Male comedians and their ‘jokes’ **TW**

[Wavypurple]

I’m not a big fan of Jimmy Carr, I’m reading and DP put on his new special on Netflix to watch.

Not even thirty seconds in - rape joke.

Ten minutes later, he asks the audience if a woman has ever cried during sex to which several men proudly shout ‘yes’. JC goes on to say ‘you’re a rapist’ followed by eruptions of laughter from the audience. Seriously, as if it’s the funniest thing they’ve ever heard.

My point here (other than the fact that several men shouted proudly that a woman was crying during what they consider to be sex) is that prior to this JC mentions subjects such as being pro-vaccine and pro-BLM movement in a positive way, his jokes encourage you to laugh at his perceived stupidity of people who are anti these things. (To clarify, I also have my vaccines and support BLM and I’m not suggesting he should make negative jokes about either).

Of the joke topics JC and society in general decide are too edgy or offensive to laugh about (understandably - again to clarify racist/homophobic/anti-Semitic jokes are not funny and not jokes at all), rape is always on the list of things that are acceptable to throw in there.

My point of mentioning these other topics that are off limits is to demonstrate how sexual violence is equally as horrific and offensive as these, and yet still joked about.

I notice this with almost ALL male comedians, even the ‘woke’ ones.

Not sure what the point of this post was to be honest. It was just upsetting to watch and wondered if anyone else has noticed this in regards to male comedians.

I don't watch any of those comedians - J Carr and that other loathsome creature, who has a berth at the BBC. They take great care to wave their pc credentials, especially 'anti-racist', while being vile and misogynistic.

Who is JRM?

Watched it from start till the crying joke.

Dh says-

Nothing particularly outrageous.
Juvenile, sort of stuff hear down pub.
Some bits amusing.
Not original, clever or as good as would expect from such famous comedian.
70s style misogyny relentless

Not to derail the thread but yesterday on BBC 2 (I think) at 3pm there was Carry on Henry - I was flicking around and left it on and it was the bit where Henry VIII was on horseback chasing / hunting a 'peasant girl', his servants had dogs.
They then caught her - she locked herself in a shed and Henry (Sid James) went in - she was all 'heaving bosom' and started rolling in the hay with her.
I was surprised this was left in as sometimes on Friends repeats (not BBC) words / jokes are edited out.
Re: JC What did you think about his 'disclaimer' that the act of rape and a joke about it are 2 v different things- he said this 2/3 times in the show.

My reaction-

-Total surprise at how basic jokes were. Sort of thing would get in a seaside holiday camp for after kids in bed! That's it? How is he so popular?
Eg Loads of jokes v similar to ones I heard as teenager in 80s at school.. eg sausage in the Albert hall/ marshmallow through letterbox I think it was. And others as well. V similar paedophile one to one heard 30+ years ago. Oh and. Waiting audience to catch on 7 dwarves thing. Fine if vv funny once get it. Saying a dwarf... Wasn't happy. I mean Jesus Christ. Really? That's dad joke level.

• however,some bits amusing couple bits I was yep v good nice one.

• the BLM bit and the op crying joke. To me were clunky obvious 'look I'm woke! I'm not a bad guy really!' bits stuffed in to provide some kind of buffer to the main content. Felt really out of place, interfered with the flow, derailed audience getting into it/ warmed up.

Joke joke joke, racism bad angry delivery, joke joke, rape bad,... Better off without. Everyone knows what he jokes about. They've paid to see. Give them comedy keep them laughing. If want to make point, work it in subtly cleverly like good comedians do.

• nothing particularly outrageous imo. What I found shocking was how bad it was. Deliver crap joke. Say cunt to make it edgy. Sometimes cackle in a fake way to indicate audience to laugh more. Next shit joke.

Repeat X 3 then audience. Make sure joke is on a woman most of time.

Anyone watching this and not noticing that women were the butt of the joke so much of the time, I would wonder how not noticed tbh!

Oh and I thought the what's your job, make joke about that. People picked were ringers, no way those jokes spontaneous.

Me DH both yep Jim D or similar would be perfectly at home delivering the 20 mins or so we watched. Totally on brand.

