were horrendous. However, what she said needs to be set into the context of how acerbically and offensively she spoke about everything – from the absurdities of red-carpet fashion to the darkness of her husband's suicide. In my opinion, taking any of her comments out of this unique context (the context of Joan) is unfair and cowardly, in a way Rivers would never have been.Taken just as remarks, Rivers's comments were horrendous. However, what she said needs to be set into the context of how acerbically and offensively she spoke about everything – from the absurdities of red-carpet fashion to the darkness of her husband's suicide. In my opinion, taking any of her comments out of this unique context (the context of Joan) is unfair and cowardly, in a way Rivers would never have been.
Her true legacy extends even further and concerns that dreary old line about how women just aren't funny – at least, not as funny as men. Oh yes, those brave, fearless mainly straight men, pushing the boundaries of comedy and taste with their mighty phallocentric wit. Meanwhile, all the ladies do is flick their hair and rant about tampons. Female comics, eh – just a relentless, pointless hen party, thrown by desperate, sexless, identikit crones. You've got to have them on television shows because of tokenism, but that doesn't mean you have to laugh, right?Her true legacy extends even further and concerns that dreary old line about how women just aren't funny – at least, not as funny as men. Oh yes, those brave, fearless mainly straight men, pushing the boundaries of comedy and taste with their mighty phallocentric wit. Meanwhile, all the ladies do is flick their hair and rant about tampons. Female comics, eh – just a relentless, pointless hen party, thrown by desperate, sexless, identikit crones. You've got to have them on television shows because of tokenism, but that doesn't mean you have to laugh, right?
Women Aren't Funny (WAF) is a recurring thing. Even the late Christopher Hitchens chimed in at one point (though I suspect this was a wind-up). WAF usually goes something like this: women don't have to be funny because they can get laid anyway. They're also clever, serious-minded and able to give birth, all of which makes them unfunny. This is unlike men who have to hustle for sex, can't have babies, don't mind being pushy on panel shows and are thus blessed with righteous comedy chops.Women Aren't Funny (WAF) is a recurring thing. Even the late Christopher Hitchens chimed in at one point (though I suspect this was a wind-up). WAF usually goes something like this: women don't have to be funny because they can get laid anyway. They're also clever, serious-minded and able to give birth, all of which makes them unfunny. This is unlike men who have to hustle for sex, can't have babies, don't mind being pushy on panel shows and are thus blessed with righteous comedy chops.
All compelling, well-thought-out arguments, I'm sure you'll agree, almost as persuasive as the ones against female suffrage, which stated that having the vote would "give women the vapours". Note also how the WAF smoothies slyly cloak their stance in false humility and cod-flattery. "Women are better than us in every conceivable way… and this explains why we're funnier than them." Guess what, chaps, it really doesn't.All compelling, well-thought-out arguments, I'm sure you'll agree, almost as persuasive as the ones against female suffrage, which stated that having the vote would "give women the vapours". Note also how the WAF smoothies slyly cloak their stance in false humility and cod-flattery. "Women are better than us in every conceivable way… and this explains why we're funnier than them." Guess what, chaps, it really doesn't.
Into this murky milieu wafts Joan Rivers, the ultimate one-woman riposte to WAF. There are many other funny women but there isn't enough space to list them here, nor, indeed, the male comics I've found funny.Into this murky milieu wafts Joan Rivers, the ultimate one-woman riposte to WAF. There are many other funny women but there isn't enough space to list them here, nor, indeed, the male comics I've found funny.
This is the point – "funny" is effectively gender-free, and then some, transcending and obliterating everything else. Which includes the conditioning that makes some people feel more comfortable about men doing everything from flying planes to telling jokes, to the different rhythms and strengths sometimes to be found in female comedy, or the skewed male-to-female ratio that means a female comic's failings are doomed to be isolated, exaggerated and deemed universally representative in a way a man's wouldn't be.This is the point – "funny" is effectively gender-free, and then some, transcending and obliterating everything else. Which includes the conditioning that makes some people feel more comfortable about men doing everything from flying planes to telling jokes, to the different rhythms and strengths sometimes to be found in female comedy, or the skewed male-to-female ratio that means a female comic's failings are doomed to be isolated, exaggerated and deemed universally representative in a way a man's wouldn't be.
