The Last Leg

[Destinysdaughter]

Ok so I do think it's great that there are 2 disabled pp on this who are genuinely funny...but, why are there no disabled women or BAME pp on it? It would have made it a genuinely diverse program if they had done that. It still feels a bit 'laddish', and it's still white blokes dominating and enforcing the dominant narrative.

Bit of a missed opportunity or would that still be a step too far..?

Francesca Martinez is brilliant, would love to see her on the last leg.

I think that 'quota' has worked well on comedy shows. There's definitely more women comedians around now and the more there are, the more acceptable it becomes and hopefully it inspires other women to go into that field.

Comedy is important as it affects how we see ourselves and other groups and also who gets stereotyped and 'othered'. That's why we do need to hear and see different voices and looks. Especially with the recent rise in hate crimes on minorities.

Someone shared this on Facebook
www.buzzfeed.com/sophiegadd/pictures-that-prove-equality-exists-on-british-tv?utm_term=.nhzKw3JrP#.cmMmKrq9w

Obviously disabled presenters ticks the diversity box enough to not have to stretch the brain thinking of a woman too.
I don't watch these kind of shows for these reasons. Even if women are on they often get talked over or ignored.
I do like BBC breakfast with 2 women now

I do like the last leg but when their three guests they took to the Paralympics were three more white men I was disappointed in them. Glad to here Katherine Ryan is on today though.

JW does have pectus excavatum - not a disability per se, but classed as a deformity. I remember a quiz show where he mentioned his "weird chest" to Christian whatshisface (off Embarrassing Bodies) and he was a bit shocked to find out what it was.

I think it would be totally fine to send in an isitok to start the conversation about diversity-within-diversity. I think I will do that; I don't think Channel 4 typically shies away from difficult conversations.

Fracesca Martinez might have something to add. No idea whether she's a fan of the Olympics, mind.

I like The Last Leg and the Paralympics and Olymics in general. I once considered applying for a job at the IOC. DH said I am not corrupt enough...

I'm a bit stuck on "I think it's a bit harsh to demand that a programme which is there specifically to represent disabled people, not all-purpose "diversity", should also be appropriately diverse in all other respects"
Emphasis on specifically to represent disabled people. cause it isn't, is it.

I don't know exact stats for disabled people, but 17% of the general population in Britain are of a race other than white, and (approx) 50% of the general population are female. So it's a guess, but (based on those figures) 58.5% of disabled people are not represented on a show that is "specifically to represent disabled people". Sexuality wise, two of the presenters are married, but the third is not, so no idea there. But it's another possible chunk of disabled people not represented.

I certainly don't feel represented.

I think people are being a bit harsh here when you consider the reporting and presenting on the paralympics by the number of us involved. Channel 4 has tried to be as inclusive as possible in general terms. The last leg is reaching out to 19% of the population. Channel 4 overall has been very diverse and I applaud them for what they have tried to achieve over the years. The amputee pop artist Viktoria Modesta has been featured previously by channel 4 and in comparison to the other channels we should be praising what channel 4 has tried to achieve.

I stopped watching it last time, now too blokey for me. Too irritating. I do like Adam Hills rants though.

"The last leg is reaching out to 19% of the population"

Nope. If my 58.5% estimate (being women and BME with disabilities) is used, The Last Leg is reaching out to less than 8% of the population.

I don't feel represented by someone being disabled any more than I feel represented by Loose Women's presenters being female.

I feel like I've learnt a lot from reading this board, and awakened my inner feminist... so despite enjoying the Last Leg during the Paralympics I have noticed the lack of women, for the first time.

In fact it's grating across the board - I watch comedy almost exclusively and love panel type comedy shows but the lack of women, and some of the things they say really gets to me. On Mock the Week a few days ago they mentioned the Phillipines president insulting various world leaders by calling them "son of a whore". Fair enough to include the story, but they kept repeating the phrase again and again obviously without ever having stopped to think that it's seriously offensive to people other than the person it's said to. No Frankie Boyle anymore thank goodness but at least his thing was to purposely be offensive; whereas what anger me the most, as in this scenario, it that they just haven't stopped to think. Yet they are being so "right on" about other things (welfare cuts, racism etc)! Actually it reminds me why I cannot stand to be around men I considered friends in the past. (Sorry for long post, rambling a bit trying to put into words what I mean.)

WRT The Last Leg I'm a bit on the fence and can see eveyone's points so far. I think if you are pushing the (conventional) boundaries a bit in one direction you shouldn't necessarily have to cover all bases, or at least that's not the priority. Sort of getting a foot in the door before you can challenge the orthodoxy further, iyswim. OTOH it's crap that having no women on the panel didn't automatically leap out as an imbalance. But there's no excuse once you've created a winning format (bearing in mind it started as a one-off show for the Paralympics in 2012) not to broaden things. As CherryPi points out the three guests they took shouldn't have all been male or Johnny Vegas.

