It’s Chapter 10 of today’s isse of the BBC broadcast, Newshour (hit the little black box marked “10” to go right to the segment entitles “Funny Women.”) and it “explores” the question of why there are so few female comedians.

Okay. It’s a bit of an eye-roller– just how many times can one kick this thing around? It’s pretty much settled that men dominate the business of standup. And there are a few theories that attempt to explain why that is. And we really haven’t heard any new ones in quite some time. And we keep hearing the same ones over and over.

The interviewer solicits viewpoints from Lynn Parker, who’s been running Funny Women Awards for eight years (At this year’s Edinburgh Festival, Parker says they have 350 women entering.) and Piers Hernu, an editor and writer for various British “lad mags.”

Parker is sane and reasonable. (“I think it’s just a bloke-y profession…” Our new favorite adjective “bloke-y!”)

Hernu, on the other hand, is goofy.

How else to explain his contention that, “It’s just one of those things. The sexes are good at certain things and women, unfortunately, when it comes to standup, or comedy in general, women just aren’t that funny,” and that “they find it quite difficult to make a room of people laugh.” When the interviewer allows that, maybe it’s the case that women might find it impossible to make a roomful of men laugh, perhaps it’s possible that they might make a roomful of women laugh, Hernu responds, “No, I don’t think so.” So… essentially, he’s delusional. He’s in an interview with a woman who runs a program that is choosing the funniest women from among 350 entrants and he ignores the reality to hold fast to this notion that women aren’t funny.

It’s an odd sort of bigotry that, were it to be directed at those of a particular race or religion, would make him the object of scorn. However, since it’s directed at a gender, his opinion is not only tolerated, but it’s held up as an objective truth. Curious.

We don’t get angry at these folks any more. We pity them.

We have the feeling that Hernu is the “go-to guy” when the British electronic press has a controversy that centers on gender. He’s not there to present a coherent argument but to try to make the female or the feminist on the other side of the issue crack. His statements are so outrageous (and so dated) that he’s almost the comic relief in such situations.

It may well be that Hernu isn’t aware of any funny females in Britain (the numbers among standup comics there are far more startlingly male than those in the U.S. or in Canada), but, in this day and age, Hernu has no excuse for not being aware of all the examples of quite successful female comics that are mentioned by the interviewer. (Or whose exploits are chronicled in books, maybe– Pearl Williams, Fanny Brice, Rusty Warren, Moms Mabley? Anything ringing a bell, Piers?) Hernu comes off like a buffoon.

H/T to FOS Lisa Corrao for the BBC link!