#no context: derry girls

[claudiajessies]

NO CONTEXT ✦ DERRY GIRLS ✦ SEASON 1 EPISODE 3

[mentally-at-home]

[neil-neil-orange-peel]

I love reading your asks, so I wanted to ask you if you had any favorite female characters from Rik and Ade projects?

Helloooo! Thank you, that's so sweet. ❤️ Let's see... I'm going to single out some TYO characters specifically and then talk more generally. This post is absolutely going to become a big, incoherent mess. 😂

Sue from Sociology is my favourite minor TYO character. Don't get me wrong, I love Helen the Murderess too, but there's something that draws me to Sue. To be fair, I'm just seriously weak for Jennifer Saunders in general, and she's basically done up as a female Rick here, if Rick was actually cool. I like inserting her into fanfic sometimes (okay, once... but I have plans). She's very much a background character for the majority of Interesting, but Interesting itself is one of the first (and only, possibly the only?) time there are lots of women in a TYO scene at once, even if they're not getting to do much. Shout out to Dawn's Christian who gets crushed by the gigantic sandwich too, of course! (As an aside, I find it funny that both Jennifer and Dawn got to strangle/smother Mike on the sofa on different occasions.)

Vyvyan's mum. Pauline Melville pops up a couple of other times in TYO as well, and she's just very good whenever she does. I believe she gave French & Saunders a bit of guidance when they were all on the standup circuit. Vyv's mum is a great character because she's just SO awful. Let female characters be awful! She's so spiky and sharp in every way, and she's probably the only semi-developed female character who appears on the show. I think letting the audience meet her gives Vyvyan a bit of texture and depth - sure, we could imagine any family background for any of them, but we're being told THIS HERE is Vyvyan's. Poor Vyv. Pauline Melville herself, of course, is a prize-winning writer now! The dream.

The devil and her condemned soul is one of my favourite TYO cutaway segments. The condemned soul is Helen Atkinson-Wood, who is most well-known for playing Mrs Miggins in Blackadder the Third. She also has a small role in the Comic Strip episode Consuela (and possibly others, but I looked up the cast list to that one yonks ago because it's my favourite). I wonder if Lise wrote this sketch, considering the subject matter. Either way, Dawn and Helen's delivery is great, especially the faux discrete way Dawn says "period pains". I hope it put stuffy men's heckles up.

Aside from TYO, Jen and Dawn were often the only female presence in the Comic Strip episodes, particularly the earlier ones. Of the first two series, Dawn wrote Summer School and Jen wrote Slags - neither were standout episodes of their series, the kind often recalled today, but with Slags especially, the female characters within them were given more agency and stake in the plot than usual. Jen played five different characters in Happy Families in 1985 - a little gem written by Ben and also starring Ade.

I'd like to give a little shout out to Helen Lederer, who popped up a lot in Rik and Ade's - and French & Saunders' - comic output, while never really being given her own opportunity to shine on TV. Oh, and I'd also like to give a shout out to Marsha Fitzalan, who played Sarah B'Stard in The New Statesman - she did such a good job of playing an intensely flawed, funny female character. There are countless male characters who are basically terrible people - I mean, Alan B'Stard for one - and it's vital women are also allowed to be that awful in comedy.

Comedy has always been a pretty male sphere. Even these days, there are definitely still men Ricky Gervais who believe women can't be funny. Misogyny is still massively prevalent in society. Male comics attract female attention; female comics attract male abuse. That's a simplification and generalisation, of course, but it's broadly true. And I don't see younger generations of men getting better with this, to be honest. Actually, I see them getting worse (thanks, Andrew Tate). Sorry to be all doom and gloom!

When Rik and Ade started out in comedy, women getting to play characters other than wives or the like - that is, straight characters and caricatures there largely for the male characters to bounce off of for their laughs - was still uncommon. Despite the existence of successful female comics across the pond like Lucille Ball, and beloved 1970s sitcom The Good Life having a main cast split evenly gender-wise (I know Richard Briers technically had first credit, but Penelope Keith as Margo Leadbetter was absolutely the funniest of the four of them), there was a genuine belief that women couldn't (and maybe shouldn't) be doing comedy.

