It’s comedy fest time again so I picked out a couple of great-sounding gay shows to write about for this here publication.
I’m a Star Observer columnist, not a reviewer, so instead of giving star ratings I’m just gonna tell you what the experiences were like for me. Different folks laugh at different things so who am I to judge what’s funny?
First comic I saw was Canadian DeAnne Smith who performed to a packed-out room full of lady-lovers. Nearly every gag was a self-deprecating joke about being a lez — the horror of bikini waxing, Scrabble as perfect foreplay and the awkwardness of perving on cheerleaders with your dad. My girlfriends and I spent the hour laughing at her, ourselves and each other.
The second show was a totally different experience. I’d seen pics of 22-year-old Rhys Nicholson and was drawn to his slick hipster-dandy look. Wil Anderson had given him a good rap so I was expecting razor-sharp commentary with a camp edge. But what I got just made me uncomfortable.
It wasn’t the cock, cum and anal references or how he took the piss out of being gay — it was the way he relentlessly cut down women that made my stomach churn.
Think stinky vaginas, women as fuck-holes, flippant rape gags and derisive dyke jokes aplenty. For my taste it was far too aggressive and clichéd to be ironic — and yet the crowd, which appeared to be mainly straight, dug it.
For the first time in a long time I felt like I was back at high school where jocks ruled and weirdos got bashed. The feeling sat awkwardly alongside Rhys’ confessions about his struggles growing up gay in Newcastle.
It felt like he was now being the bully picking on different minorities — at one point I questioned whether I should take my hand off my girlfriend’s leg because I didn’t want to be the butt of the jokes.
There’s no doubt Rhys is a charismatic performer who at times had me laughing out loud — but at a time when we’re being told “It Gets Better”, I really didn’t expect to leave the theatre feeling worse than when I’d arrived.
Maybe I didn’t get the joke. Humour is subjective after all.
Well said, Holly.
I think being uncomfortable and offended its rather the result of the way the comedy industry is run – that is, if you want to be a successful comedian, especially in Australia, you’re having to pander to not so much the lowest common denominator, but the lowest commercial denominator – which in a land where misogynists like Kyle Sandilands and that sh*t-bag from the footy show, Sam something (not that I’m in any way suggesting that they’re at all funny, or even decent human beings, much less comedians) not only still have jobs but are massively commercially backed and plastered all over the media, the more commercially successful comedians (thankfully with notable exceptions) are the ones with more bigoted material. This sends a pretty clear message to newer and aspiring comics that the way to move forward and be a successful comic is to be bigoted in their shows. Sure some people find then genuinely funny, but there’s also the phenomena of people finding then funny *because* they’re comics, and comics are *supposed* to be found funny – and hey, everyone else is laughing, so they *must* be funny.
This is not to say that all comics are bigots, not at all, but rather that commercial interests influence and enforce such expectations of bigotry with an aim of furthering the commercial interests rather than benefiting comedy or bringing to the fore and profiting the better and more talented comedians.
This systemic problem could be positively impacted and changed if people like yourself and me and all other comedy-fans who find bigotry offensive were more confident in standing up and actually speaking out about the problems, were more confident in cutting against the ‘it’s just a joke, geeze, lighten up already’ and ‘don’t be such a b*tch about it’ responses normally thrown at people who don’t enjoy misogyny or homophobia or any other bigotry when we go out. We shouldn’t have to ‘expect’ bigotry, or accept being offended and made uncomfortable as ‘entertainment’. Oppression is a very real, very serious, and for most people who fall into one or more minorities, very traumatic constant in our lives – and I’ve yet to ever come across a situation of someone having been raped and finding it in any way amusing, much less funny.
I think being uncomfortable and offended is kinda the idea of a Rhys Nicholson show no matter your gender or sexual bias.