bbc forcing mixed panels on their shows

[Tunney]

I go to a lot of comedy gigs in London. There's plenty of very talented female comedians out there. Sadly, they don't get the breaks that some men get.

The problem at the moment is that shows like Mock The Week don't choose comedians based on merit. Instead, these shows all book their comedians through a single comedy agency in London. Comedians on that agent's books are guaranteed work on all of these shows (hence why you see the same comedians on every single panel show). If you're not on that agent's books, you have practically no chance of appearing no matter how good you are.

Unfortunately, the agency with all of the power only works with comedians that fit a certain profile. That's why all of these comedians that you see are pretty much interchangeable.

 

[Mr Badger]

Positive discrimination - don't you just love it!

 

[Muffin`]

What about 'The Gays', 'The Minorities' and 'The Working Class'? Why does the BBC ignore those?

 

[Ryan-3]

These people are nuts. True equality does not mean that you have 50% men and women, or the like. It means that everyone has an equal opportunity.

This. I'd rather have people who actually contribute to the show on the panel, rather than those who have to go on to fulfil some 'equality' agenda.

 

[Jono8]

So they are going to be discriminatory to try and stop discrimination?

Great idea...

 

[Nitefly]

To quote Frankie Boyle, however much this winds anyone up, it's not half as much as I don't care.

 

[SPG]

Julie Walters, Dawn French, Jennifer Saunders are funny people to the bone. The others are just comedians and pretty boring.

 

[FoxEye]

So they are going to be discriminatory to try and stop discrimination?

Great idea...

It's the only option they have for breaking the status-quo. May be a good idea to be open-minded, give it some time, and see what the outcome is.

 

[Angilion]

If loose women has to go off air this may be worthwhile.

It only applies to men, obviously. It's only wrong if there aren't any women. It's fine if there aren't any men. That's different because men are the oppressors and women are the victims. Always. Obviously.

 

[Dolph]

Equality is gender blindness not enforced ratios. True equality is acheived when gender doesn't matter, not whrn it is a criteria in itself.

Terrible decision by the bbc.

 

[Angilion]

It's the only option they have for breaking the status-quo. May be a good idea to be open-minded, give it some time, and see what the outcome is.

I'm not "open-minded" about discriminating against people solely because of their sex. I think it's wrong. Full stop, end of story. "It's wrong against X but right against not-X" is just rationalising bigotry.

Also, of course, this is just sexism piled on sexism. They're not going to force shows to feature a man prominently solely because he's a man, with complete disregard as to whether or not he's the best person for the job.

If there's a problem with sexism, the right option is sexual equality. Not sexism. I don't care that sexism against one sex is generally considered to be a good thing and sexism against the other sex is generally considered to be a bad thing. I consider sexism to be a bad thing.

 

[Sliver]

I think Hitch makes some valid points here. I agree with him mostly, although there are some funny women, there's just not as many of them as men.

 

[Angilion]

Equality is gender blindness not enforced ratios. True equality is acheived when gender doesn't matter, not whrn it is a criteria in itself.

Terrible decision by the bbc.

That depends on what the goal of the decision is.

If the goal is sexual equality, then it's a terrible decision.

If the goal is pandering to dominant irrational prejudices in order to increase profitability, then it's a good decision.

 

[Theophany]

If loose women has to go off air this may be worthwhile.

That would be awful. Loose Women is the closest we have to a televised mumsnet, if we lose that all we have is Jeremy Kyle and Homes Under the Hammer.

 

[No1newts]

These people are nuts. True equality does not mean that you have 50% men and women, or the like. It means that everyone has an equal opportunity. The result probably leads to unequal panels, for example, but that's because you don't actually choose the panel on gender, you choose it on humour.

+1

Equality of opportunity is what it is about but for some deluded reason the British translate this to equality of outcome regardless of ability and at times to the detriment of the end product.

 

[cainer]

Mock the week will be ruined by this, unless they manage to find a female version of Frankie boyle

 

[Tunney]

Equality is gender blindness not enforced ratios. True equality is acheived when gender doesn't matter, not whrn it is a criteria in itself.

Terrible decision by the bbc.

Have you ever heard of the Rooney Rule?

In American football, they had a problem where there was a significant underrepresentation of black coaches in the league. The team owners said that they didn't understand why this was happening. After all, they were always picking the best coach for the job no matter what their skin colour.

The Rooney Rule stated that teams had to interview at least one black coach for each vacancy. Guess what? Suddenly the number of black coaches in the league increased dramatically.

Of course, no-one wants to see positive discrimination. The problem is that we live in a world that's still prejudiced. The reality is that positive discrimination often the only way to balance things up. After all, the people booking these comedians will swear that they always choose the funniest comedians and that they certainly aren't sexist.

 

[Terminal_Boy]

What about 'The Gays', 'The Minorities' and 'The Working Class'? Why does the BBC ignore those?

The BBC only ignore one of those 3 groups.

 

[Tonester0011]

These people are nuts. True equality does not mean that you have 50% men and women, or the like. It means that everyone has an equal opportunity. The result probably leads to unequal panels, for example, but that's because you don't actually choose the panel on gender, you choose it on humour.

Wasn't it on QI that they stated all female panels actually get fewer laughs than all male?

 

[No1newts]

Have you ever heard of the Rooney Rule?

In American football, they had a problem where there was a significant underrepresentation of black coaches in the league. The team owners said that they didn't understand why this was happening. After all, they were always picking the best coach for the job no matter what their skin colour.

The Rooney Rule stated that teams had to interview at least one black coach for each vacancy. Guess what? Suddenly the number of black coaches in the league increased dramatically.

Of course, no-one wants to see positive discrimination. The problem is that we live in a world that's still prejudiced. The reality is that positive discrimination often the only way to balance things up. After all, the people booking these comedians will swear that they always choose the funniest comedians and that they certainly aren't sexist.

Isn't there only 2 black head coaches at the moment?

Sorry there is 3, 3 of 32.......