Humorous comedy mom Sang | talk show godmother Huang Xiaochu: Society uses the name of protecting women, and girls don't even have the courage to laugh at themselves

"Talk Show Godmother" Huang Xiaochu, the director of "Comedy Girls", the only comedy group in Taiwan to focus on women's issues, has 12 years of experience in talk shows, hosting and production. Self-operated venue "Moon Half Nest Performance Space" to promote the "Expression Education" curriculum. Author: "Comedy Mama Sang Humor Expression".

When the woman fan handed Huang Xiaochu a Q&A, she said:

"Oh my God! I'm answering these questions in a book! It's hard to answer briefly! [Laughs]"

That being the case, let's take a look at how Huang Xiaofat can use his comedian skills to answer interview questions with full of humorous words!

Huang Xiaochu encountered a gender framework? The "perfect girl" that cannot be ugly, is it protection or a restriction?

"The vase was the first gender framework I came across." Little Fat said.

She recalls twelve years ago, her first year as a stand-up comedian, when she didn't know much about the art of laughter, and what she most often faced was not ridicule, but the pity of the audience: "A good girl, don't do this?" 」

"Neither the audience nor my friends wanted to see me play ugly and stupid, and this seemingly protective consciousness of gender (in fact, it was stereotyped) made my performance soul nowhere to play." 」 Only then did I understand that the audience's reluctance would hurt people."

Those injuries come from the situation of not being willing to laugh at a girl's situation, or preferring not to see the girl's unbearable, or not wanting to face the girl's imperfection. "All of this made me realize the gender expectations and the shackles on people."

Image courtesy of | Huang XiaoChuan

She was impressed that when she started performing in a predominantly male comedy environment (the stand-up gang's partners were all male performers), she realized the suffocation of the "gender framework".

"Boys wear wigs to draw lipstick to plug their breasts, and the audience laughs madly; girls wear bald head covers to paint beards and laugh at their small breasts, and the audience does not dare to laugh."

Huang Xiaochu found that the audience expects female comedians to prepare "more advanced" jokes, "It is best to be intellectual, intelligent, elegant, not too hedgehog, harsh, and don't pretend to be crazy and stupid." As for men doing this... "They're men, it doesn't matter!" 」

"Boys should protect girls from being ridiculed, and if there is a configuration that is too ugly or too stupid, it should be done by boys." I'm the only girl, it's so precious, I should be protected, I just need to dress up beautifully on stage." At first, Huang Xiaochun also agreed with this logic, until she found that when those line settings were given to any girl, she both collapsed and woke up.

"When a comedian stands on stage with no 'personality,' only 'gender,' that can directly announce the death of the comedian." Little Fat said.

She notes that this gender framework has not improved "a little" until recent years, "but it may be that in a relatively young group, once you move into an older group, the gender shackles are still everywhere."

Huang Xiaofat shared for example, in 2020, she took over a business case, the script arranged a clown male and female, as a comedian, XiaoFat was responsible for the role of flower idiot. During the review, a female supervisor specifically mentioned that the female character played by Xiao Fat should show a more "professional" image, but when the otaku of the same drama played the clown, the supervisor liked it very much.

"I watched this supervisor take charge of the overall situation, dress handsomely and tall, and from time to time reveal the domineering sense of 'I am a woman, but don't underestimate me', I can guess that her journey has made her so necessary to survive, and I know that I did not meet the supervisor's expectations for a professional image of women." 」

Xiao Chu said that she can understand, but she also thinks more, "don't ugly women" protective thinking, does not represent another framework?

As a veteran actress and producer, the daily challenge is...

"Women should be funny, but don't be exaggerated, don't be low-level, don't be fishy, don't distort, don't be rigid, don't be hellish..." When all the expectations are placed on the female comedian, she said, "This series of tight spells can be listed down nearly a hundred, so each idea changes from east to west, resulting in the final product becoming four different."

"In this society, in the name of protecting women, girls don't even have the courage to laugh at themselves."

As a result, Huang Xiaochun made the only funny girl group in Taiwan for ten years, "Comedy Girls Funny Girls". Nearly three dozen female stand-up comedians have been trained, and different female figures have been continuously introduced.

Image courtesy of | Huang XiaoChuan

Every kind of beauty can choose ugly.

Every kind of exposing one's own imperfections is the most attractive existence.

Huang Xiaofat believes that when there are multiple and rich and layered female images in the market, when we use the method of humor, let the public slowly accept, no matter what kind of person, as long as they live out of self-confidence, the gender framework is only a framework that others use to limit themselves, rather than the framework that they must draw and limit themselves.

Without the gender dichotomy, open up ambiguous space, let people live more pleasantly

Xiao Fat bluntly said that "gender" is the first dichotomy that people encounter at birth, and it is also the seemingly simplest dichotomy.

"The dichotomy, which divides human beings directly into two types and simplifies thinking as much as possible, reduces the most interesting taste of being born human—rich and ambiguous." 」

"If this society has only binary and opposing thinking: either success or failure, right and wrong, then we should be in retreat." 」 This sounds like Huang Xiaochu's experience rumination. "In the process of maturation, we will find that there are too many cases that cannot be clearly defined and ambiguous, and we can face them with a more open and abstract thinking, such as gender and humor." 」

A sense of humor, based on the tolerance of all kinds of thinking, also needs to be able to look at things with a detached view, and then to find a logical fallacy or emotional outlet and poke out the laughter point.

Image courtesy of | Huang XiaoChuan

Why do you want to come to the "Show of Love" performance? What is "love"?

Women fans of the first gender talk show, invited Huang Xiaofat to perform, she laughed happily, "I want to find a woman fan to cooperate for a long time aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa

"I want to show more tolerance for gender, both for girls and boys."

The theme of the performance was "Love Show", and when she was asked what "love" was, she immediately laughed and replied, "I would love to continue the lyrics", but also gave us a great answer:

"There are many explanations for love in this world, for me, 'love yourself' is a compulsory course in life, and how much time it takes to learn is worth it, as long as you can love yourself, you are already a victory group in life." 」

Talk show/comedy is the field where she expresses herself. "Myself is where my love lies."

So Huang Xiaochun decided to accept the invitation of this "love show" to challenge the gender framework together, are you also looking forward to this performance? Let's watch the "show of love" for women fans!

(Interview Next: Love Show Interview| more relieved after 30 years old!) Huang Xiaochu: Studying Human Nature in Comedy, Finding a Mission in Talk Shows)