Stewart Lee

Robin Ince has written a gushing review of his pal's current show. He does, however, mention how male the audience are.

Have literally just finished watching Richard Herrings podcast with Robin Ince. Can only speak for myself, but it was interesting and funny by turns.

Robin Ince has written a gushing review of his pal's current show. He does, however, mention how male the audience are.

Remind me, hasn't Ince's view on gender ID been disappointing too?
cosmicshambles.com/words/blogs/robinince/stewart-lees-little-women

I would also pay good money to see a Brass Eye special on gender ideology, but agree that it would be impossible to distinguish between satire and the current state of affairs.

Can we crowdfund for that Brass Eye special? I’d sell an organ to see what Chris Morris could do with identity politics in 2020

You’re right, though, don, it really is beyond satire, and the wokerati would have him and everyone involved sent to the Tower.

Well yeah, it’d just be a documentary, with Chris Morris Nice easy job.

Chris Morris from the Day to Day who I sincerely hope is GC

I would give my right arm to see Chris Morris bring back Brass Eye for a TWAW special. Problem is, how would anyone know it was satire?

He is Chris Morris from Brass Eye, On The Hour and the Day Today.

Yes, but Brass Eye took the critique up a notch or two, didn’t it!

And he's still hoping there won't be a punchline showing him to be a fool.

Stewart, you ARE the punchline.

Yep. All of these comedians are. That they can't or won't see how absurd this is is really quite funny, in a depressing sort of way.

He is Chris Morris from Brass Eye, On The Hour and the Day Today.

Chris Morris from the Day to Day who I sincerely hope is GC

Chris Morris of fucking Brass Eye. One would hope.

Seems like the biggest joke is on him.

He's been easily manipulated to declare that he believes some men have female minds/souls/essences, and has added that those of us with female bodies (which no doubt he could easily be persuaded to declare both exist and definitely don't exist, simultaneously) must subjugate ourselves to the female essence possessors by declaring them "one of us" and immediately abandoning all our rights to distinguish ourselves from the opposite sex because lady-essence-with-(or without)-penis always trumps our sex.

And he's still hoping there won't be a punchline showing him to be a fool.

Stewart, you ARE the punchline.

I've just been to see him, never heard of him before. My conclusion is that he is just really annoying. I had no problem with the content of the show but his delivery was awful. I feel like I came out to enjoy a rare evening of freedom and actually just paid to have someone ignite the same feelings I get when asking my toddler to get dressed. I also didn't have any cash to get an ice cream in the interval. Prick.

Seconded, Bernard

I’m sure to the comedy purist, the way SL sets up his jokes and plays with the audience is a thing of beauty and the work of a virtuoso to be admired. I get that.

I just can’t be arsed to work that hard when it comes to comedy. Just make me laugh, and then maybe think a bit, in that order! Don’t tie me up in knots wondering what bit I’m supposed to find funny, afraid to laugh in case it outs me as a thicko, who is then the butt of the joke, and all the intellectuals can smug about how they totally got the joke, because they’re clever like he’s clever.

It’s not for me, in the way that doing sudokos is not for me, and for broadly the same reason. Too much hard work. If it’s based on laughing at women, only no, we’re not really laughing at women, it’s more meta than that, we’re laughing at the kind of people who think it’s funny to laugh at women, and maybe that’s you, did you ever think about that, while you’re laughing at the kind of people who thinks it’s funny to laugh at people who like to laugh at women...

I’m sure Stuart can survive my indifference

I think the people talking about the IRA sketch may have missed the point. I'm not labouring under the misapprehension that SL is a fan. i just don't want to spend my scarce time and money watching a comedian who tries to get me to do something (applaud the IRA) so he can wag his finger at me about it later. you might love being treated like this. different strokes for different folks innit?

I saw ben elton in december, and while he clearly understands that there is a difference between the sexes, I was a bit about the portion of the show where he said that your 'gender' should be determined by whether you can out flat pack furniture together or believe you're awesome at reverse parking.

i know he was being ironic, but the problem is so many fuckers seem to believe that shit (and many of them are our bloody elected representatives), that it feels a bit close to the bone frankly, and totally establishment

but i'd still much rather watch BE who seems to actually like his audience.

Mumsnet was cited about 4-5 times during Lee's routine. Derogatory, inference of bigotry, alongside Daily Mail, Brexiteers etc.

So very depressing, HandsOff. I was hoping for better.

Yep. Lots of comedians are transphobic. We get so used to being told "saying woman = AHF is transphobic" that I sometimes forget how much actual hateful stuff is out there.

Yes Bridget Christie is TWAW.

Re the other comedians saying nothing, I think this is partly to do with the way comedy has changed. You can earn megabucks by doing arena tours, or getting onto Netflix or branch out into acting/presenting. But only if you toe the line. Unless you are already hugely established and a white male such as Ricky Gervais. There are probably GCers about, but not on the BBC or with a big profile.

