Interesting comments from Henning Wehn re @Glinner

[Peakypolly]

I don't know if anyone is interested in this from Henning Wehns' latest newsletter...

Just like last year, this year’s Fringe has been a battleground of the ‘culture war’. Whereas last year Jerry Sadowitz’s run got cancelled after one show, it got even more ridiculous this time round when Father Ted writer Graham Linehan’s one-off appearance got cancelled before he even got up there. From what I understand it was over his opinions on men in skirts, a very delicate subject in Scotland at the best of times.

Bemusingly the cancellation was celebrated by a good number of performers. As a rule of thumb: cheering when someone isn’t allowed to sell tickets when your business model relies on being allowed to sell tickets is rather short-sighted. For all you know it’s you next.

I said as much on social media, which led to an avalanche of replies. Half the people tried to convince me that if a man puts on a skirt they must be a paedophile and the other half informed me if a man puts on a skirt they become a woman. There wasn’t a single reply along the lines of “If a man puts on a skirt, they’re a man who has put a skirt on and that’s that”.

It is a good joke but there are a lot of is out here!

Excellent, I see he's on Twitter so I've given him a follow. Not surprised with the down to earthness of his comments, but very pleased. Thanks OP.

Interesting. Good for Wehn to some extent but I don't believe this bit:
..Half the people tried to convince me that if a man puts on a skirt they must be a paedophile and the other half informed me if a man puts on a skirt they become a woman. There wasn’t a single reply along the lines of “If a man puts on a skirt, they’re a man who has put a skirt on and that’s that”.

I suspect that half the replies were along the lines of “If a man puts on a skirt, they’re a man who has put a skirt on and that’s that”... and also that insisting that a man becomes a woman by putting on a skirt gives cover to paedophiles.
So I'd quite like to see the actual responses.
He's a very bright man, very funny and sharp. I think he knows what's what, but would like to excuse himself from not having said anything sooner by doing a bit of "both sides-ism". He's trying to sidle away from the TRSOH gang rather than stride away from it boldly.

He is not entirely accurate but best to take the quip in good humour - The TRAs won't.

He's a very bright man, very funny and sharp. I think he knows what's what, but would like to excuse himself from not having said anything sooner by doing a bit of "both sides-ism". He's trying to sidle away from the TRSOH gang rather than stride away from it boldly.

I agree, but I think we need to accept support where we can get it at this stage, it's still a trickle of voices rather than an avalanche - and there will be plenty who pretend they didn't notice what was going on to save face.
That's the reality of mob behaviour, the sane people just back away slowly and hope it doesn't come for them, and only emerge when it seems a bit safer.

I like it. It's funny. And he doesn't dance about with words. To go from nothing to referring to "men in dresses" is pretty direct.

He's also spot on with his observations on the shortsightedness of performers backing cancel culture.

I wonder if Sara Pascoe has read any of this and revised her thinking. I used to love her and have tried to retain at least some admiration for her but her smug insistence in a Guardian interview (pre fringe) that some comedians were making money from being mean to trans people was too much desperate virtue signal for me.

Can't bear Sara Pascoe, she's so fucking insipid.

The Great British Sewing Bee is one of my favourite shows but she's ruined it.

I'm not saying we shouldn't accept support.
He's not actually offering much support to us in any case, I don't think! This is really about Glinner, and I hope he sees it.
To my mind, the interest and value of this section in his newsletter is that he is a) saying in a roundabout way that gender stereotypes are not sex and b) criticising cancel culture - as a well-known comedian.
So yes to the second part of your post.

I like this. You can hear his voice in it and I think he is adding humour and removing drama, both of which are almost always worth doing in any given situation.

Glad to see that. I've always liked Henning Wehn and we should allow some room for slightly turning the facts around to make a good joke.

It's good to read that - I had thought he was leaning towards TWAW. He'll get a kicking from the ideologues now do will probably end up TERFing properly sooner than later.

That's the brilliance of "educate yourself " etc.

It's a very pragmatic statement, which is what I'd expect from HW. He's smart and funny.

He also said “a man who puts on a skirt”.

Regardless of whether the paedophile segment of the statement was strictly accurate or not, calling them men is blasphemous in itself. Overton window and all that!

Saw him live with my twenty something dd. She was not impressed. I thought he was hilarious 😂

That's a great, and very well thought through statement/positioning. A very clever blend of humour, artistic licence ("half the people" and "half the people") and cutting through of nonsense to say something head on without it looking like that. Well done Henning! And thank you for adding your voice.
Humour is a powerful tool. And observational humour done well hits many a funny bone.
Graham Linehan has the talent to cover this topic in a humorous way too but is presumably using a lot of self-control in that respect, to keep his comedy separate from the important messaging that he has been tirelessly delivering for years. He's also probably very mindful of the (brilliant and actually "pro-trans", in so far as the transwoman comes out winning) episode of the IT Crowd that started this whole thing off. I remember watching that before I had any idea of this topic and thinking it was a very humourous and equal opportunities (everyone got equally laughed at) way of bringing something modern in to observational sitcom.

He’s not really taking a side but he is making a very strong statement for freedom of speech because he knows that is essential for comedy. A large part of comedy is saying things that are outrageous or potentially offensive or crossing lines. You can't write comedy if you're second-guessing whether your show will be closed down. And if comedians don't have freedom of speech neither do people talking about serious subjects.

Rowan Atkinson and John Cleese have made similar statements (and been monstered as out-of-touch old gammons, etc).

I'd rather go and see a comedy show with Wehn, Cleese and Atkinson than any of the no-mark hyenas who were cheering about Linehan's show being cancelled.

Agree with all of this. I recall how disturbed he was with the Sadowitz stuff last year. Thought I heard he deleted some tweets recently on this subject, so am glad to see him do this. He's a very funny, pragmatic guy.

Once saw him open for Al Murray in Pub Landlord guise (in a pretty big venue) and get booed off stage just for being German. It actually didn't really faze him. He knows what's what.

I have never quite forgiven him for being dismissive about the Cologne New Years eve events but I'm glad he has sort of spoken up here.

If I see a man in a dress/skirt I may well think ‘man in a dress’ followed by ‘so is he going to use the women’s loos, be in the shower next to me in the gym, be at the menopause for women workshop at work, will he demand I call him ‘she’ and threaten me if I don’t comply? etc etc etc.

I saw him tweeting about this. Quote tweeted another comedian (can't remember her name) who was for the venue cancelling the comedy unleashed show. Henning basically said I don't get this way of thinking - a comedian shouldn't encourage venues to cancel comedian's. He deleted it a while later, I hoped just because of the sheer number of replies which must make using twitter difficult. So I'm glad he hasn't backed down on the actual point. Your own newsletter to your own fans is a more manageable place to discuss these things.

I don't mind whether he is fully on board (though it sounds to me like he is). It worries me so much that so many ppl cannot see the dangers in denying someone else the freedom to speak. It's a precious principle that they are frittered away. It's good that henning has made these points.

I saw it on his site and was delighted.