I want to address something Jimmy Kimmel says here. "Comedy is very democratic. The people who are great, rise to the top; the people who are good, rise to the middle; and the people who aren’t good, don’t make it." vulture.com/2018/10/jimmy-…
First of all, it's incredibly naive at this point to believe in absolute meritocracy in any endeavor, but to blow off the influences of any kind of discrimination in comedy is ludicrous.
Second of all: Right in this same piece, they're talking about CK being given a spot on stage. A spot many people would kill for. Giving him that spot is a specific choice made by a specific person or people. That doesn't just *happen*.
There are people who would give him that spot -- people who think his comedy is funny -- and people who don't. The idea that it's like the hot air balloon in The Good Place and you walk near a stage and it turns red or green? That's fake.
I hate this depersonalization of the ways that people become famous, get opportunities to remain famous, and get opportunities to recover from stumbles. Those are all choices. It's not an algorithm.
I don't even know if guys like this know how many people they're kind of kicking in the head when they say this stuff? Anyway, I am taking a short break from Dude Opinions.
Shoot. And one more thing, too. The thing about "no, I don't consider whether my shows are inclusive, because I'd never want a woman to think she got a spot because she's a woman" is so broken.
The reason you have to be aware of whether your shows are inclusive is not because women otherwise aren't good enough. It's because you, as a curator, have antennae that are naturally more likely to hear some voices than others. That's true, in my opinion, of basically everyone.
In my own life, I think of it like turning up the levels on your microphone, not because other people aren't speaking at the same volume, but because *you don't hear all frequencies well*. You have to make a specific effort to hear across a spectrum.
Your effort is to compensate for your own limitations, not to compensate for other people's not being able to compete. And those limitations aren't necessarily because you're a bad person! Two equally aware, thoughtful people can have totally different references.
I am much more likely to *naturally notice* things that vibrate on a frequency that thrums in my head, but as a curator, I can't confuse that with quality or meritocracy. So if you don't notice gender, if you "don't see color" with comics? You'll perpetuate your own limits.
Okay bye. I have to stop thinking about this, because it's maddening.