OPs crying sex joke wasn't joke at all. It was like BLM bit, it was about saying I'M WOKE REALLY for some unfathomable reason.

Some of his earlier jokes women were a bit iffy... no, thinking, it wasn't the jokes as such. It was the delivery.

Eg woman in audience yelled rude. (come off it. Ringer, scripted, rehearsed.

When he was pointing finger and referred to her as 'that'. It came across aggressive.
V much like angry blokes in pubs often are when you say no. Just to me exactly same way done.

So I think OP is BU, because picked to start thread on more or less the only bit that wasn't about laughing at a woman/ women in general!

The way whatever the topic most of the time the joke was on women

Re Catherine Ryan - hasn't she bought the whole self ID doctrine hook line and sinker? Worse, publicly witch hunted those nasty Terfies?

When I saw Stuart Lee (whose wife/partner also believes humans can change sex) Stuart went to great pains at a couple of points in his show to castigate the middle aged, pearl clutching Mumsnetters. The mostly male bearded audience found Lee's observations hilarious.
The fact that he and Jimmy Carr joke about rape and women - no matter how it's dressed up - show me who they really are and what they think of us.

Abitofalark

Rees-Mogg govt.

mumofEandE

Carry on, again, you know what to expect surely!

If you cut Sid James doing stuff like that out there wouldn't be anything left!

I was born early 70s carry on, on TV whole time.

The 70s ones were shit.

I must admit I am fond of carry on Cleo though. 'Infamy, infamy... They've all got it in for me' says Kenneth w as ceasar. But yes it's got loads of Sid phwoar etc etc. Earlier ones though better stories scripts much more thought out funny. Now? The constant boobs, phwoar, nagging wives, brown makeup dodgy accents etc... Of their time. Hardly ever on TV now.

The mechanisms of laughter are profoundly odd in some aspects. All comedians are interested in how the structure of a joke interacts with those mechanisms, and some comedians are interested in the more surprising and fucked-up parts of that reaction, some of which is weird and primal. JC and FB are in that category - they often mention it during their routines 'Why do you laugh at that?!' etc.

If women were sitting stony-faced throughout while the men laughed like hyenas, it wouldn't work. But that's not what happens. I'm not surprised that this type of comedian is fascinated by the mechanism of laughter, nor by the fact that they theorise about it. It's really complex.

Yes both Katherine Ryan and Hannah Gadsby are TWAW.

I’ve disliked Katherine Ryan since I saw her on some show going on about how she potty trained her young baby and how mums who don’t do the same are lazy. Didn’t at all acknowledge that she might be in a teeny bit more of a privileged position than other mums and not everyone finds it as easy as her.

Also she bores on and on about her kid - no one’s interested! Guess she’s a novelty having a child amongst young childfree male comedians but to us other mums it’s like watching a mum bore “my daughters this” “my daughter that” yes we all think our kids are fascinating love 🙄

I went off Jack Whitehall when he was on QI and every joke was at a woman's expense.

I agree with you, OP. I watched a show of Jimmy Carr's a couple of years ago and he'd obviously searched for a way to do continue to do offensive material by framing it as 'what is offensive?' and also by picking on targets that his audience wouldn't object to - rape victims and travellers if my memory's correct. I haven't watched him since.

I hate JC.don’t find him funny… but it’s not just male comedians who make rape jokes.

I went to see a then up and coming female comedian (now well known household tv favourite in UK) as part of a new to the scene gig and she made rape jokes and the audience laughed.

I’d been taken to the gig by a friend to cheer me up after a sexual assault (!) and when I got upset I was told I was being no fun by my friend and then made fun of as I left the room to stop crying by the comedian still on the topic of rape.

Im not sure she’d use the same material now but I never went back to see her live so maybe she does.

I wish I’d had the courage to very vocally in front of the audience ask her if she could explain what’s funny about the joke as I didn’t get it. I find that’s the best response to poorly executed offensive humour.

Offensive humour can be a very effective educational and informative tool if done properly but so few can do it properly. It’s meant to have the audience question their approach to the offensive topic, not laugh at the victims expense. The likes of Jimmy Carr doesn’t have the intelligence to work out the technique that uses offence to make a valid point and instead looks like a knuckle dragging moron.