Women like Victoria Wood were pushing boundaries in important ways around the time of the alternative comedy boom by writing specifically about women (and, quite often, northern women - which I personally think is important, since Last of the Summer Wine had such a chokehold on portraying almost all of its female characters as ostensibly the same). Her sitcom dinnerladies was both melancholic and hilarious. Her sketch shows and other comic output, quite often featuring Julie Walters (her friend and muse), Celia Imrie, and many others, were all written entirely by her. She was also a gifted pianist and wrote several comic songs.

All of this is to say, Victoria Wood definitely helped pave the way for French & Saunders. She even referred to herself as an alternative comedian in her material. But honestly, I don't think it was until much later that women stopped being regularly restricted to straight roles in comedies created by men (which, of course, most comedies were). This was part of why Absolutely Fabulous, written by Jen, was such a breath of fresh air in the 1990s. For once, every single major character was a woman - men were the scarcity! And Jen has mentioned before that producers would constantly pressure her to write more roles for men. Meanwhile, we can observe that Girls on Top (dubbed the female TYO, which is... sort of true and sort of not), which Dawn and Jen starred in with Ruby Wax and Tracey Ullman in the 1980s, isn't very well-known today. I'm not 100% sure how well it was received at the time, but clearly it wasn't as popular as TYO had been before it. Ruby Wax and Tracey Ullman have both also had successful careers in comedy, but I'd argue that's mainly thanks (particularly in Tracy's case) to opportunities in America.

So I'm not saying women never got to be the funny (also I'm just talking about the UK), but the fact is: if your comedy has a completely/majority male cast, with women only popping up in supporting roles or in guest appearances, it's obvious which characters are going to be better developed, more beloved, and just funnier. I mean, even the Vicar of Dibley, which was obviously written for Dawn and showcases her comic prowess, features a supporting cast of funny men (there was also Emma Chambers as Alice and Liz Smith as Leticia - before she was killed off - but the women were outnumbered by the men). I get that this perhaps fits with the idea of a tiny, slightly backwards village in Oxfordshire - and the fact Geraldine was a female vicar shocking these men was very important to the premise - but still.

We know certain men just REALLY struggle at writing women, too, so they've either done a really bad job or just avoided trying altogether. I do have an example for this, but I don't want to name them since I do love the show they created - it's just, y'know, writing women is definitely not their strong suit! And I'm really not trying to poo poo any shows here by pointing this out. I'm just making observations. All of these comedies I'm referencing here are very old now.

So! To get back to where I started with this!

I love that Lise Mayer was one of the writers of The Young Ones. In some ways, the fact one of the writers was a woman feels pretty incredible for 1982. At the same time, though, it's not surprising that she's often the forgotten one when people talk about who wrote TYO.

Rik and Ade were/are feminists, and it obviously wasn't their fault as individuals that comedy was so male - comedy was also restrictive in other ways before them. In terms of social class and political attitudes, they were definitely something refreshing and new. That said, it wouldn't be until later, with people like Caroline Aherne (who really changed the fundamentals of the sitcom genre with The Royle Family), that working class voices who weren't fucking Bernard Manning actually got some notice in comedy. And I've not even mentioned race in this ramble. If comedy was male, it was even more pale. There were comedies starring black and Asian comics in the 1980s and 1990s that started to break through - The Lenny Henry Show, Chef!, Desmond's, The Real McCoy, Goodness Gracious Me - but there's no denying BAME people, BAME women especially, have had to struggle a lot for a voice in comedy. Comedy is more diverse today than it was 40 years ago. There has been progress. But it's absolutely still male dominated, and still very white, at the top.

Rik was pegged as the golden boy of the alternative comedy movement, and he was and is undoubtedly remembered for so many different comedies. But in terms of pure success and fame? Actually, I think Dawn and Jen have been the standouts of their cohort. I don't think anyone would've predicted this 40 odd years ago - I mean, Christ, Rik had to speak up just to ensure they got equal pay at The Comic Strip. The boys were given their chance to shine first, there's no doubt about that. But it was Dawn and Jen who were the subjects of a BBC documentary last Christmas.

...Maybe there is hope for funny women, after all.

