Jam'ie - male actor plays schoolgirl - BBC Three

[OhHolyJesus]

Leading on from the Drag Queen thread, has anyone had the misfortune to stumble across this on iPlayer? I watched 5 mins, I think it was meant to be funny. Chris Lilley is an Australian comedian apparently and he plays a bitchy schoolgirl in the cool crowd, as far as I could gather from my brief watch.

I felt really uncomfortable with it, one image on the 'next episode' promo shows the main character getting undressed behind some towels that are being held up by the other schoolgirl friends. I'm sure it was all done respectfully on set but the whole premise of the programme felt wrong, and it wasn't funny. There's something very wrong going on at the BBC...

I didn't watch it for long and I didn't realise it was so old. It came up as a suggested watch or something so maybe my iPlayer is looking at what I post on FWR!

I didn't find it funny but that's just because it's not my sense of humour. I was watching in the context of having read the Drag Queen thread and I was thinking about womanface and stereotypes in general and it honestly made me feel a bit weird.

I was definitely a programme that appeared out of no where on my iPlayer so a bit odd as it's so old.

Chris Lilley is known for playing a range of characters regardless of physical characteristics in all of his TV shows. He has a new TV show ‘Lunatics’ available on Netflix in which he plays both male and female characters. His humour is not to everyone’s tastes but it is very funny and I’d say akin to characters like Harry Enfield or Matt Lucas & David Williams playing female characters on their TV shows.

I think he’s supposed to look quite ridiculous in the wig and uniform. Especially since the character is always going on about how she’s so hot. In the scene with the towels, Ja’mie is accusing another girl of staring at her in the changing room, because she’s just so clueless and vain.

Having gone to a girls school it’s pretty spot on in its portrayal of a certain type of overbearing, prefect type.

Maybe if I had the context of being a pupil at a girls school I would have found it more amusing.

Thanks for providing the context, I won't question it so much now.

Personally I think Ja’mie was better in the original, I think it stretched it a bit having a whole show for the character.

For those who obsess about ‘passing’, imo Chris Lilley as Ja’mie would ‘pass’ better than some who wear lots of makeup and spend thousands on surgery.

I know that I am not supposed to say this because it's cultural appropriation 101 but I find this guy really funny. I heard a interesting take on dubious humor. It's basically that you can get away with the darkest comedy as long as it's funny. This guy is funny.

Ja’mie originally appeared in We Can Be Heroes from years ago. A very funny character.

I haven’t seen any of Lunatics, but read a review calling it transphobic because a character who is a pet psychic is convinced her dog wants to change sex and sends it for a sex change operation.

I went to an all girls Catholic school in the UK and find Ja'mie very funny. It translates well I think

I love everything Chris Lilley does, but Ja'mie is my favourite (closely followed by Mr G)

Oh we're easily offended aren't we? Its not like he's promoting infertility and destruction of young bodies or giving boys unfettered access to female boundaries. Why don't see him for what it is - a boy with long hair and makeup wearing a dress and pull up socks. No probs.