To think that the success of male comedians online playing eccentric female characters is a true sign of misogyny?

[mumofoneAloneandwell]

I can think of loads of male comedians who've made it big by acting out characters who are funny, eccentric middle aged women

Its all the rage on tiktok, men just donning a wig and acting like their mums

Cant think of many female comedians doing the same thing and getting success from it 🤔

Such as?

I used to love Cissie and Ada.

I see women doing it too, in my limited experience of online stuff.

I don't think it's biased by sex.

Mrs browns boys
David walliams

On tiktok theres loads of guys 'portraying their mum'

Its everywhere!

D

I dont know any women who have done as well as the men do

Why can't a woman play Mrs browns boys!? Might make it the tiniest bit funny then 😒

Don’t look at TikTok.

Can’t stand those two but I just don’t watch.

Exactly. It's the most cringey, unfunny thing I've ever seen. Such a pathetic attempt at humour.

Stephen Fry, whom I generally don’t like very much, is an astonishingly brilliant Lady Bracknell in ‘The Importance of Being Earnest’ at the Noel Coward Theatre in London.

French & Saunders did a couple of sketches where there were men

The original Mrs. Brown was Angelica Houston in Agnes Brown.

I think Mr's Brown's Boys is dreadful, but not because of the sex of the actor.

I love Jennifer Saunders 🥰

Its the worst thing in the world!

Forget war and poverty. Sitting through Mrs browns boys on Christmas night is the true definition of human suffering.

Kathy Burke as Perry

So a role that previously belonged to a woman has been given to a man to pretend to be a woman!?!

Cancel the show immediately imo 😭

Meryl Streep playing Donald Trump.

Well, not exactly because Brendan O’Carroll did write it, to be fair to him.
Still doesn’t make it funny though.

It didn't "belong" to a woman. It belongs to Brendan O'Carroll who wrote the book, so he's free to play her if he wishes. It should be cancelled because it's bloody awful.

So who wrote it in the first place?

Absolutely - genius!!

Sharon D. Clarke was far better.
In fact, the whole of the cast at The National, were better.

You are probably right but it is not new.

Les Dawson - Cissie and Ada and https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00c3k26
Alec Guiness did this in ' Kind Hearts and Coronets
Robin Williams - Mrs Doubtfire
Eddie Murphy and the Nutty Professor films
Monty Python did a lot of this sort of thing

Paul O'Grady and Lily Savage
Barry Humphries and Dame Edna Everage

I can think of a lot of female comedians who do or have done this too
Caroline Aherne and Mrs Merton.

Kathy Burke did this quite a bit when she was younger
Jennifer Saunders and Edina Monsoon.

Tracey Ullman did this a lot as did Julie Walters

I know some people will say the last two I listed for men (Paul O'Grady and Barry Humphries) are different and cool because this is bit more like drag which is apparently OK but I can't see much difference in the basics really, although the execution is what actually makes it offensive or not to me.

So what type of female middle aged character is being represented makes the difference. Is it a complex, albeit funny character portrayed with warmth and affection, even if laughing at their foibles or is it a character that relies on shallow sterotypes and crude cruelty for laughs. I'd say Paul O'Grady and Barry Humphries and most of the ones prtrayed by the female comedians (though not all) fall into the former, whereas a lot done by the men are in the sterotype catergory and I do find those a bit offensive - as a 'just past' middle aged women myself

Bertie Carvel was the most brilliant Miss Trunchbull.

I dont know 😭

I just think theres so many guys on tiktok pretending to be women, and so many comedians who do it too

And it irks me. Would they be as well recieved were they playing men?

I love French and saunders and Kathy burke yes, but I cant think of anyone younger

The one that pissed me right of was Madame in Ballet Shoes at The National being played by a man. He was very good but there is a dearth of parts available for middle aged women. What does it actually add it being played by a bloke?