T.W.
Tuesday 23rd September 2008 8:37pm [Edited]
15,786 posts
Quote: John Kelly @ September 23 2008, 9:12 AM BST
They say it's hard for women to succeed in comedy, and when you see the level of abuse ranged against women like Carla Lane, Catherine Tate, Susan Nickson, you can see why it's difficult. Does it ever strike the men who write these tirades that sometimes men and women write from different perspectives and maybe one of the reasons Lane was so popular was that she spoke to a different experience to all the men who then, and largely still do, dominate comedy.
O.K. you don't like Carla Lane's writing, but for Christ's sake recognise that she had real craft and it takes ability, not luck, to attract more viewers than almost any other comedy writer today.
I think you're suffering from the misapprehension that to give an honest opinion about one female comedy writer's output is to damn all female comedy writers with some misogynistic brush. This is certainly not what I'm doing. There are plenty of great female comedy writers and performers out there.
And I think you're completely wrong to say that men and women necessarily write from different perspectives. I think you're slightly damning women with faint praise on this.
Finally, I was not denying Carla Lane had abillity, I was just saying the majority of her writing doesn't strike me as very funny. And there are those of us in the younger generations who will certainly have ability too. Carla Lane doesn't endear herself in her cause to have her show picked up, though, when she basically slags off current comedy without even having the respect to watch it.
