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Original poster

Last One to Laugh - did the female contestants need to do sexualised performances for laughs?

59 replies

Nobiggerthanyourhand · 02/04/2025 13:07

I really enjoyed Last One to Laugh but was a bit perplexed by the female contestants doing strip teases and erotic dancing,

I don’t watch stand up any more but can’t imagine French and Saunders or Jo Brand twerking at a dog for laughs. Or Bridget Christie.

And the male contestants didn’t do sexualised performances.

So, YABU: it is ok that the women did sexualised performances, and the men, not
YANBU: there is more to women’s comedy than strip teases and twerking

OP posts:
Newgirls · 02/04/2025 17:35

I thought it showed a huge range of humour topics and styles. Men can’t do sex jokes at all as they’d be cancelled.

LizzieSiddal · 02/04/2025 17:25

We loved this series and have watched some episodes twice. Dh actually commented that it was a shame they felt the need to go there, (vibrator and striptease) they are both such funny women, it felt so old fashioned.

I was sad when Judi left though, thought she’d take the whole lot of them out as she has such an infectious laugh! 😆

ElfAndSafetyBored · 02/04/2025 17:17

It possibly wasn’t her actual mother 🤣

ElfAndSafetyBored · 02/04/2025 17:16

Nobiggerthanyourhand · 02/04/2025 13:44

Yes. BM did do a bit of magic with the tea towel.

There were two stripteases, I thought. Lou and Harriet.

I am not sure that I agree with the pendulum swinging back idea … what does a woman mocking a striptease / erotic dance do for the feminist cause?

And to be really prudish, the vibrator stuff with Judi Love was also a bit low-grade, wasn’t it?

I’m pretty sure Lou Sanders did an interpretive dance of her own birth alongside her mother. She came down a slide through her mums legs.

RufustheFactuaIReindeer · 02/04/2025 17:03

Right at the start, Bob Mortimer asked Rob Beckett if he had a kitchen island and you could see Rob already thinking he wasn't going to be able to cope

this 😀

RedPony1 · 02/04/2025 16:50

None of that bothered me in the slightest, i laughed all the way through, including tears. Was brilliant, just my humour 😂

Original poster
Nobiggerthanyourhand · 02/04/2025 16:37

I remember reading that Dawn French stopped doing their show because she felt that she had lost control of the joke … it was something to do with Anastasia.

I think this is the same space where I found the sexualised performances and the sexual banter in the programme a bit disappointing.

In the 90s, there was ‘ladette’ culture and reclamation of characteristically-masculine behaviours reframed for women… but haven’t we all moved on from that? (and seen that mocking something doesn’t necessarily put you in control of it?)..

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Dotjones · 02/04/2025 16:13

The vote doesn't make much sense, both are true. There's more to women's comedy but they are entitled to do it.

I actually can imagine Joe Brand or French & Saunders doing similar things, with Brand or French in particular because it'd be a sort of "ironic" "look at me I'm doing a striptease even though I've not got the body stereotypically associated with women who do them" way.

TheWonderhorse · 02/04/2025 15:51

NoSoupForU · 02/04/2025 15:23

I'm not a snobby person, certainly not when it comes to comedy, so I found it hilarious and has tears rolling down my cheeks several times from laughter.

I didn't find any of it to be sexualised. A piss take of a strip tease wasn't intended to be sexual, it was intended to be awkward and funny, which it was.

This was me. Joe Wilkinson's RNLI thing had me snort laughing whenever I remembered it.

NoSoupForU · 02/04/2025 15:23

I'm not a snobby person, certainly not when it comes to comedy, so I found it hilarious and has tears rolling down my cheeks several times from laughter.

I didn't find any of it to be sexualised. A piss take of a strip tease wasn't intended to be sexual, it was intended to be awkward and funny, which it was.

InspiritingNotion · 02/04/2025 15:18

Nobiggerthanyourhand · 02/04/2025 14:20

Oh, I totally agree @TheWonderhorse . It was brilliant. It has made my week watching it.

And the gallery of comedians smiling and openly laughing perfectly balanced the pent-up laughter of the ones in the room. It was joyous.

And I am glad that Bob Mortimer is so clearly loved, and his winning joke was the best!

