Stewart Lee

[FalloverBoy]

He’s on tour and I’ve just seen a Twitter post by someone saying he had a dig at Ricky Gervais’ Transphobia. That he hates Ricky Gervais is no surprise (I’m more of a Stewart Lee gal myself) but has anyone seen him live on this tour? I want to stick my fingers in my ears if he is because I bloody love his comedy.

Saw him in the autumn. Cried with laughter.

Yeh a lot of women by me were howlinh about the locking women in cars, rape and cunt.
jokes.

I guess I didn't understand the irony.

Stewart told the audience he's been reading the thread.

That's how I know.

He also referenced Mumsnet throughout the night.

Again.

Seem to be men, talking about and with other men, about which men - in their opinion - qualify for womanhood.

Bollocks to that.

Sounds dreadful, handsoff.
So he's been reading the thread (I've never heard of him btw).
And what a coincidence that this thread appears to be the OP's very first post on MN.

Oh well. I'm finding this all so fucking depressing. People I respected, who made me laugh who I thought 'got' things are becoming unpalatable to me with their attitudes. What's changed? I'm a feminist but not 'radical', left-wing, on the same sort of wavelength (I thought) , a fan of comedy that challenges but Jesus Fucking Christ what's happening. Some blindness to the basic rights and equality of women. Maybe it was there all the time and I was too naive to see it.

Think I'll stick to Burnistoun.

Correct Occasional
Same old, same old, dressed up as new and enlightened.

Closdes I think you're on to something there..

Errr... not my first post. I've been here for about 12 years but in the last few years regularly change my username.

So you're not Stewart Lee starting this thread to get more material for tonight's show then.

He referenced Mumsnet posts back in his test shows end of last year
Not a new thing

Well, it's fair to say Stewart is not a fan of the site and there was much mirth from the intellectually elite and politically astute every time it was mentioned.

I saw the show the other day and the Ricky Gervais transphobia thing was one tiny comment. He was pretending to be Gervais pulling his jokes out of his arse and flinging them at people: “take that, the transgender community. Take that, mongs!”

That was literally all it was.

Then later on he does a bit about political correctness and implies that the older generation are thick because they don’t understand unisex toilets.

I have loved Stewart Lee’s comedy for years. Big fan. But I’ll be honest, I was disappointed this time. I really thought he’d understand where women were coming from with gender criticism but his latest routine hints that he hasn’t thought about it at all from Women’s point of view, or he doesn’t give a shit.

I liked Frankie Boyle’s later, more apocalyptic stuff (after he’d grown out of trying and failing to make ironic jokes about disabled children). But I went to see him live, trying out new material for his TV show and one of his jokes was almost verbatim something like: “it’s mad how people have transgender people, as if men are going to put on a dress just so they can go into the toilets and wank at someone.”

And I was just sitting there thinking, err that LITERALLY has already happened and is a new thing that women now have to be afraid of on top of all the other predatory shit we already have to be afraid of, and, sorry if this seems ‘snowflake-y’ to you, but it’s not funny.

I thought of all people that Stewart Lee would be intelligent and insightful enough to grasp it but apparently not.

No I’m definitely not him. Although I am a similar age and lived near to where he went to school. I never knew anyone from his school though because it was a posh school and I just went to a bog standard comp. He doesn’t need to start his own thread on Mumsnet. That would be tragic.

I also understand that ‘Stewart Lee the stand up’ is a character, distinct from Stewart lee the writer. But even so... still disappointing.

And aside from the GC stuff, I did think this time that he was becoming a little bit of a pastiche of himself. Although with SL it’s hard to tell whether that’s intentional or not.

I saw him at the Union Chapel too and didn't laugh once. He and Jo Brand were the night's big names and neither was funny imo. I like Jo Brand though.

I saw him at a charity gig at the Royal Albert Hall a few years ago and he was by far the worst on the entire bill..

He was just so unfunny and trying so hard to be clever that he just came across as arrogant and smug. He then blamed us for not finding it funny because, you know, charity audience! He annoyed me so much - its not because we're stupider than your normal fans, Stewart... your just bad

Hmmm, disappointed in him - I'd credited him with better critical thinking.