Also she bores on and on about her kid - no one’s interested! Guess she’s a novelty having a child amongst young childfree male comedians

I dread it when comedians I like have children. You just know their act is going to start to be all about nappies and things the kids have said. Male comedians do it as well, just as much. First I remember doing it was Ben Elton, a long time ago.
I get they have to be inspired by what's going on in their daily lives, but it's very cliched and rarely anything new that hasn't been said before.

I find Katherine Ryan a bit because she spent all this time saying how fabulous it was to be single and she was fed up of being asked about getting a boyfriend and #singlemom and now she has a husband he is in every other post on Instagram.

houseonthehill

Have you watched this JC performance?

It's interesting the number of posters coming up with clever, deep, subtle, interesting etc reasons as to why this set (and assuming JC fairly similar style through career, JC full stop), is unlikely to just be what it is, and no more than that.

I'm not sure why there is an obviously pretty common desire to excuse some of these comedians.

The 20 mins or so we watched, the most shocking thing was how shit it was.

Jim Davidson would be totally at home delivering what we saw. Totally on brand.

Why when JC does this material is it excused, but JD doing the exact same material would be seen as awful?

At least JD (I'm sure) wouldn't ruin the flow, interrupt the increasingly cheerful engaged vibe of the audience, by randomly and pretty aggressively shouting -
"I'm not horrible really honest guv I'M NOT RACIST" at the audience, or
"Im not a rank misogynist, promise. I think MEN RAPING WOMEN IS EVIL. So there."

I would note that 'why are you laughing at that' is a ridiculous thing to say as a comedian doing his stuff.

He's put what he said in his routine. His job, living is based on audience finding his gig funny. For comedians the saying you're only as good as your last performance (material) definitely applies.

No comedian would put in material that they actually thought wouldn't get a laugh. It's in because he is pretty damn sure it will get a laugh.

Why did you laugh at that? That's going to get another laugh obv. Not garner responses, wisdom.

And the BIG thing it does. Is suggest that he's joking about stuff like that BECAUSE people laugh. Making people laugh is his job. So... The audience laughs, so he puts it in. 'You made me do it' style. An excuse.

I had to watch some of it on the back of this thread. I'm sure that defeats the point of OP starting this thread.

I laughed at some parts, some were a bit try hard and fell kinda flat. It was ok. Not a tremendous masterpiece of wit and humour, not horribly awful either.

I do agree with his statement on dark humour though, or at least relate to it. Both me and very close friend of mine went through a lot of trauma , we're fucking hilarious when we talk about it to eachother.

I don't particularly rate JC as a stand up, but yes I have seen the worst he has to offer, as it were. I think he fits with the thing I was suggesting- his material catches people between their uncivilised and civilised selves - ie they (men and women) laugh before they process. Laughter is sometimes a strange thing, and some of it is based on primal things and odd pack-like responses.

Wanna I'm not sure though- isn't it different to joke about stuff happened to you or back and forth with someone who has similar experiences?

It's always that way isn't it?

If you don't see it that way, would be interested to understand reason!

Houseonthehill your post made me immediately think of you've been framed!

I think it really is horses for courses.

Couple of bits I found funny, cos unexpected and quite clever.

The fact that versions of jokes I heard 30 + years ago in school were in his set.
At least one dad joke.

I mean.
Ginger man so pale needs sun cream to look in fridge.
Dwarf something something.. he wasn't happy!

Version of marshmallow letterbox heard at school.

I didn't laugh because they are utterly hopeless jokes!

I didn't find anything in the bit I saw, 20s mins or so shocking though and DH didn't either.

What you describe makes me think of south park, would fit pretty well there.

Thinking more, who he jokes about (unoriginally, but making it 'edgy' by saying cunt after each joke) is the opposite of shocking. It's tried tested, still going, v reminiscent of 70s.

The red box joke at think royal variety shocked.
Simon amstell jokes related sex a lot of men obviously trying not to look uncomfy (I had a little look men in seats in front etc as interested after DH was obv a bit funny but out of my comfort zone ).

Who else. Sure plenty!