After rejecting Barbie film I eventually watched it, when streaming was cheap, and after seeing some heart warming interviews with Gerwig Robbie and Gosling and what fun they had making it and trusting their intelligence and good will. How the hardest thing was to get Mattel to accept the name of the main protagonist as ‘stereotypical Barbie’ that in itself was major, and lightly done. Even casting Ryan Gosling was so brilliant.. (with such a cool image re blade runner, drive etc.) : (Ken, shocked and confused in the Real World by Barbie telling builders that he didn’t have a penis assures them ‘I have all the genitals’ 😂. )
Yes there were clunky bits because it was aiming wide so couldn’t please everybody all the time. But bits of technical creative genius and with insight (eg how pregnant Barbie had been dumped by Mattel) it was gentle clever and funny.
Your main point about Chapell and Gervaise and why they think jokes about disabled people are necessary let alone funny, completely puzzled me too. There is a power of trans-activists that needs addressing but disabled people?
Oh and as for your last point, the division in the GC community? good luck with that although I too feel the fury of being dumped in a right wing camp because I believe that sex is real and gender a construct and reality is being traduced for the benefit of males and to the detriment of many groups of females. I think it’s time you did. The issue is who would publish it? The telegraph? The Mail? We need itv to do a drama.
I’ve got a lot of time for this critique (as I do most of what you write...) because fundamentally the politicisation of arts criticism is a feedback loop that rewards playing it safe, smug back patting and promotes moralising over entertainment.
Judging comedies by how morally righteous they are rewards all the kind of creative choices that nobody is going to choose to watch comedy for. Ted Lasso is a good example of a comedy that was rewarded for niceness and gentle humour, doubled down on all the things that critics encouraged, and ended with a series so filled with moral sermons that there was almost no space left for jokes. A good contrast is the Australian series Dead Loch, which tackles modern gender politics and a pretty eclectic range of representation but actually remembers to be funny - it’s a series that’s memorable because it’s hilarious, not because it’s morally insightful.
If I wanted to be told where my moral failings were, I’d try religion sooner than look for a Netfix comedy special that aligns with my values and belief systems.
Re point 7 This week I have bought Nick Wallis’ book and donated to his crowd funder and finally got a Private Eye subscription. A Computer Weekly sub might be a step too far though.
GC schism? Is there only one? I don't think so. It's a movement composed of many groups who may agree on little else than the reality of a sexual binary, and that's ok.
Helen Joyce oh so briefly discussed the Dress Incident recently on "You Must Be Some Kind of Therapist". I think she's right in saying that AGPs/TVs/TSs are not going away. They're thrilled to be out in their swingy skirts. The point is to enact laws preserving women's spaces, and protecting children from body modifications. Enacting dress codes is a futile endeavor.
Feel like I should stick up for Mark Kermode here. Although in the linked review he does indeed call Barbie a feminist fable, he still says plenty about the nuts and bolts of the movie. I do more than agree with the general point about criticism becoming hopelessly politicised.
I strongly agree with you about the "politicization of art criticism" in general terms.....but there is a BUT. Big blockbuster films and comedy acts may get way too much of it but your bog-standard who-dunnit-type tv dramas tend to get a tv critics free pass for their insidious subliminal political messaging.
"Tv schedules across the Western world are awash with drama serials conforming to a formulaic scriptwriter’s tick-box: Non-white person traduced but eventually revealed to be a surprisingly decent sort – Tick....Middle class white person eventually revealed to have a sinister dark side – Tick...Gay Couple included – Tick.... it has become an integral part of the story that ‘lgbt’ people are abundant and everywhere. They are bound to be nice as well." https://grahamcunningham.substack.com/p/non-binary-sibling-is-entertaining
What most irritated me with the Gervais special was him saying early on ‘I don’t like political comedians, they just say stuff they know their audience agree with then accept the applause’ before going on to do exactly that for heaps of the show and I honestly couldn’t work out whether he was even aware he was doing it or if he thinks his views aren’t ‘political’ there really didn’t seem to be any self-awareness there at all and that seems like a bad stage for a comedian to reach
I always enjoy reading your ‘stack’. The links, in particular, are brilliant. This weeks link to the Private Eye Horizon story in particular.
