What do Sissela Kyle, Babben Larsson and Eva Rydberg have in common? They are all female comedians, which means that they have to put up with the usual "dick measuring". What is considered good or bad taste is often connected to the idea people have of women. One way of being funny is to step outside of those ideas.
Sissela gives Laila Westerlund and Eva Rydberg as examples of this.
- And those shrewish old ladies were scrutinized!
Furthermore female comedians often need sharp elbows in order to fight for time in the limelight and then saving their few filmed sequences from the scissors in the cutting room.
- Who is given airtime? Sissela wonders.
"They were so rude, definitely not 'good taste'!"
The roles that Laila and Eva played at the time were of two kinds. Either you could be the silly little girl that doesn't understand much at all, or you could be the shrews, the strong dominant ladies. Since women in general are not supposed to be resolute, it is very funny when a comedian does something contradictory to that idea.
- They were so rude, definitely not 'good taste'!
Sissela also tells the story of when the TV comedy show Parlamentet (The Parliament) started. Back then the show was fairly gender equal, with three female comedians. But from there on it went downhill. After new recruitments the number of women were reduced to one. The host of the show commented:
- But we already have a girl in Parlamentet.
That you, on top of that, have to fight a lot harder and be a lot funnier than your male colleagues hardly needs mentioning.
When Parlamentet celebrated an anniversary Sissela wore a tuxedo. She motivated the choice by saying "this is a show by men, with men, for men. I consider a tux to be dress code." Finally she tells us that she sees it as her duty to recognize and affirm other female comedians.