Female comedians claim abuse and sexism are rife

Many women working in comedy say recent allegations against Russell Brand are just the tip of the iceberg

- Nadia Khomami

"When I was 18 I had an incident with a powerful male comedian in his 30s," said Lucy (name changed), a female comic in her early 30s. "It was really harrowing and triggering. But when I raised it with other comics at the time they just encouraged me to use the incident as comedy material."

This experience, Lucy said, demonstrates why comedians are reluctant to come forward about inappropriate behaviour, harassment or abuse.

"If you've created a society where we all laugh at that behaviour, or are expected to laugh at that behaviour, you're going to make people feel like their feelings don't matter, that their interpretation of the event is flawed or they're being oversensitive. I felt great shame for years, while that male comedian went on to do incredibly well."

Lucy is one of many female comedians who say the allegations against Russell Brand are just the tip of the iceberg. Six years on from the #MeToo movement, they say there remains a culture of misogyny and male privilege in the comedy industry.

In a video on YouTube titled Brand Awareness, the comedian Kate Smurthwaite said the allegations against Brand were "nowhere near scratching the surface" of the wider problems. "I could probably, personally from my own experience, name 15 to 20 people who have behaved inappropriately with me," she said.

Ellie Tomsett, a media lecturer at the University of Birmingham who has been researching the barriers to women's participation in the comedy circuit, said the problem was entrenched in the history of UK comedy. "Since the days of performances in working men's clubs in the 60s, comedy has targeted women, and we've got this really long hangover from that," she said.