If he's reading this thread I'd like an answer to this question: you have kids - would you be happy if they were on a residential trip and had to sleep and change next to a body of the opposite sex? Without them knowing or consenting ahead of time and without you knowing and consenting ahead of time? What about if that opposite-sexed body was walking around naked all the time and your child didn't like it, and felt threatened and scared, but felt their feelings were deemed less important than the naked child?

Particularly if he has a daughter (I don't know if he does):

Would be you ok, when out with her when she's say, 8, to send her into the ladies alone in the knowledge there could be a person in there with a penis, that she might see, when she's alone with that adult individual? Would you be happy if Jessica Yaniv was there and asked her about tampons?

If not, why not? How are our children meant to tell the Katie Dolatowskis and Jessica Yanivs from anyone else? metro.co.uk/2019/03/16/transgender-woman-18-sexually-assaulted-girl-10-morrisons-toilet-8914577/

Would you be happy for your daughter to just 'deal with anything' after it happens? Given the prosecution rate for rape is the lowest in a decade. www.theguardian.com/law/2019/sep/12/prosecutions-in-england-and-wales-at-lowest-level-in-a-decade

Or would you prefer for there not to be a great big yawning safeguarding loophole that any old Savile wannabe can jump through?

Also if he's reading this thread - stick around. Rather than mock us, why not actually find out the facts from the 'break it down for me' thread or the 'this never happens' thread. Why are SO MANY women and mothers (and increasingly men and fathers) worried about safeguarding on this issue?

As an Oxford graduate, do you think it's ok that a female academic at Oxford needs security guards to do her job safely?www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3803784-Selina-Todd-threats-security-wrong-side-of-history-my-arse

So you're not Stewart Lee starting this thread to get more material for tonight's show then.

Nah, the OP is brief and to the point.

I don't know who Stuart Lee is. Googled him and I'm none the wiser.

Do you know who Terry Christian is? Now imagine he'd really let himself go.

Big fan.

And here's the rub, Lang

Stewart talked about how his 9 year old daughter called out James Bond and his misogyny.

And I wondered, when Lee was talking about Deidre and Bob in their semi and how Deidre didn't understand unisex, what would happen if his own daughter was confronted by a middle aged man in her changing space or a boy stealing her place on the school team?

He's liberal. With my rights.
With her rights?

I'm a big fan of Stewart Lee.
Haven't seen this show. I see him as a comedian, not a political activist. So I don't consider his stage persona to be his actual political views, although there may be some overlap.
It's different to Frankie Boyle, who maintains a comic and political presence on social media and doesn't separate the two. So you get a comedian who makes fun of Jordan's disabled son in the name of free speech, who then blocks people for being transphobes. There are obviously some things he won't make fun of.

And I wondered, when Lee was talking about Deidre and Bob in their semi and how Deidre didn't understand unisex,

That's says a lot about him than it does about "Deirdre and Bob" - and not in a good way.

That's says a lot more about him than it does about "Deirdre and Bob" - and not in a good way.

He was brilliant for about 10 years, which in itself is an extraordinary achievement in comedy. But in the last 5+ years political correctness has dominated stand up and he's gone down the safe route and his material has suffered. I've seen him live and noticed the decline in genuine laughs

I think anyone who uses the concept of Mumsnet as a punchline is letting something show:

• they find groups of women silly and frivolous
• they think that becoming a mum makes your brain fall out
• they think mums aren’t to be taken seriously as a group

Or they secretly know that groups of women together are powerful, they’re actually a bit scared and they are trying to put women in their place.

None of that comes from any kind of progressive place, and if Stewart really was engaging in the deep critical thinking that he says he is, he’d be able to see that. Don’t worry though, Stu, you’re joining a long and illustrious list of supposedly progressive blokes who don’t, so you’re not special

Using Mumsnet as some kind of trope about women is lazy sexist stereotyping, and when I hear people do it, I think less of them.