Just A Minute

 
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Re: are panel games sexist?

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Dean BedfordJun 12, 2009
 

 
Your argument is similar to that of others who have replied, simply that
the men are funnier. I think this is true too but it begs the question -
why? Women are after all more than half the population.

the answer that Victoria Wood and Jo Brand and Sandi Toksvig have is
that the style of comedy on panel games is "laddish" and not a style
that women find comfortable. I am still not sure whether I agree (I know
some very quick-witted sharp-tongued women) but I can see their point.
And it's interesting that all three have had a taste of JAM - and
certainly Victoria and Sandi did very well - but they didn't continue on
with it.

Incidentally, I don't really see Aimi as being there on sufferance.
Perhaps I'll write something about her and her unique style on another
occasion.

On Friday, June 12, 2009, at 03:45 PM, Clitheroe Kid wrote:

>
>
> > --- In just-a-minute@..., Dean Bedford <dbedford@...>
> wrote:
> > >
> > > You mention for example Kenneth saying "we shouldn't have women on
> the
> > > show". Where's the woman who is well-known for the phrase "we
> shouldn't
> > > have men on the show" or something similar?
>
> As a fan of the show, Dean, I'm sure you will be the first to admit that
> Kenneth used that phrase humourously. He was not seriously asking for
> women
> to be banned from the show!
>
> Though billed as a panel game, 'Just A Minute' is really an
> improvisational
> comedy, in much the same genre as 'Whose Line Is It Anyway?' Just like
> Paul
> Merton and the stand-ups do today, Kenneth's role in the show (when he
> was
> added to the panel in series 2) was to provide comedy, in the form of
> spontaneous wit.
>
> The other panellists quickly adopted the same approach; and those who
> couldn't cut the mustard, so far as humour was concerned, fell by the
> wayside. Clement Freud turned out to have a devastatingly filthy line in
> humour; Peter Jones had a slightly subversive and actor-ish humour; and
> Derek, like Kenneth and Peter, had also cut his teeth as a comedy actor.
>
> These people didn't choose to become the regulars - they simply became
> regulars by default, because they were the best players. The format was
> thus
> self-selecting. The show rapidly became the survival of the fittest:
> and the
> name of the game was wit.
>
> Wilma Ewart and Beryl Reid were not suited to surviving in this type of
> show, and rapidly disappeared. Likewise Geraldine James. You say that
> Aimi
> was the butt of the jokes, but she lasted more than ten years on the
> show.
> And, really, she was no worse at the game than Peter Jones.
>
> But the men were more successful in their use of humour. They were
> simply
> funnier than the women. And in my opinion some of the women were only
> there
> on sufferance. You obviously felt that Aimi was one of those: I'm not
> sure I
> agree, although she obviously used different tactics from the regular
> foursome.
>
> However, the show was *never* about the sort of laddish culture which
> you
> see on "Never Mind the Buzzcocks". Although Clement employed somewhat
> risque
> material at times, the show never approximated the approach of someone
> like
> Phill Jupitus.
>
> Under Kenneth and Derek, in particular, the show had an intellectual
> content
> that's completely absent from all other comparable shows - well, those
> that
> didn't have Frank Muir in! It also had, as I say, wit. Sadly, a lot of
> the
> female *and* male guests who filled the fourth chair couldn't
> contribute in
> either of those ways.
>
> It is simply a hard game to play well. It's definitely a game that
> anyone
> can play, but not everyone who tries plays it well. Most of the guests
> in
> the fourth chair spent 60 seconds boring the pants off the audience (at
> least until they had played a dozen or more shows). Wendy, bless her,
> was
> never able to play it at the level that Kenneth or Peter or Derek
> achieved.
>
> Viewed simply as an improvisational comedy, it has to be admitted that
> no
> woman ever played the game to the same standard as Kenneth Williams; so
> the
> question "where is the woman who said: we shouldn't have men on the
> show"
> becomes a purely rhetorical one.
>
> But I see nothing sexist in the show whatever: the cream simply floated
> to
> the top, and the cream was Kenneth, Clement, Derek and Peter. Lots of
> women
> and lots of men were tried out, and didn't do as well. That's life!
>
>

 
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