The Spectator said women ruined Mock the Week and Rachel Parris responded best
The BBC has called time on comedy panel show Mock The Week after a 17 year, 21 series run, which is great going by anyone’s standards.
You might have seen host Dara Ó Briain’s fabulous takedown of Andrew Neil after the Spectator chairman shared one of the magazine’s articles saying the BBC2 show deserved to be cancelled.
Still, at least I didn’t bail on it after two weeks and fuck off to my house in France, eh Andrew? All the best! X https://t.co/3vrrNScixv
— Dara Ó Briain (@daraobriain) August 3, 2022
The article, such as it was, said there were two reasons why it wasn’t as good as it used to be. Here’s just a bit of what it had to say …
‘First, in 2014, the BBC issued the injunction that its comedy panel shows could no longer have all-male line-ups. The result, as with all anti-meritocratic mandates, was that the quality was compromised, and consequently, in this case, the humour.
‘This is not to say that women aren’t intrinsically as funny as men. It’s just that the specific form of comedy that Mock the Week embodies, stand-up, is particularly suited to the masculine temperament: it’s competitive, aggressive, cruel, rude, crude and offensive.
‘The second event was the Brexit referendum of 2016, when, in unison, the makers, guests and whooping audience of the show exposed their snobbish Remainer tendencies.’
That’s quite enough of that.
And it was to the first of these that the great Rachel Parris – new Late Night Mash presenter and occasional Mock the Week panellist – turned her attention, and she surely says it best.
And so @TheSpectator have published a shit-for-brains article about Mock The Week saying remainers broke comedy and women aren’t good at standup; that tired old idea that standup, as a form, suits men not women, ignoring the many men it doesn’t suit and the many women it does..1/
— Rachel Parris (@rachelparris) August 4, 2022
The thing is (there’s so many things) stand up is a greatly varied genre. How can you compare Tim Vine’s one-liners, with Michael Macintyre’s observational routines, with Nish Kumar’s satire, with Ross Noble’s improvised madness? All great, all totally different 2/
— Rachel Parris (@rachelparris) August 4, 2022
But of course, if someone (someone like Spectator-douche) doesn’t enjoy, say, Milton Jones’ style on Mock, they just think they don’t enjoy Milton Jones. But if they don’t enjoy, say, Me, or Angela Barnes, or Kerry Godliman, then “women don’t suit standup”. It’s nonsensical.
— Rachel Parris (@rachelparris) August 4, 2022
For what it’s worth I think Mock is brilliant, I’ll miss watching it. I also think the panel show format has been done a lot + doesn’t suit some comedians. I’ve seen some men struggle on it. I’ve seen some women smash it. And vice versa. Once again; “Female comedy is not a genre”
— Rachel Parris (@rachelparris) August 4, 2022
Amen to that.
And in the unlikely event you don’t already, follow @rachelparris on Twitter here!
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Source Twitter @rachelparris
