AIBU to find the comedian Katherine Ryan's turn to the right surprising?

[exceptmeandmymonkey]

I was raised by a single mum and really liked Katherine Ryan's early standup that mostly focused on being a single mum in crap relationships. Several years ago she hooked up with her childhood sweetheart and had several kids with him, and since then her persona has taken quite a turn.

She defended the manosphere participants in Louis Theroux's recent docs, said that she liked Jordan Peterson, and today on social has featured her partner talking about how the moon landing is a conspiracy. Partner is 'not academic' I'll say politely, and MAGA-adjacent. He doesn't work and is a full time dad yet Katherine does the vast majority of childcare (and all of the earning) whilst he golfs. Clearly she got a lot of negative feedback from her (100% women and gay men) audience on her manosphere comments, because she backtracked a bit.

The situation seems like something she would have laughed at years ago, and it's been strange to see her comedy twist to support this, claiming she's always had provocative views.

I don't see any celebs as heroes so this isn't a 'my hero isn't who I expected' just more of a wow, didn't see this twist coming.

It was Louis Theroux!

I agree she’s definitely still in high school mentality when it comes to him and has dumbed herself down for him.

I actually agree with you, so perhaps have made my point clumsily and will clarify.

My reaction isn't 'Katherine's views don't align 100% with mine.' It's that KR held herself up as a mouthy, confident, funny single mum who was fairly left leaning on everything that she gave an opinion on.

Since getting together with her husband, her persona has shifted to:

• agreeing with her self-avowed conspiracy theorist husband that people never landed on the moon and that Hillary Clinton literally trafficked children for sex via the basement of a pizza restaurant
• is anti vax and rejects birth control based on MAHA/crunchy anti vax mum 'understanding' of 'the science'
• has said manosphere and Jordan Peterson make great points (here, she stands with her pal Jimmy Carr)
• brings in 100% of the income and works her tits off, whilst doing the lion's share of childcare, while also having a full-time nanny, whereas her 'SAHD' spouse is away from home multiple days per week golfing for a full day -- seems like something she would have scoffed at 5 years ago

So for me it’s less about politics, more that the shift feels quite stark.

A flare up of my IBS is more entertaining than anything I’ve ever heard Katherine Ryan say.

She got the better deal? She's bringing in all the money and twisting herself out of shape to stay sexually desirable to a man who is clearly a gold digger.

I dunno - she always seemed that way to me so it’s not much of a surprise. She always seemed very male centred.

I've always found her to be entertaining, but not at all funny. She's like a freak show, but I get the feeling that's what she's aiming for. The absolute confidence she has in whatever comes out of her mouth regardless of how shocking or inane it is, the surgeries, the trashy past getting mentioned at every opportunity, the 'modern' approach to motherhood - none of this is admirable to me, and I don't think she's ever made me laugh, but it is an entertaining schtick.

This. I actually quite liked her on the Louis Theroux documentary when she was just at home being herself.

But this saying stuff just for shock value stunt is really, really fucking boring. And I apply that to all.comedians, not just KR.

This is borderline the Kayne West/Bianca Cesori dynamic.

Image won't post, so link instead https://www.google.com/search?client=ms-android-samsung-rvo1&hs=OPgp&sca_esv=f6dab0cbe71090ff&udm=2&fbs=ADc_l-byipRaccqV0jmfPhi1DgzPkIbk0HG8UBQNbHd4S9AjVkuc0t6t4dDUPoihiWakL0ghNq_Dm16dedl7VtuOw6qLu6twwgpi2VtUzIqASaj1E9gazLWO08oIIOcsTNHHBK2JE8uMRrd6-GOu1TSblnEggVusD13b2MEz-IDG_ZCZbfhqWwuYtprhncTgid6gDQqlPmYQEHZKyDirXFjYHTY4TZsFlkyxGGlAvshByQRW6ztHSP8&q=katherine+ryan+agent+provocateur&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwi1--vwuuOTAxWJQkEAHZ3NCLoQtKgLegQIEhAB&biw=384&bih=689&dpr=2.81#sv=CAMSVxoyKhBlLUJMLXlXamtFMXpsWjJNMg5CTC15V2prRTF6bFoyTToOQlRfNzlmZDQxU0xka00gBCoXCgFzEhBlLUJMLXlXamtFMXpsWjJNGAEwAUoECAEQAhgHIKPKmKcHSggQAhgBIAIoAQ

I’d have to hear what she said. But many women presumably across the spectrum feel like the pill isn’t good for their bodies, their libido, it’s fed their cancers (2 women I know well). I would obviously weigh up the health risk it’s treating but I have a science degree myself and am socially liberal except that I think being female is the defining feature of being a woman. I have never used the pill, I chose the contraceptive implant as it seemed lower risk.

This is exactly it. It’s not the fact that her opinions are different to mine, it’s that she’s lurched starkly from the left to the right and abandoned her feminist principles, coinciding with when she married her husband.