However - would be great if PE used a format other than PDF, as my partially-sighted wife can’t use text-to-speech on them - she has to rely on me reading them.
Enjoyed this. Made it through Chappelle, turned off Gervais (he's basically unwatchable right now). As you said, both felt incredibly lazy (which is a real shame). One reason why LD & Curb remains so special (fingers crossed for the final season)
This is great. Thanks, Helen. Not to shift the blame away from tired (tiring?) comics, but one of the things I find so eternally annoying about wokery is how much oxygen it sucks up. Love it or hate it, it’s there, in your head, rent free, like a mind worm. Even escaping into comedy doesn’t get you away from it. Sigh.
Thank you for putting into words what has been bothering me for some time. I find it harder to have a discussion about the features of the film itself (the story, the effects, the use of colors…) than its political messages. I remember feeling a bit of frustration after watching Avatar, where of course the political messages are always close to the surface. After watching it, I wanted, at least for a moment, to just talk about the story, the technical details, the visuals, etc., but found that people struggled, or were even unwilling to do it and to separate the “review” from the “opinion”. Being aware of the difference is very helpful!
I have mixed feelings about all this, but as happy as I am to see anti-woke sentiment coming out of the liberal closet-- I can’t really dismiss your position that it’s become safe and lazy territory for people I consider among the best in the comedy field.
I think my position is this-- progressives ought to be held accountable and accept dissent and criticism just like everyone else does, and their apparent belief that they should not have to is the core problem-- but that doesn’t mean that comedy at their expense is the best way to bring them into the world of reality. Mockery certainly hasn’t helped Trump voters grow up, and I’m not convinced these specials will help progressives evolve either.
I grow weary of comedy that feels like it’s pandering to my opinions, and it’s troubling to see these two comics doing anything that could be characterized that way.
I expected to disagree with you, and it was depressing to find that I didn’t. Well done!
After rejecting Barbie film I eventually watched it, when streaming was cheap, and after seeing some heart warming interviews with Gerwig Robbie and Gosling and what fun they had making it and trusting their intelligence and good will. How the hardest thing was to get Mattel to accept the name of the main protagonist as ‘stereotypical Barbie’ that in itself was major, and lightly done. Even casting Ryan Gosling was so brilliant.. (with such a cool image re blade runner, drive etc.) : (Ken, shocked and confused in the Real World by Barbie telling builders that he didn’t have a penis assures them ‘I have all the genitals’ 😂. )
Yes there were clunky bits because it was aiming wide so couldn’t please everybody all the time. But bits of technical creative genius and with insight (eg how pregnant Barbie had been dumped by Mattel) it was gentle clever and funny.
Your main point about Chapell and Gervaise and why they think jokes about disabled people are necessary let alone funny, completely puzzled me too. There is a power of trans-activists that needs addressing but disabled people?
Oh and as for your last point, the division in the GC community? good luck with that although I too feel the fury of being dumped in a right wing camp because I believe that sex is real and gender a construct and reality is being traduced for the benefit of males and to the detriment of many groups of females. I think it’s time you did. The issue is who would publish it? The telegraph? The Mail? We need itv to do a drama.
I’ve got a lot of time for this critique (as I do most of what you write...) because fundamentally the politicisation of arts criticism is a feedback loop that rewards playing it safe, smug back patting and promotes moralising over entertainment.
Judging comedies by how morally righteous they are rewards all the kind of creative choices that nobody is going to choose to watch comedy for. Ted Lasso is a good example of a comedy that was rewarded for niceness and gentle humour, doubled down on all the things that critics encouraged, and ended with a series so filled with moral sermons that there was almost no space left for jokes. A good contrast is the Australian series Dead Loch, which tackles modern gender politics and a pretty eclectic range of representation but actually remembers to be funny - it’s a series that’s memorable because it’s hilarious, not because it’s morally insightful.
If I wanted to be told where my moral failings were, I’d try religion sooner than look for a Netfix comedy special that aligns with my values and belief systems.
Re point 7 This week I have bought Nick Wallis’ book and donated to his crowd funder and finally got a Private Eye subscription. A Computer Weekly sub might be a step too far though.
