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 🤔

100% agree

and re the low income 'chav' stereotype played out on tiktok! Ridiculous and cheap humour

Kathy Burke and Harry Enfield played Kevin & Perry (2 teenage boys) as well as the Lovely Wobbly Randy Old Ladies - so a bit of a mixture.

I don't know if Barry Humphries' character Les Patterson was much less popular than Dame Edna because of the actual character or because a man playing a male character inherently wasn't considered as funny?

There were a number of 'issues' (shall we say) with Dick Emery - and his stuff has not aged at all well - but at least, when he played female characters, they were multi-dimensional (not just a minor 'sexy foil' to the main male characters, like with Benny Hill) and distinctive from each other - rather than just all the exact same 'generic woman'.

I don't watch MBB, as I like comedy; but isn't the very title of the show misogynistic in plain sight when Mrs Brown also has a daughter - or am I missing something?

The boy with the towel on his head is funny.

I cant comprehend at all the cognitive dissonance in our culture that is shocked by the black & white minstrels but condones drag.

it nauseates me.

the disrespect toward women is so ingrained, I despair.

There were a number of 'issues' (shall we say) with Dick Emery - and his stuff has not aged at all well - but at least, when he played female characters, they were multi-dimensional (not just a minor 'sexy foil' to the main male characters, like with Benny Hill) and distinctive from each other - rather than just all the exact same 'generic woman'.

True of Stanley Baxter too. Their female characters were exquisitely observed and acted. SB’s portrayal of the Queen (though he called her the Duchess of something) was brilliant.

When women dress up to mimic women - Aherne doing Mrs Merton, for instance. a young woman playing a menopausal woman as a comic stereotype - is that punching sideways?

You need to actually say who you're talking about.

What online comedians with sponsorship deals?

You started out saying the online success of comedians but didn't actually name any apart from Mrs Brown's boys which is a TV show that is mostly panned.

Then vague things about men online getting sponsorship deals.

Who?

Must be your algorithm, do you think you're "rage watching" these clips and being recommended more and more? I can't think of any comedians I've seen playing their mums. I follow a young Italian/German comedian who portrays both her parents (dad with a bald cap) - Laura Ramoso. She's very good.

Katy Wix (another v good young female comedian) dressed up as a man in the pilot of Fried, v funny ep.

Ellie White and Natasia Demetriou in their sketch show (Ellie and Tash) play male chefs - brothers who only make tomato sauce iirc

The female cast members of the Goes Wrong Show (probably the most popular live non-stands up comedy around atm) play men all the time.

That's a false equivalence that makes no sense.

You're saying mocking men is okay because they're men?

Katy Wix (another v good young female comedian) dressed up as a man in the pilot of Fried, v funny ep.

She was fabulous Fergie in The Windsors.

Kathy Burke as Perry
Dawn french and jenifer Saunders
Hilary swank as Brandon Teena

Why do some people try to see misogyny in everything, or have to find something to be offended about? It's people trying to be funny, don't watch it if you don't like it. I don't watch tiktok but have seen some on YouTube. Men and women acting as both males and females. Most of it's shit but the odd one is genius. I love living with siblings and a couple of others. As already said, it's not a new thing.

It was meant to be played by a woman. It was only that in rehearsal Brendan played Mrs Brown as they hadn’t cast a woman yet and they couldn’t find anyone who played it as well so he did it.

I was infuriated by this and it was one of the things (probably the main one) that took away some of the pleasure of watching the show. The entire book is about women, strong women making their way in the world despite the absent man in their life. I'm still cross about it a year later!

You don’t need to TRY to see misogyny in everything it IS in everything because it’s everywhere.
You can choose to ignore it if you want to pretend it’s not.

Okay I will go onto tiktok and see - i'm sure there are loads of comedians playing the opposite sex but the ones I see is always men doing women

Maybe its just me seeing this but I just do get irritated with men playing women 😭

So by that logic, Kathy Burke playing a teenage boy is classed as misandry then?

Give your head a wobble and froth over something else pls.

That not so smug now women, cant remember her name does them a fair bit.

Abolsutely loads of women do this little skits on insta & tiktok which are them dressing up as and taking the piss out of their husbands. No idea how many of them have sponsorships etc maybe they just arent as funny/successful

they arent playing women really, they are taking the piss out of women.

You might not like it that they are shining a light on some of the daft things women do, but these things go both ways and plenty out there doing exactly same by women taking taking piss out of men.

Seems like a lot of people are going 'whatever are you talking about, in the 90s French and Saunders had that one where they were men and also there's Kathy Burke', OP - but I know what you mean. There are a lot of men doing 'girl who lost her vape', 'mum when you come home for Christmas' stuff on Instgram and TikTok, and I agree that it all positions women, and especially often older women, seem to be the butt of the jokes more than men do.

And women do it too - 'Your Boomer Mom' etc - but I haven't seen versions where women do 'Your Stupid Old Dad' type reels.

So I agree, basically.

Weird to define "success" as sponsorship deals on tik tok. There are lots of actual female comedians on the actual telly and touring big venues who do this well. You might be spending too much time on tiktok getting upset.

But if you're judging success by social media alone, check out Laura Ramoso who I mentioned above (plays her Italian dad) she has 1.4 million tiktok followers.

Imogen Andrews (British) has 1/2 million tiktok followers and sometimes plays a man including a recurring male character who is bad at sex.

Expand your comedy horizons beyond your FYP 😂

Any drag actually too

I love both of them, they have various skits which I love. There are also successful male comedians who play men and a range of characters

Just irks me when I see the ones who play daft women to make it big

Do you mean the "middle class white woman" parodies? Some make me smirk but most are just stupid and unoriginal.

What really pisses me off though (and I didnt know whether to post this tbh) is the "white women be like..." skits by black men. Generally they are mildly offensive eg how all white women look ridiculous wearing wigs haha look at how none of them cut the lace cotrectly, arent white women stupid. If I were to post something about all black women doing x, I would quite rightly be hung drawn and quartered.

Yes, black women experience racism every day (wtf are dark skin plasters more expensive than pink ones?) but it doesnt make it acceptable for others to experience racism even to a lesser degree.

Also there's a woman called Veronika Mirgova- also v big on tik tok and insta - who does male characters, like a characature of a "chavvy"/road man young man. I don't find her that funny but it sounds like similar to what you're watching but rules reversed