Also finding Alex Brooker a bit grating but wasn't sure if it was classism. There's an awkward crossover there, isnt there? Mind you aside from that, what annoyed me was that he didn't like his weird dance move being called the "micro wave" because it referred to his hands, but seems quite happy to make jokes in a similar vein regarding others' disabilities. There was also a bit where Josh found it hilarious that a wheelchair basketball player got up to stretch his legs. Although they pointed out he (obviously) wasn't cheating, can stand up blah blah, IMO it would have been better to point out that most people in wheelchairs have some movement in their legs, and made a joke at Josh's expense. (accusing him of working for the govt assessing benefit claims [which they mention a lot] or something?)

Oh, and Francesca Martinez would be great on TLL :)

They joked about a person in a wheelchair standing up? I'm tempted to do the SJW thing now of being rather offended by something I didn't see...

Just an FYI re that, it is estimated that 80% of wheelchair users are not paralysed.

To be fair

Im a wheelchair user and walk i thought the joke was quite funny, but i see the general public giving me the look when i get out my chair -and push it they get a bit offended like im cheating or something. I used to do 2 wheelchair sports
. I noticed my favourite Katherine Ryan is on tonight

Beyond His words were (iirc) "One thing I didn't expect to see was a wheelchair basketball player getting up to stretch his legs". As a non-wheelchair user, seeing that for the first time does make you double take and as such seems humourous, somehow. It was ignorance and surprise rather than accusing. I thought it was good they included it, as MrsJayy says it's a common misunderstanding, but felt it could have been handled slightly better.

In a previous series they talked about the possibility of Adam trying to get a place in the Australian wheelchair tennis team, as he's apparently a pretty handy tennis player, and he'd fall within the classification. The reason he gave for not going for it was that he'd feel weird about winning a match and getting up to leap the net in celebration.

I haven't got around to watching this series - have they dealt with the accusations against Team GB of gaming the classifications?

They've taken two men and one woman guests to Rio with them. So that's 5 men and 1 woman on the team, as it were.

I admired the courage for this show, there is still a huge difference (unfortunately) between hiring those with visual deformities than hiring a wheelchair user who they can hide behind a desk. It was a niche show which gained enough support to carry on. Changing to offer more diversity would alter the chemistry so the one small step they did make could be wiped out if changes reduce viewing figures.

Good point.

Im here to eat my words im really liking Katherine Ryan she isnt annoying me like she does on other things

That's funny, MrsJayy, I found her ever so slightly annoying on this but usually like her!

They've mentioned the wheelchair user/mobility/walking issue a few times now and pointed out it comes up a lot so I'm now satisfied on that score...

Have been thinking more about the diversity thing. I think what makes women, as a disadvantaged group, a bit of an unusual case, is that we're not a minority. On a panel of three, it's impossible to represent the UK population. Have one person from an ethnic minority and one disabled person and already those groups are over-represented on the panel. (Although to be fair you'd probably measure the entire channel's output as a whole). So in practical terms you'd have 1 person or 0 people of most minorities. But women are half the population!

It get worse the larger the numbers are. When selecting three people, presumably having decided two should be disabled and one able-bodied (to ask the ignorant questions role), finding three people who work well together onscreen may end up with three men. But once you've got six people (them + three guests) it's a glaring omission.

Off the top of my head, so could just be massive conformation bias, but it seems that comedy as a whole (in the UK) is more accurately representative of different ethnicities and nationalities than it is of different sexes. As compared to % of the population. Hmm now where could I find stats on this?

Whilst it's a long long way off a carefully balanced random sample, this Buzzfeed article is instructive, suggesting that British TV of this type has pretty much got its act together on race but is hugely unbalanced iro male/female split (I realise that that's not what they think they're saying and it's a bit more complex than that).

On disability, from those pictures you could count Stephen Fry and Jon Richardson, but I'm not sure who else.

Women are still disadvantaged in stand up because of the route it takes to be successful . Comedy clubs have improved the the opportunities for women and BAME, but it is still going to take a few more years for the pool to grow as previously stand ups had the working mans club circuit where women had to endure "the get your tits out" and ethnic minorities had to stick to the stereotypes.

But I still stand behind the last leg, Alex was given the opportunity to describe disability in a way that only he could because of the last leg and because the bravity of the show risking a presenter who pushed the boundaries of disabilities and what the average person saw as acceptable.