Yes, I thought it was brilliant. Especially the completely innocuous questions that were setting people off.

Right at the start, Bob Mortimer asked Rob Beckett if he had a kitchen island and you could see Rob already thinking he wasn't going to be able to cope.

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Nobiggerthanyourhand · 02/04/2025 15:11

It spells out LOL @BatchCookBabe on Amazon.

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BatchCookBabe · 02/04/2025 15:01

Do you mean 'Last One Laughing' @Nobiggerthanyourhand ?

Or is this a different show?

(Not trying to be funny, honestly... Or pick you up on being 'wrong.' Just wonder if you mean Last One Laughing... On Amazon.)

TheWonderhorse · 02/04/2025 14:56

Redpeach · 02/04/2025 14:45

Not being funny but....i dont find drawings of penises funny

No? Fair enough. I do.

Redpeach · 02/04/2025 14:45

Not being funny but....i dont find drawings of penises funny

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Nobiggerthanyourhand · 02/04/2025 14:20

Oh, I totally agree @TheWonderhorse . It was brilliant. It has made my week watching it.

And the gallery of comedians smiling and openly laughing perfectly balanced the pent-up laughter of the ones in the room. It was joyous.

And I am glad that Bob Mortimer is so clearly loved, and his winning joke was the best!

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TheWonderhorse · 02/04/2025 13:54

I found the series great, actually. Because comedians laugh a lot, and telling the jokes was as dangerous as hearing them.

Bob Mortimer's winning joke was a classic and Joe Wilkinson's RNLI thing damn near killed me.

But the things that broke the contestants were the stupid little things, not the jokes generally.

Original poster
Nobiggerthanyourhand · 02/04/2025 13:49

KrisAkabusi · 02/04/2025 13:39

I don’t watch stand up any more but can’t imagine French and Saunders or Jo Brand twerking at a dog for laughs.

"Oh Timmy, you're so licky!"
Dawn French pretending to have sex with a dog in a Famous Five skit.

Yes! And she snogged Hugh Grant for Comic Relief. And Jo Brand and Ruby Wax did dress up as the Cheeky Girls.

Perhaps I have misremembered the golden era of female comedians. Well, I stand corrected (but at an uneasy angle and still with a perplexed expression).

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Original poster
Nobiggerthanyourhand · 02/04/2025 13:45

ScaryM0nster · 02/04/2025 13:28

Re listen or watch some Victoria Wood.

I like to imagine that she would have put more effort into a skit. Or at least rolled out some of her best stuff.

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Original poster
Nobiggerthanyourhand · 02/04/2025 13:44

Yes. BM did do a bit of magic with the tea towel.

There were two stripteases, I thought. Lou and Harriet.

I am not sure that I agree with the pendulum swinging back idea … what does a woman mocking a striptease / erotic dance do for the feminist cause?

And to be really prudish, the vibrator stuff with Judi Love was also a bit low-grade, wasn’t it?

OP posts:
KrisAkabusi · 02/04/2025 13:39

I don’t watch stand up any more but can’t imagine French and Saunders or Jo Brand twerking at a dog for laughs.

"Oh Timmy, you're so licky!"
Dawn French pretending to have sex with a dog in a Famous Five skit.

Maitri108 · 02/04/2025 13:39

I didn't watch it but I'm sick to death of women being sexualised. I watched a performance of the voice and two male singers had women wrapped in what looked like bandages writhing away in the background. We don't seem to have progressed much from Legs and Co.

RufustheFactuaIReindeer · 02/04/2025 13:32

The video one by Joe Wilkinson with the guy drawing detailed penises was sexual

Oh yes, completely forgot about that…shows how much attention i was paying

so both men and women did rude stuff and i didn’t find any of it funny

ScaryM0nster · 02/04/2025 13:28

Re listen or watch some Victoria Wood.

InspiritingNotion · 02/04/2025 13:25

RufustheFactuaIReindeer · 02/04/2025 13:18

Not all the boys did skits and not all the girls did rude stuff so maybe it would have balanced out

(can’t see richard doing anything rude though didnt mortimer do that tea towel rising from the genital area?

Yes BM waved a tea towel over a pretend stonk on.

Again, it wasn't in the least sexy.