[rowenas-my-fave-child]

Noor: well I mean all British people are pathetic…looking at you Horace

[cashmere-caveman]

i misplaced the original posts but iirc i was tagged by both @saintirulan and @fakrichie so without further ado

post gifs of your ten favourite shows without naming them

i honestly don't know who hasnt done this yet and i also have trouble memorizing urls sorry 😬 but tagging

@fuzzyhologramdetective @rhaenys-queenofkhyrulzz @liquoricelesbian @fuhosh-i @mtb67 @gayvampiredivorce @justlikeregularchickens @ofswordsandpens @milfchellepfeiffer

also terror mutuals if u havent done this yet and want to, consider urselves tagged :)

[mynonclicheblog]

whenever I pick up my Undisclosed Derry Girls Future Fic(tm) again

[eternal-trip]

protestants keep toasters in cupboards

[mostlysitcoms]

Gerry: Just so I'm clear, are you saying that the British government dub the voice of Gerry Adams because it's too sexy?

Grandad Joe: It's like a fine whiskey. *Leans in* And I have that on good authority, boy.

Derry Girls. "Across the Barricade".

[imstressedx]

[angstandhappiness]

LMAO

[a-very-fond-farewell]

ok i finally figured out how to get some free time for my hobbies hear me out:

my circadian rhythm is fucked already, right? might as well sleep 5 hours a day while I’m at it. the plan is to do 2 hobbies at the same time, maximize your true productive potential and all that.

can’t do that for drama watching bc 1) I need to take notes, 2) I need to read subs, and 3) I don’t really do crochet (yet) so there’s not much I can do while watching people making very plot-heavy decisions on screen.

I CAN however watch movies and do other things at the same time, like drawing, or crafting. I mean I can do it with new movies but paying attention to the plot while felting is NOT recommended. but I can do cardio with new movies (bad for sleeping afterwards but u know me P: I’m a menace)

now. reading AND working on another project at the same time will be tricky, but I trust my sense of proportion (said the one planning to sleep less just to be free to have fun). I do have some of the books I planned to read on an audiobook recorder, so maybe I can do my exercises while listening to my books. but others are research books for my fics and for those I cannot exactly embroider with my feet while taking notes although.................. no sir, I can’t do that.

finally. since I cannot bake at night bc other people live with me, but I can use the bathroom without anyone really minding, I think I can either watch yt videos or listen to music while washing myself. which, I do be known, it’s not as groundbreaking as it should be, but for someone who 1) forgets baths are sometimes available in bathrooms to use, and 2) dissociates in a shower, remembering to do multiple things at once is a bit of a big deal.

I wish I could go on walks at night but (ah!) being afab I will not try that one, no sir. I used to have an app called Zombie Run and it was fun! much more fun than the idea of walking alone at night in a small village where anything can happen for sure.

ah. also. I would have to plan a schedule for all of this bc I also need to write my fics. which means that I’ll make time for all of these things based on whether my activities during the day have thoroughly beaten me up or not. I also have planned a huge live-reaction to write for a fic I just recently found and that does take time to navigate in a sensible way.

let’s start the new year full of hopes and dreams :D and let’s see how badly I fuck up along the line, shall we?

[claudiajessies]

NO CONTEXT ✦ DERRY GIRLS ✦ SEASON 1 EPISODE 1

[mentally-at-home]

[bubblegumbarbie33]

the great thing about Derry girls is that the audience doesn't know shit

like, I'm sure if you're an Irish or English viewer you have a bit more context for some of the historical jokes and holidays and the like

but plot threads like James' mother, micelle's brother, and the fact that Erin's sister just sort of exists in the background are barely explained but they don't need to be

because the point of the show isn't to espouse upon every little mystery of Derry, each character's inner turmoil, the backstory of every extra- hell, we don't get much of a backstory for the main characters! I don't think we even meet Michelle's father- and we never see the inside of any of the main five's houses besides Erin

this show is slice of life in its purest form

we are dropped into the first day of school in Derry in season one, and we leave on the day of the vote in season 3, when the girls are thinking about going off to college or university, that's it. we're merely a viewer. these characters aren't performing a show for us, we're peeking into their lives.

anyway its really late and I love Derry girls

[finnlongman]

When you are used to the no-nonsense, no-context approach of medieval Irish stories, trying to read Old Norse saga literature does feel kind of like you're being told a medieval story by Uncle Colm from Derry Girls.

[izzymalec]

three down four to go

just finished lucifer, now all shows i started watching (minus she hulk but fuck that) are finished omg #productivity