https://www.comedy.co.uk/fringe/2014/features/carly_smallman_twitter_abuse/
The ever wonderful BCG Newsletter thingy brought this article to my attention. In it, an unknown female comic called Carly Smallman has a big moan about receiving abuse on Twitter for her looks.
She poses the question why is it only female comics being picked on for their looks and not male ones? That's pretty easy to answer, when was the last time you saw an ugly male comedian on television? The hyper sexualisation of the stand up scene combined with market saturation means that agents and television bosses can pick and choose which tight jeaned Russell they put on the box on any given week.
The days of Bernard Manning, Tommy Cooper and Les Dawson are long gone, replaced by the Tim Minchins and Noel Fieldings of this world. Any of the old guard that do manage to slip through the munter-net are soon given short shrift by both male and female critics.
I wonder how many times a day James Corden is called 'a fat c**t' on Twitter? My mistake, he's a man, the answer must be never.
Smallman ends her pathetic diatribe on the joys of perpetual victimhood with this gem: 'That's why I have written my new show Made In Penge - to speak out about online abuse and draw attention to the fact we still have a long way to go to reach true gender equality ... and it has jokes. Loads of jokes.'
Yeah, sounds f**king hilarious. If only someone could re-programme Twitter so publicity hungry, unfunny stand ups could receive nothing but constant praise as they spam the shit out of their followers and shill their unwanted products to all and sundry? We can all but dream.