Another clear change in her stance is that she used to keep her eldest private and never shared photos of her whereas the younger children with Bobby are plastered all over instagram.
A couple of years ago she used to try and justify it by saying they were unrecognisable as babies and she was going to stop showing them soon as they were growing up. Hasn’t happened, they’re now at school and she’s still constantly sharing pictures and videos. How she can think early potty training is important but not a child’s right to privacy, I don’t know.

This is hilarious!

I wish I had never heard of Andrew Tate...

The changes just come across to me as someone who has changed her views to fit in with her husbands and like she is desperate to keep hold of him(he isn’t going anywhere Katherine, he is on to a good thing with you earning all the money while he does whatever he fancies).
It’s quite sad really because she did come across as an interesting and independent woman and I found her quite likeable. Now I switch over the TV or scroll past if she pops up on social media.

If a woman is working and a man doing hobbies, I wouldn't call that bit right wing. I think the manosphere is dangerous and wrong-both for my daughter and for my son, and I hope they grow up to value both men and women as equals. I do worry about the world they're growing up in.

Never seen her on telly or heard her podcast, so I don’t know if she’s funny…

I just know her from celeb gossip (which I follow rather than watch TV, movies etc)

Gotta admit I find her interesting, having a facelift & her various augmentations.

Wasn’t she the one who first started to talk about RB & his influence on the comedy scene?

I normally don’t mind KR nor her differing viewpoints because I think it’s important that we, as a society, can exist with those who don’t think exactly the same. That being said, I had to turn off the latest podcast on the moon landing. Differing viewpoints is one thing, a lack of complete intelligence is something else.

I have zero respect for those who think something is a conspiracy just because they lack the intellectual bandwidth to understand the science behind it. He also conflated the first moon landing with ones that came after which annoyed me.

And her comment about how they are sending black men and women to the moon on the next mission as test dummies before sending white people was NOT funny and was frankly disgusting.

OP I asked why you think liking Jordan Peterson is a bad thing. Please explain.

I definitely remember her talking about how important it was to keep children out of photos. She seemed a lot more on top of things with Violet.

Also, I remember her saying that when she and Bobby eventually had daughters, they would have her surname (also shared by her eldest daughter) whilst sons would have Bobby's surname.

That didn't happen, of course -- all Bobby's kids have his surname. There just seems to be an awful lot done to placate Bobby.

I think it depends on how recent you think this turn to the right is. Geoff Norcott describes himself as a right wing comedian and I think she's seemed pretty friendly/collaborative with him for at least a few years so I assumed that was where her views were tbh. Her comedy hasn't ever come across as particularly left wing to me although I do like her feminist stuff (I don't think feminism necessarily makes you left wing or being left wing necessarily makes you a feminist)

The manosphere and moon landing stuff does sound disappointing but I think she's always been openly pretty focused on earning well and my perception is that there is more money to be had advocating right wing views than left wing ones.

I'm a bit uncomfortable with the scrutiny around her personal life, I get that you're looking for an explanation but I'm not sure we should be blaming her for a perception that her partner doesn't do enough as a full time dad (and I wonder how we'd feel about judging a celebrity's wife/girlfriend for 'not doing enough' as a full time mum?) She always seemed like a very invested parent from her single mum stand up so maybe it's more of a reflection of that.

I’m surprised you’re surprised! She’s always been fairly right of centre IMO so it doesn’t surprise me particularly. I have definitely never heard left wing views from her. Did you see her show hosting different stand-ups a few years back? But generally I only see her on comedy shows and don’t follow her insta etc.

I also think she’s always been outspoken and enjoyed saying things that might spark a reaction so no change there either really.

I can’t stand her long thin face with massive trout pout

I like her a lot. Her views seem interesting more than abhorrent. I didn’t know she had a podcast. I’ll check it out.

“scrutiny around her personal life, I get that you're looking for an explanation but I'm not sure we should be blaming her for a perception that her partner doesn't do enough as a full time dad (and I wonder how we'd feel about judging a celebrity's wife/girlfriend for 'not doing enough' as a full time mum?)”

The difference is, she offers up the minutiae of her personal life, marriage and home life on a weekly basis in her lucrative podcast. There aren’t really any assumptions about how much she does/her husband does as she puts it all out there herself.

To answer your first point, the pivot towards the right wing stuff isn’t that recent but neither is her relationship.

Man I am as left as they come and I love her. Don’t think she’s right wing, and I like that she doesn’t trot out the same sanitised lines as others do. From memory the only positive thing she said about the manosphere doc was that she thinks the “work hard and make something of yourself” message is positive. Her take was nuanced, not just “yay misogynists are great!!!” I also think that by platforming Bobby’s moon landing views she is taking the piss out of him. She knows she’s smarter than him but honestly I think he seems ok, she’s said he’s very kind to the kids etc. and I do think he’s hot (sorry)

I’ve never liked her and always change the channel when she’s on, as with Jimmy Carr and many others.

I’ve met some of these stand up comedians. Female or male, some of them were nasty on the way up.