GC schism? Is there only one? I don't think so. It's a movement composed of many groups who may agree on little else than the reality of a sexual binary, and that's ok.
Helen Joyce oh so briefly discussed the Dress Incident recently on "You Must Be Some Kind of Therapist". I think she's right in saying that AGPs/TVs/TSs are not going away. They're thrilled to be out in their swingy skirts. The point is to enact laws preserving women's spaces, and protecting children from body modifications. Enacting dress codes is a futile endeavor.
Feel like I should stick up for Mark Kermode here. Although in the linked review he does indeed call Barbie a feminist fable, he still says plenty about the nuts and bolts of the movie. I do more than agree with the general point about criticism becoming hopelessly politicised.
I strongly agree with you about the "politicization of art criticism" in general terms.....but there is a BUT. Big blockbuster films and comedy acts may get way too much of it but your bog-standard who-dunnit-type tv dramas tend to get a tv critics free pass for their insidious subliminal political messaging.
"Tv schedules across the Western world are awash with drama serials conforming to a formulaic scriptwriter’s tick-box: Non-white person traduced but eventually revealed to be a surprisingly decent sort – Tick....Middle class white person eventually revealed to have a sinister dark side – Tick...Gay Couple included – Tick.... it has become an integral part of the story that ‘lgbt’ people are abundant and everywhere. They are bound to be nice as well." https://grahamcunningham.substack.com/p/non-binary-sibling-is-entertaining
What most irritated me with the Gervais special was him saying early on ‘I don’t like political comedians, they just say stuff they know their audience agree with then accept the applause’ before going on to do exactly that for heaps of the show and I honestly couldn’t work out whether he was even aware he was doing it or if he thinks his views aren’t ‘political’ there really didn’t seem to be any self-awareness there at all and that seems like a bad stage for a comedian to reach
I always enjoy reading your ‘stack’. The links, in particular, are brilliant. This weeks link to the Private Eye Horizon story in particular.
However - would be great if PE used a format other than PDF, as my partially-sighted wife can’t use text-to-speech on them - she has to rely on me reading them.
Thanks again.
Enjoyed this. Made it through Chappelle, turned off Gervais (he's basically unwatchable right now). As you said, both felt incredibly lazy (which is a real shame). One reason why LD & Curb remains so special (fingers crossed for the final season)
Woke comedians get applause. Anti-woke comedians get laughs
This is great. Thanks, Helen. Not to shift the blame away from tired (tiring?) comics, but one of the things I find so eternally annoying about wokery is how much oxygen it sucks up. Love it or hate it, it’s there, in your head, rent free, like a mind worm. Even escaping into comedy doesn’t get you away from it. Sigh.
Loved that Peston clip with Ian trying to shut up that silly MP.
Oh the video with Frankie Boyle was great!
Thank you for putting into words what has been bothering me for some time. I find it harder to have a discussion about the features of the film itself (the story, the effects, the use of colors…) than its political messages. I remember feeling a bit of frustration after watching Avatar, where of course the political messages are always close to the surface. After watching it, I wanted, at least for a moment, to just talk about the story, the technical details, the visuals, etc., but found that people struggled, or were even unwilling to do it and to separate the “review” from the “opinion”. Being aware of the difference is very helpful!
Enjoyed that. I thought it was only I who was beginning to tire of Gervais and Chapelle. Im sure they both have more to offer . . .
I have mixed feelings about all this, but as happy as I am to see anti-woke sentiment coming out of the liberal closet-- I can’t really dismiss your position that it’s become safe and lazy territory for people I consider among the best in the comedy field.
I think my position is this-- progressives ought to be held accountable and accept dissent and criticism just like everyone else does, and their apparent belief that they should not have to is the core problem-- but that doesn’t mean that comedy at their expense is the best way to bring them into the world of reality. Mockery certainly hasn’t helped Trump voters grow up, and I’m not convinced these specials will help progressives evolve either.
I grow weary of comedy that feels like it’s pandering to my opinions, and it’s troubling to see these two comics doing anything that could be characterized that way.
I expected to disagree with you, and it was depressing to find that I didn’t. Well done!