Lee Mack’s Desert Island Discs: reaction to female comedian comments

Comics and scholars have reacted to Lee Mack’s comments about female comedians on Desert Island Discs.

On the BBC Radio 4 show, broadcast on Sunday, Mack claimed that women comedians are naturally unsuitable for panel shows.

He told host Kirsty Young: “When men sit around and talk, they are very competitive. One person will tell an anecdote and the next person will try to top that. When you get six women together, they share a lot more. They will be far more interested in what the other person has to say. The conservation is more interactive and less about individually showing off.”

“It’s actually a complement to women that there aren’t more female stand-ups because they’re more interested in what each other has to say rather than standing there on their own and showing off.”

“It means that there’s less of them starting in the first place.”

Mack said that was referring to competitive panel shows such as Mock the Week, rather than the “interactive” Would I Lie to You?, on which he is a team captain.

Mock the Week has ignited numerous discussions and opinion pieces about female comedians since the show launched in 2005.

A BBC-commissioned report last year criticised Mock the Week for having “token women”.

However, Mack’s comments on Desert Island Discs reflect those made by a range of commentators, including comedian Bethany Black, that TV panel shows reflect the disproportionate amount of female comedians on the circuit.

Similarly, host John Scott apologised for his all-male panel at last month’s Sod the Tories (and Have a Nice Week), The Stand’s monthly political show, explaining that his efforts to recruit a female for the September show had proved unsuccessful.

Also, in an interview with Giggle Beats, Spitting Image alumni Steve Nallon said that Mock the Week is not a nice show for female comedians to appear on.

Mack’s comments were broadcast in the week that the first UK Women in Comedy Festival launched in Greater Manchester.

Mack, born in Southport, said that he had particular expertise in the topic, having researched women comedians for his dissertation for his degree in drama, film, and television at Brunel University.

His comments, which he told Kirsty Young were based on “scientific reports”, were supported by some scholars.

Dr Mary Talbot, author of the respected textbooks Language and Gender and Media Discourse: Representation and Interaction, told Giggle Beats: “He may be right about the relative lack of competitive posturing among women comedians. I don’t find it remotely entertaining, so for me it’s the stand-up and panel games that are the problem, not female comedians.”

Another academic, Dr Angela Smith, reader in Language and Cultural Studies at the University of Sunderland, acknowledged that Mack’s comments can be supported by some studies, although also suggested that there may be more complexity than the binary categories suggest.

Dr Smith said: ”I think he [Mack] is drawing on stereotypes, where a lot of research has found that men are often competitive and women are cooperative.

“These are just stereotypes, though, and it will depend very much on context; a group of women playing Monopoly can be very competitive, whilst a group of men constructing an Ikea cupboard can be very cooperative.

“It’s often more about context rather than gender.”

Lee Mack’s edition of Desert Island Discs is available on BBC iPlayer, and also available to download as a podcast via the BBC’s website and iTunes.