"Even today, there are people who insist Women Just Ain't Funny.
"I tell 'em to start with Mae West, take a brief stop at Hattie Jaques and Prunella Scales, then soar through Jennifer Saunders, Helen Lederer, Jo Brand, right up to Mary Bourke...
"And stop again.
>p>"It's not that Mary's unfunny - she can raise the proverbial roof at times - it's more that her style of femininity insists on being taken seriously. Not an obvious comic stance. When she argues for the sex appeal of the obese there's none of Dawn French's playfulness or Jo Brand's tongue-in-cheek wiliness, there's just the peevishness of a Schoolgirl Who Once Dated A Fat Bloke. Similarly, when she fiddles at the foibles of everyday existence there's none of Sarah Kendall's feelgood irony or youthful Ben Elton's rancorous rage, there's just a disturbing immaturity in the voice of one who's lived so long and done so much. And when she recounts jokes I've heard before, there's none of Bob Monkhouse's self-effacing cheesiness or Tommy Cooper's double-edged damn-it-all-silliness, just the worrying desperation of someone who doesn't have the guts to find her own style... I once read Mary lay into a couple of women she considered lesbian, and everyone cringed. Including herself later on."There's some good stuff here, some better delivery and a best-of-all way of handling the hecklers. But there's also a bitchiness that isn't funny, and won't be unless it's channelled into something slicker and stronger and sillier."
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