Women on Panel Shows Page 3

Quote: zooo @ February 20 2012, 11:05 PM GMT

Finger sandwiches are they?

Yup Subway finger sandwiches, they go great with gorilla salad.

Quote: Renegade Carpark @ February 20 2012, 11:03 PM GMT

Whilst there might be one or two women who excel in the field, the rest are left wanting. This is no different to the gender based roles in other works of life - from midwifery to off shore oil rigs - some tasks are generally better suited to a specific gender.

Ok...that nearly made me pee.

Edited by zooo. Please use the proper quote button when quoting, thank you.

Quote: Harridan @ February 20 2012, 11:07 PM GMT

May I suggest you read this book:

See Amazon product listing

You seem to be under a misapprehension that women are a different species. Welcome to 2012, men can deliver babies and women can work on oil rigs.

In the future men will deliver babies to women on oil rigs.

Quote: Renegade Carpark @ February 20 2012, 11:03 PM GMT

Whilst there might be one or two women who excel in the field, the rest are left wanting.

To be fair, the rest that you've seen. What's been said is that perhaps they're not getting the right women on for us to see.

Quote: zooo @ February 20 2012, 11:03 PM GMT

There are competitive, shouty women though. It's not like the ability to shout is actually stored inside the penis.

I agree entirely and it's these ladies who should be on the panel shows kicking arse.

Instead, we have Josie Long complaining that panel shows are inherently sexist, as a sort of excuse for some female comics not being quick enough with the funnies.

If you want to take your time setting up a joke, without getting interrupted and dispense of one liners - that's just normal stand up, not a panel show.

Quote: Renegade Carpark @ February 20 2012, 11:14 PM GMT

I agree entirely and it's these ladies who should be on the panel shows kicking arse.

Instead, we have Josie Long complaining that panel shows are inherently sexist, as a sort of excuse for some female comics not being quick enough with the funnies.

If you want to take your time setting up a joke, without getting interrupted and dispense of one liners - that's just normal stand up, not a panel show.

What she said was that female comedians often aren't getting booked on panel shows as the 'female spot' is going to a TV presenter or an actress or a reality star. She wasn't whinging that she doesn't get enough of a spotlight on panel shows, she was commenting on the fact that female comics rarely appear on them at all.

Quote: zooo @ February 20 2012, 11:05 PM GMT

Finger sandwiches are they?

Laughing out loud

Quote: sootyj @ February 20 2012, 11:08 PM GMT

In the future men will deliver babies to women on oil rigs.

Are you implying that women aren't strong enough to carry post bags? Sexist.

In Australia we don't have many panel shows (Spicks and Specks, Good News Week, Gruen Transfer etc) and they are now becoming an endangered species (since we don't have that many left)

Even so these shows introduced us to local talent both male and female. Spicks and Specks in particular showcased a lot of female talent including Denise Scott, Fiona O'Loughlan, Cal Wilson and many more female talent that I can't name right now.

Just last night I watched a funny episode with Magda Szubanski from Kath and Kim. She is a very funny lady

Also they introduced us to many funny women who were musicians, stage actors etc.

If Australia can find brilliant female talent for their panel shows then why can't the UK?

Quote: Harridan @ February 20 2012, 11:19 PM GMT

What she said was that female comedians often aren't getting booked on panel shows as the 'female spot' is going to a TV presenter or an actress or a reality star. She wasn't whinging that she doesn't get enough of a spotlight on panel shows, she was commenting on the fact that female comics rarely appear on them at all.

Yeah, I know, but the facts always spoil my good arguments. Aside from Sarah Millican, who is a massive draw and has numerous sell out gigs and DVD sales to her name, it's kind of difficult for me to name another recent female comic as funny or as successful as her.

If the panel show format dictates that a non-comedic celebrity has to be included, the show's producers are probably playing it safe by having two male comics and a token female. Is it right? No, not at all.

Personally, I'm sick and tired of seeing the same 15 faces going round the panel show circuit doing the same old, tired jokes. I'd love to see some new, genuinely talented comics (of either gender) livening up the process.

And just to be balanced, there's a lot male dead weight on these shows - Alan Davies and Jack Whitehall are about as unfunny and tedious as it gets.

The other factor might be the power of the agent or broadcaster - eg. Miranda Hart has a new show out on BBC One - quick get her booked on everything. And it's the female comics who get marginalised.

Quote: Harridan @ February 20 2012, 11:19 PM GMT

What she said was that female comedians often aren't getting booked on panel shows as the 'female spot' is going to a TV presenter or an actress or a reality star.

This is sort of down to the type of wishy-washy panel show we're being fed now. Take the occasionally hard-hitting HIGNFY on one side; as sootyj said above, it has quite a high number of women, both comics and not. Because, I'd argue, it's more satirical first than funny. If that satire is also funny, then wonderful.

On the other hand, there's Mock The Week, which is satire second and funny first. And that's far more male dominated. And um. Yeah. There are different degrees of panel show, is what I'm trying to say.

And that's not to mention the chat shows that are sometimes called panel shows, like Room 101 or Alexander Armstrong's Big Ask or King Of....

Quote: Renegade Carpark @ February 20 2012, 11:32 PM GMT

The other factor might be the power of the agent or broadcaster - eg. Miranda Hart has a new show out on BBC One - quick get her booked on everything. And it's the female comics who get marginalised.

Although she doesn't really do panel shows and stuff. I see your general point though.

I think that using Mock the Week as a standard is a bad idea because 5 out of 7 seats on that show are filled by permanent male panellists. The other 2 seats haven't been filled by a newcomer to the show for quite a while, I think. If 5 out of 7 people in a group have been working with each other for years and are intensely familiar with each other it's no surprise that an outsider will struggle to get heard. Mark Watson wrote an article about how unpleasant an experience Mock the Week was for him, and I've always found him quite an impressive comedian. http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/mark-watson/2010/06/mock-feel-shows-felt-series

I think there is something in this you know. I have just finished listening to Dave Gorman's Pub Olympics. There was one round where they had to come up with terrible puns of musicians that could also be a sporting event (think Golf Harris etc). Roisin Conaty was on there and her gags were no cornier than any of the guys on the panel, but it was audibly apparent that none of her lines were getting over with the audience. I couldn't work out why.

And in terms of competitiveness, Sue Perkins is always in her element on panel shows (she is great at Just a Minute), and seems like she's uber-competitive too.

Dare I say that perhaps female comedians aren't really that bothered about appearing on panel shows to begin with? so therefore are not queueing up to appear.. and the ones that do wish to appear either don't get the chance by sheer under-representation in numbers or are sadly simply not well known enough outside of the inner comedy scene to be considered in the first place.
It does seem a more male led medium and no matter what the strides in gender roles, women and men are naturally drawn to different things, that is, men generally are more into the one-upmanship of who can be the quickest or funniest, women are competitive too of course but in a different way, but the panel show format is not their natural habitat.

Quote: Shandonbelle @ February 21 2012, 12:00 AM GMT

Dare I say that perhaps female comedians aren't really that bothered about appearing on panel shows to begin with? so therefore are not queueing up to appear.. and the ones that do wish to appear either don't get the chance by sheer under-representation in numbers or are sadly simply not well known enough outside of the inner comedy scene to be considered in the first place.
It does seem a more male led medium and no matter what the strides in gender roles, women and men are naturally drawn to different things, that is, men generally are more into the one-upmanship of who can be the quickest or funniest, women are competitive too of course but in a different way, but the panel show format is not their natural habitat.

I think that's just a platitude that doesn't have any real basis in fact, but excuses the status quo by saying marginalised people naturally marginalise themselves.