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Original poster

Mrs Browns Boys - how is it ok?

166 replies

wavingwhilstdrowning · 01/12/2021 09:20

Please be gentle if I am missing something massively obvious here!

I have never sat through a whole episode of MBB I will admit I find it intolerable but I don't understand why it is ok.

It is totally unacceptable to dress up and do a mocking impression of a trans-woman and lots of older comedies are now removed from iPlayer due to a change in what is acceptable. So why is it ok to dress up as an older working class woman a perform a grotesque caricature?

I realise I am probably missing something. The writer says it is not the same and he would never be racist or homophobic - but this sexism is ok? www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/news/mrs-browns-boys-political-correctness-b1780721.html

I am a very thick skinned middle aged Northern woman, tbh I just don't watch, it doesn't bother me that much, but I don't understand why women are fame game for the BBC. I'd appreciate your opinions.

OP posts:
CovidMakesThingsHard · 01/12/2021 09:25

I find it fucking awful. Family members who like it are the ones who show their true colours in other stuff and their views

endofthelinefinally · 01/12/2021 09:29

It is horrible. I switch over or off as soon as it comes on.

LostThePot · 01/12/2021 09:31

I hate it. Have never found it funny.

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foxgoosefinch · 01/12/2021 09:33

It’s not a mocking impression of a trans woman, it’s a mocking impression of a woman. That kind of drag comedy has a very long and misogynist tradition (see: Two Ronnies, Monty Python, late 19thc. music hall shows, etc.) and long predates the current idea of “trans”.

I agree though that it’s horrible. MBB is astoundingly bad and unfunny. Why it’s so popular is beyond me. 🤷‍♀️

thebabessavedme · 01/12/2021 09:49

I'm not sure it is actually very popular, I have never met anyone who admits to liking it or finding it funny, I suppose its just cheap to make as tv programmes go. I find the BBC is increasingly lazy, they seem to be assuming we will always pay for a licence and that they can just continue in the same old vein. looking at this years Christmas shedule it is just woeful, unimaginative, boring and repetitive. I would think that in a few years there will be a bit of shock coming to them.

wobblywinelover · 01/12/2021 09:50

Whatever its trying to be its grim and cringey. Nothing remotely funny or entertaining about it and I don't know anyone who actually likes it. Makes me wonder why and how this drivel is still on the TV its utterly crap

Samcro · 01/12/2021 09:52

its as bad as the awful drag race stuff.

EmmaStone · 01/12/2021 09:57

@thebabessavedme

I'm not sure it is actually very popular, I have never met anyone who admits to liking it or finding it funny, I suppose its just cheap to make as tv programmes go. I find the BBC is increasingly lazy, they seem to be assuming we will always pay for a licence and that they can just continue in the same old vein. looking at this years Christmas shedule it is just woeful, unimaginative, boring and repetitive. I would think that in a few years there will be a bit of shock coming to them.
I suppose its just cheap to make as tv programmes go

I suspect it's anything but - scripted stuff is more expensive than unscripted. BBC money goes into presenter fees and Natural History, with the odd costume drama thrown in for good measure. Also they make what they hope will sell worldwide. I suspect MBB does quite well in less progressive countries. I dislike it as well.

123ZYX · 01/12/2021 09:57

For this type of thing, I always consider where it would be as funny/ entertaining with a woman in the role.

If it would be, why wasn't the role given to a women.

If it wouldn't be, then the joke is that is funny for a man to pretend to be a woman, which suggests it's because a woman is considered "lower" than a man

TomAllenWife · 01/12/2021 09:57

I don't know anyone who finds this funny

ANameChangeAgain · 01/12/2021 10:01

I don't watch it particularly, but I can't be òffended by it. There are far worse and damaging charactures of women on TV played by actual women. How many of us have watched films made by men for men where women are merely toys or decoration, and we know women would not behave like that / dress like that in real life. For example I watched Suicide Squad at the weekend, where the heroine that many girls look up to is just there to please the men.

Sittingonabench · 01/12/2021 10:23

I don’t find it particularly offensive but maybe that’s because I see the man dressed as a woman as secondary to the satire around a working class Irish family. She favours the boys, constantly on at the daughter to get a man, the daughter in law issue, the open door policy - never knowing who is in the house. Wouldn’t go out of my way to watch it but fine with it being on. My sister can’t stand it though.

TooBigForMyBoots · 01/12/2021 10:34

I can't stand it, but it doesn't bother me that the character is played by Brendan O'Carroll. He wrote the books and was funny when he narrated them.