None of this matters when true "funny" bites, which is why the WAF lobby don't need to deny the existence of funny women any more. The game's well and truly up – the evidence that women are funny is all around us. Those WAFers who persist need to ask themselves whether refusing to laugh at the nice lady's jokes is some pathetic last bastion of male privilege and power.None of this matters when true "funny" bites, which is why the WAF lobby don't need to deny the existence of funny women any more. The game's well and truly up – the evidence that women are funny is all around us. Those WAFers who persist need to ask themselves whether refusing to laugh at the nice lady's jokes is some pathetic last bastion of male privilege and power.
For its part, female comedy just needs to get on with the job. Just like Rivers, who lived through much more difficult, restrictive times, and ploughed ahead, being funny in a way that often made other comics, male or female, look like feeble, safe, people-pleasing careerists by comparison.For its part, female comedy just needs to get on with the job. Just like Rivers, who lived through much more difficult, restrictive times, and ploughed ahead, being funny in a way that often made other comics, male or female, look like feeble, safe, people-pleasing careerists by comparison.
RIP, Ms Rivers, you appalling old feather boa with bared fangs – some of us wouldn't have missed you for the world.RIP, Ms Rivers, you appalling old feather boa with bared fangs – some of us wouldn't have missed you for the world.
Go, Judy – and just ignore the ungrateful brat
Is Andy Murray the most ungrateful son in Britain? On hearing that his mother, Judy, was to appear on the forthcoming series of Strictly Come Dancing, Murray reportedly said to her: "You'll be terrible." Thus Murray goes from tennis seed to bad seed in one fell swoop.
Here's a warning to all parents of the terrible truth about our unappreciative offspring – we fondly imagine that we're storing up eternal love, or at least a few Brownie points, with selfless behaviour and endless sacrifice during the childhood years. But look at Judy. Here's a woman who's devoted her life to spurring on her son, pumping up his confidence and not crushing his spirit with mean throwaway comments. But what happens when she wants a bit of sugar back? "You'll be terrible," says her son. That's what happens.
Note to Andy Murray: familial support should be a two-way street. This young man had better be sitting in the front row of Strictly, cheering, clapping, tapping a brogue and showing his support for his mother's attempts at sparkly clodhopping or there'll be jeers and boos from all the mums at the next Wimbledon.
I'll stick with the bad pub guide…
The Good Pub Guide has named its pub of the year. Congratulations to the Rose & Crown in Norfolk, which sounds like a fine British boozer. However, The Good Pub Guide argues that the days of "decrepit boozers with dull beer and freezer-pack food" are over and that the industry is finding "ingenious ways of pleasing new customers".
Well, there's the problem right there. Didn't a lot of people rather like decrepit boozers with the "dull" beer (not bottled stuff called smug, irritating things along the lines of Old Gooseberry, Whore's Bath or Farmer's Armpit)? Was there really anything so wrong with the old-style "hot food" menus, which could only be read by scraping away with your fingernails the impacted grease from the plastic covers, with the urgency of someone buried alive? After ordering, you would return to your seat with great difficulty, your feet adhering to the sticky, multicoloured carpet, "which didn't show the dirt", to await your food being served, usually a pasty, still in its packet, sweating from the microwave and tasting akin to a pus-filled pastry sock.
In place of this wonderful old-style ambience, what are these new "ingenious ways of pleasing customers"? Might this be referring to drab identikit wine bar decor, Wi-Fi that never works, expensive drinks in coloured glasses that all taste of alcoholic dandelion and burdock and all the other customers resembling a nightmare featuring the cast of Entourage?
No offence to The Good Pub Guide (I am culturally and emotionally opposed to offending any publication with the world "pub" placed prominently in the title) but I would hazard that, with pubs still closing at the rate of 28 a week, these new ingenious ways still have some way to go before they prove themselves.