Next month (February 2015), comedy channel Dave is running a festival in Leicester. One of the events is a pun contest – the UK Pun Championship, no less. It’s attracting considerable attention already, but not for the groan-inducing puns favoured by the finalists.
‘Several dozen’ people entered, according to Viv Groskop in ‘the Guardian’, and there are eight in the final. None of those entrants are female. Not one funny woman put their name down.
As a result, the main coverage of the Pun Championship is along the lines of ‘women can’t/don’t do puns’. Current champ Darren Walsh is even quoted as saying: “I don’t want to be pundantic about it, but there are not many pun acts who are blokes.” What a load of rubbish that is. Not only is that a terrible pun for a reigning champion, but saying ‘not many’ when zero women entered is just fence-sitting.
In fairness, the article mentions a number of female comedians who use puns. That list includes last year’s Funny Women Awards runner-up Lauren Pattison as well as 2013 finalists Bisha K Ali and Saskia Preston.
The issue seems to be that nobody can think of a woman who ONLY uses puns, a.k.a ‘the female Tim Vine’ so not a successful comedian in their own right anyway. Yet another case of trying to put funny people into nice little boxes and ignore the fact that humour can come from almost anywhere.
Maybe in that sense it’s not such a bad thing. I don’t know any ladies who are hell bent on being the next [famous male comedian], far from it. Good for them. Let the guys get on with their pun contest, and we’ll go and be just as funny somewhere else.
I’ll leave you with this:
I once went to France, ate a single egg and then left. I’d just had un oeuf.
You’re welcome.
Pictured: Last year’s Funny Women Awards runner up and lover of puns Lauren Pattison
