Only 2 "non-male" comedians in British Top 20 - and one is Eddie Izzard

[FightingTheFoo]

According to a "scientific" study commissioned by some random website and covered by LadBible.

No women at all in the top 10. The first "woman" to appear on the list is at #15 and that entry is Eddie Izzard. (Izzard's new gender must have cost them at least a couple of places because women aren't funny, are they?)

Sarah Millican comes in at #19.

This is how Lad Bible puts it: "Interestingly enough, the only non-male comedians to feature on the list were Sarah Millican and gender-fluid Eddie Izzard."

So, Sarah Millican is now a "non-male". Has anyone asked Sarah if that's how she identifies? I suspect not.

Oh, and the disingenuousness of putting her name before Izzard's in that sentence when she is actually four places below him on the list - to hide the MISOGYNY.

I feel a rage blackout coming on.

https://www.ladbible.com/entertainment/tv-and-film-jimmy-carr-is-the-funniest-british-comedian-according-to-science-20210204

[quote ArabellaScott]New to me. She's funny.

[/quote] I think that's the first time I've ever laughed at anyone at the Apollo.

Quite enjoying this so far. Sarah Millican.

Jennifer Saunders?
Carr is vile.

French and Saunders were legendary. Eddie is just getting annoying now. This has done wonders for his career hasn’t it?

I've just started occasionally listening to the R4 6:30 comedy slot, it seems to me there are more women on it than in the past. Perhaps doing shows remotely is working well for more of them?

As the ladbible piece itself points out, laughs per hour is a crude metric.
Even apart from the strange inclusion of only one woman and mis-categorising Izzard (who is, regardless of 'gender', immutably male), it doesn't even have a lot of the best males for humour. Maybe that's a different category to just 'comedian'.

However - they are clear about their methodology, so I don't know that I'd argue it's sexist as such. Maybe people do laugh more at male comics. Maybe it's a statistical anomaly.

Or maybe they put in way more men than women. Even scientific studies are only as good as the information you put in and can be deeply biased due to the misconceptions of the people running them.

Mock The Week, which used to be dominated by blokes, has now changed a bit. Last night's episode had Angela Barnes and Masie Adam on it, both of whom made me laugh a lot.

Miranda Hart every day of the week for me!

Could the scewed results be affected by social conditioning? I'm pretty sure people are socially conditioned to respond to men and women in different ways.
Then if it's laughs per minute that is quantity over quality. A good comic will do a good build up rather than one liners. Most people in an audience will laugh at unfunny jokes as well because it's not nice to let people die on stage as the tumbleweed rolls.
And how did they test who in the audience was laughing at what?
I mean, was there a way to test if Jimmy Carr did an awfully sexist joke if the women weren't laughing but the men were?
And for that matter, did women's laughter even register with the technology used. I bring this up because Alexa and Google don't register female voices well.

One of the funniest live acts I’ve ever seen was Nina Conti. Not strictly a comedian, I suppose, but I’ve rarely laughed so much in my life.

Angela Barnes,
Tiffany Stevenson
Suzi Ruffell,
Jessica Fostekew
Kirk Pritchard - McLean
Catherine Bohart,
Rosie Jones,
Jen Brister,
Shazia Mirza
Mar Martin,
Zoe Lyons
Sindhi Vee,
Josie Long,
Jayde Adams,
Lucy Porter,
Francesca Martinez,
Luisa Omielan,
Fern Brady

All are funnier than most of those on that list.

( I see a lot of live comedy. In normal times.)

[quote ArabellaScott]New to me. She's funny.

[/quote]

Very funny and relatable. New to me too.

I've seen another set from Sindhu Vi on Live at the Apollo as well. She's great.

I suspect someone's been using a Clap-ometer!

Sindhu Vee is brilliant. One of my very favourite comedians.

@MissBarbary

Yes, it's true. Although it comes on the back of Manx women having to go to England and pay for for an abortion up till then, it was never really regarded as illegal though, not in recent times. Just not obtainable on island unless for medical reasons.
Manx flag comments were a bit offensive though.

What about Mary Bourke? Hilarious, feminist and resolutely GC. Saw her at the Fringe a couple of years ago, and she does some great stuff online at present.

That... person is not female and not not funny.

[quote SusannaSpider]@MissBarbary

Yes, it's true. Although it comes on the back of Manx women having to go to England and pay for for an abortion up till then, it was never really regarded as illegal though, not in recent times. Just not obtainable on island unless for medical reasons.
Manx flag comments were a bit offensive though.[/quote]
Yes, those comments were unnecessary and spoilt the rest of the piece.

But Eddie Izzard is male.

Sarah Millican is one of those wombum things JKR got into so much trouble for mentioning.

I love Luisa Omielan.

I love Maisie Adam. Listening to her in Mock The Week is interesting as it makes the male comedians seem so old fashioned with their humour.

@ValancyRedfern

I've seen another set from Sindhu Vi on Live at the Apollo as well. She's great.

Another one who hadn’t heard of her, but am looking forward to her getting on the comedy roundabout because she deserves to be there.

If Sarah Millican is non-male, does that make all the others non-female 🤨
Ridiculous use of terminology