I've been thinking a bit about cartoons and cartoonists, following the Charlie Hebdo debate, and also about comedy in general I suppose. I was always a fan of Viz at school and remember it mostly for the gratuitous language, violence and sex. Looking back on it though, and certain characters within, I think they're probably pretty offensive to women, yet by the same token there are some pretty nasty male characters too.
All this thinking has raised a few questions about comedy in general I suppose, things like Harry Enfield's "Women, know your limits" and the like which I tend to view as satire, but are they also not kind of perpetuating the inequality at the same time as satirising it?
I guess I'm just interested to see what you folks opinion is of this kind of comedy and whether it has a place these days.
I'm also reminded of a thread I was involved in last year when 'comedy' adverts were discussed, whereby a male character was ridiculed (I think it was the yogurt one if anyone recalls) and how it should be equally offensive regardless of gender, if it was reversed. My argument was that it wouldn't be because of the context in which the advert operated, i.e. a patriarchal society. Would this kind of thinking apply to comedy in other areas too? I think it probably would.
Anyways, just a bit of stream of consciousnes stuff when I should be working. Also, if this has been done before, sorry.