Rosie Jones

[andy-hughes]

Is anyone else apart from me made deeply uncomfortable by watching and listening to Rosie Jones?

My discomfort has less to do with the fact that, due to her cerebral palsy, her delivery is necessarily slow, and her speech sometimes hard to follow.

It's due purely and simply down to the fact that she is not funny.

Make a joke of a condition has always been a one-trick pony, and there is a seriously short limit to the amount of time you can mask your discomfort by laughing along with someone laughing at themselves and the cards nature has dealt them.

Once that's gone, no matter how you are delivering your lines, as a comedian, you are required to be funny, and she is not funny at all.

I believe that it is the sheer 'right-on'-ness of audiences telling themselves how much they are better than everyone else because they embrace someone's difficulties, and applaud their ability to laugh at them, strictly in the context at all.

But strip that away, and if you the same material was being delivered by someone without Ms Jones's personal challenges, and she would not get a gig on a street corner, never mind on television.

Any thoughts?

[barry1010]

See the post at 12:31 - Samantha Cameron

[MissTerious]

Oh, I just read through and go my answer. Is she a comedien now?

[barry1010]

No idea that 'Sam Cam' is a thing. I don't think I've read anything about her

[MissTerious]

I still don't see what the link is between Sam Cam and Rosie Jones. Sorry perhaps I'm being thick, but I've never seen any media stuff about her except back in the day.

[MissTerious]

Snap Barry!

[andy-hughes]

MissTerious - // I still don't see what the link is between Sam Cam and Rosie Jones. Sorry perhaps I'm being thick, but I've never seen any media stuff about her except back in the day. //

The link I am making is not between Mrs Cameron and Miss Jones as individuals.

The link is the media perception of them that is fed to the public, that is what they have in common.

Ms Jones is feted as a comedian because the media thinks we should find her funny because she has cerebral palsy, and addresses it in her routines.

Mrs Cameron was (not any more, her husband is not the Prime Minister) feted as being interesting and attractive in equal measure, simply because having a vaguely presentable PM's other half was such a novelty.

My link is that neither lady actually deserves the press attention they received, and receive, as 'novelties'.

To be fair to Mrs Cameron, she never appeared actively to court the media, but my point is that the media decide who to foist onto us in their pages, even if the merit of doing so is actually nonexistent.

[MissTerious]

But Andy I don't remember much media coverage about her at all.

[pastafreak]

Neither do I!

[andy-hughes]

MissTerious - // But Andy I don't remember much media coverage about her at all. //

Then I suggest you are not a regular Mail reader.

They have considerable form in the area of fixating on someone and elevating them to an entirely imaginary level of wonderfulness, which is clearly the result of their own adolescent crushes being allowed to get out of hand.

[naomi24]

Lottie/Pasta, nor me. Perhaps it was just the Daily Mail and not the media in general.

[andy-hughes]

Naomi - On reflection, I think that's correct, I should have singled out the Mail, rather than suggesting, incorrectly, that it was the media ad a whole who fixated on Mrs Cameron.

[Paigntonian]

I'm very uncomfortable listening to her. Hope that doesn't make me uncaring.

[naomi24]

Actually paigntonian, I don't care. I think she's dreadful.

[maggiebee]

Last time I looked, every TV set had any number of stations and an off switch.

[Deskdiary]

I agree - she is incredibly unfunny, and a one trick pony to boot.

It reminds me of the Lost Voice Guy who won BGT a few years ago, who was as unfunny as Rosie Jones - he won not despite his disability, but because of it.

[Paigntonian]

What bores me is young white gay men base their act on being a young white gay man, plump lesbians base their act on being a plump lesbian and black men do the black man routine. Truly successful comics, Tommy Cooper, Morcambe and Wise, Bob Monkhouse, didn't do that.

[andy-hughes]

maggie - // Last time I looked, every TV set had any number of stations and an off switch. //

Of course, but the ability to choose elsewhere does not mean that offering an observation on something you don't like becomes invalid.

That puts the 'critic' in criticism.

[drmorgans]

Don't all (okay, most) comedians / double acts create a persona, often loosely based on there real selves? If you are a young black lesbian then it's unlikely your "character" will be a middle-aged, middle-class man.

[maggiebee]

andy-hughes - of course. However, why just watch a programme so you can criticise it? As a matter of interest Rosie Jones played a wonderful part in Casualty as a mum to be threatened with having her unborn child taken away at birth because of her disability.

[andy-hughes]

maggie - // However, why just watch a programme so you can criticise it? //

I don't, unless in a professional capacity.

My viewing of Ms Jones has been restricted entirely to her appearances on Eight Out Of Ten Cats Does Countdown, one of my favourite programmes, and I ignore her unfunny contributions.

I would not watch anything else in which she appears, because of my dislike of her as an unfunny comedian.

// As a matter of interest Rosie Jones played a wonderful part in Casualty as a mum to be threatened with having her unborn child taken away at birth because of her disability. //

I don't doubt it, but being a good serious actress does not automatically make you a funny comedian, or indeed vice versa.