Angelica Houston played Mrs Brown in the movie and IMO it was one of the worst pieces of casting I've ever seen.

merryhouse · 01/12/2021 10:38

Yeah, the drag aspect is subsidiary.

Dame Edna's humour didn't rely entirely on her being played by Barry Humphries, and the Python vox pops didn't hinge on them being played by Graham and Terry. Pantomime dames are deliberate caricatures but the humour isn't normally based around "this person's really a man".

Whether you find it funny is a matter of personal taste.

The whole concept of a man playing a woman in order to caricature is an interesting discussion, as is the extent to which many of the performers end up with an obvious affection for the character they've been portraying: Mrs Brown's Boys is not unique in any of this.

(I quite like the show, but I quite like Citizen Khan as well. There's obviously no hope for me.)

Weeteeny · 01/12/2021 10:46

I just find it incredibly unfunny and change tne channel even when it is promoted

stingofthebutterfly · 01/12/2021 10:54

I've watched most of it and although it's not my favourite show, I don't mind it tbh.

It's definitely not a mocking impression of a trans woman though. God knows why your mind has gone to that corner of the world. It's a bloke playing a woman, albeit a vulgar one. There's a zero suggestion that Mrs Brown is trans.

Ever been to a pantomime?

Viviennemary · 01/12/2021 10:56

Its a very vulgar unfunny programme.

Makinglists · 01/12/2021 11:01

Its awful - BBC make so many fantastic comedies how an earth this gets passed to production. I'll watch most things but this makes me reach for the remote.

WakeUpLockie · 01/12/2021 11:03

It’s revolting

Thesearmsofmine · 01/12/2021 11:03

I don’t find it offensive in the way you ask but I do find it embarrassingly unfunny. The only people I know that admit to finding are funny are not particularly bright.

NeedAHoliday2021 · 01/12/2021 11:07

My in laws love it so I’ve been forced to watch a couple of episodes and it’s really awful. I don’t find it offensive, just shit!

Sweetchocolatecandy · 01/12/2021 11:13

Wow OP if you find men dressing as women offensive don’t ever watch Ru Paul’s Drag Race or go to any sort of drag night! Do you find French and Saunders sketches and things like Kevin and Perry offensive as well?

RobotValkyrie · 01/12/2021 11:23

if you find men dressing as women offensive don’t ever watch Ru Paul’s Drag Race or go to any sort of drag night!

It may come as a surprise to you, but plenty of people do indeed never do any of these things, mostly because they find that kind of "entertainment" brainless, crass and embarrassing.

Maybe you should get out more, and not just swallow down whatever shite the media tells you is currently "fashionable"?

Birdsnesting · 01/12/2021 11:28

@TooBigForMyBoots

I can't stand it, but it doesn't bother me that the character is played by Brendan O'Carroll. He wrote the books and was funny when he narrated them.

Angelica Houston played Mrs Brown in the movie and IMO it was one of the worst pieces of casting I've ever seen.

I'd forgotten the Angelica Houston fiasco! I only saw the trailer, but even watching AH (whom I really like in other roles) walking through Moore St pushing a pram was more 'red carpet entrance' than 'Moore St Mammy'.

Yes, BOC, who isn't at all my cup of tea, wrote and acted in the original radio plays and then wrote the book series it's based on, narrated the audiobooks, and is crucial (along with half his family) to the TV version. It wouldn't exist with another actor, male or female.

I'm not any more amused by him than I am by pantomime dames and that old-style Dick Emery kind of humour, but I'm a lot less annoyed by it than by 'mainstream' drag stuff like Ru Paul's drag race, which I find deeply misogynistic.

SavoyCabbage · 01/12/2021 11:29

@foxgoosefinch

It’s not a mocking impression of a trans woman, it’s a mocking impression of a woman. That kind of drag comedy has a very long and misogynist tradition (see: Two Ronnies, Monty Python, late 19thc. music hall shows, etc.) and long predates the current idea of “trans”.

I agree though that it’s horrible. MBB is astoundingly bad and unfunny. Why it’s so popular is beyond me. 🤷‍♀️

That’s not what she is saying.

She says

“It is totally unacceptable to dress up and do a mocking impression of a trans-woman and lots of older comedies are now removed from iPlayer due to a change in what is acceptable. So why is it ok to dress up as an older working class woman a perform a grotesque caricature?”