As for him not being GC because he talks about his peers' targets as punching down: ''it’s often downwards, towards transgender people'' he is entitled to think that some comedians' work does that. It all depends on the material: RG's joke about women drivers was poking fun at that stereotype whilst having a dig at CJ for being able to evade justice. It was a solid joke. Not to do with trans per se - but by then going on about Bruce's balls and doing a skit about identifying as an ape along with all the noises (iirc something along those lines) that wasn't as clever imo even if it was meant to take the idea of self ID as far as it would go. It seemed LCD/lazier and about as funny as Walliams' I'm a laydee or the sketch on the Russell Howard show a few years back on how British budget airlines would cut costs and have unconvincing transvestites in response to a Thai airline hiring the equivalent of the ladyboys of Bangkok.

Be curious how that got past the filters of Bridget Christie, since it's clear they share material and ideas, and I can't see her giving him a free pass hmm

She also believes TWAW so who knows?

No I know he is talented and received accolades (although I hated his novel The Perfect Fool with a passion. It is one of the few books I have tried to read several times and just couldn't get through it. Plus I am one of the ones who cannot get through the tedium of Ang Lee while my erstwhile partner was literally crying with laughter). But having heard him talk of being confronted and not knowing whether someone was going to be nice or want to punch him in the face and other occasions when he has been nice with a stan and others are then hostile Who the fuck are you?...I don't blame him for avoiding confrontation/the contentious and performing at a distance/within a character.

Woke bloke comedy - rapes jokes for beardy blokes.

It wasn't tongue in cheek. As I said, I've watched everything he's done. I watch a number of comedians was a fan of Lee and his brand of irony. I'm 46, so old enough to be offended by all that I see or hear, but as a GC and female, I felt uncomfortable in that room

Be curious how that got past the filters of Bridget Christie, since it's clear they share material and ideas, and I can't see her giving him a free pass

What did Stewart Lee actually say, as the 'mumsnet punchline'? I looked up his latest column in the Observer (thinking, wrongly, this was what you are talking about) and enjoyed it, whereas normally I prefer David Mitchell's writing (they seem to alternate).

Mumsnet was cited about 4-5 times during Lee's routine. Derogatory, inference of bigotry, alongside Daily Mail, Brexiteers etc.

It wasn't tongue in cheek. As I said, I've watched everything he's done. I watch a number of comedians was a fan of Lee and his brand of irony. I'm 46, so old enough to be offended by all that I see or hear, but as a GC and female, I felt uncomfortable in that room.

The part about rape (during which rape is mentioned repeatedly) and locking a woman in a car was in the second half.

He does a piece on Tony Parsons, after Parsons criticised Lee for using the word "cunt"
And Lee explores whether the word is offensive, ending in the punchline: "I wanted to know whether the word 'cunt' was offensive, so I asked one." (boom boom).

Audience were majority white, woke, bloke. Beards or students chuckling, 2/3 males to 1 female.
This was perhaps the biggest indicator of the mood in the room, seeing the men (and some women) laughing at the mention of Mumsnet alongside BoJo etc.

In terms of comedians who "get it" I saw Ben Elton live in November and it's clear he's GC (read his last book too). Jo Brand did speak out briefly but was castigated.

Robert Webb retracted his tweets.

Lee has worked closely with Chris Morris from the Day to Day who I sincerely hope is GC.

The League of Gentlemen - praying they are GC too.

I'd like to hear French and Saunders on this subject.

In fairness until I heard all that in an interview I had forgotten all the shit he received for Jerry Springer - the musical (death threats, confrontations etc)

He also got an Olivier award for it. (Which he rather ungraciously boasts about in an episode of SLCV - along with being "published by Faber and fucking Faber unlike your Mock the Week twats" ...). There's also a BAFTA tucked away somewhere.

He hates panel shows because they expose you to the casual viewer - he did HIGNFY for one episode then allegedly the week after broadcast was on honeymoon in Aberdeen waiting for a cab and someone drove by yelling OI! QUIZ SHOW CUNT!!!
so he actively avoids doing stuff that promotes him like that. He prefers his audience to seek him out. In fairness until I heard all that in an interview I had forgotten all the shit he received for Jerry Springer - the musical (death threats, confrontations etc)
Whatever SL the person irl actually thinks as opposed to the character SL...I doubt he would put it out there as he knows what it's like being hounded.

And a lot of those comedians are also writers - Stewart Lee, Acaster, Herring and Pascoe have all written books.

Not only that, they often write material for the bigger, more succesful comedians. I know Herring has been part of a writing team for TV shows. They often do links and things - scripted jokes for shows like Harry Hill, etc. (if that's even still on).