This won’t be news to a lot of you — I’m a little late getting to it — but our old pal Tom Martin, the repulsive British MRA celebrity, is actually going ahead with the somewhat baffling video “women and comedy” project he was babbling about in the comments here many months ago, when he was still allowed to comment here. Well, “actually going ahead with it” this August if he can get anyone else to agree to work for him for free minimum wage.
The documentary project is called “Laughing with Women” and, Martin explains, it will “investigat[e] if gold-digging impairs women’s joke-making ability, and if, when women reject gold-digging in all its forms, they can become instantly funnier.”
In case that didn’t make sense to you — don’t worry, that’s a completely natural reaction — Tom explains his, er, “logic” a bit further in a jobs listing he’s posted in hopes of finding a crew, which has already gotten a good deal of ridicule over at PZ Myers’ and on at least one comedy website.
Why are women, on average, slightly less funny than men? Does gold-digging in particular impede women’s joke-making ability? When women publicly reject gold-digging, do they become as funny, or even funnier than men?
In his numerous visits to Man Boobz, Martin expounded at length on the topic of gold-digging women, generally referring to them by his preferred term, the shorter and blunter “whores.” Martin has previously estimated that roughly 97% of women fit this description, and has suggested that female penguins are also whores. Frankly, once he gets going on the topic, it’s hard to shut him up, which is partly why he’s no longer welcome in the comments here.
In any case, this odd hypothesis will be tested, Martin says, with a “radical, and revealing street-based social experiment.”
Still puzzled? Mike Booth, the British video comedian behind SomeGreyBloke and Dan Cardamon, has managed to tease out a few more details from Martin (posting here as sexismBusters):
Martin is confident that his proposed video will blow the lid off this whole “women and gold-digging and comedy, no really, they’re connected” thing:
If the radical, and revealing street-based social experiment at the centre of our documentary proves gold-digging does make women less funny (as pre-production research suggests) then our findings will make headlines around the world, our film’s two minute teaser trailer attached to all those news and blog articles (Update: this advert alone has already been blogged and tweeted about by outraged PC types).
The full documentary will be shot to a broadcast-quality standard and format, giving mainstream television companies worldwide the opportunity to purchase broadcasting rights (if they’re feeling brave enough) whilst we maintain a virtually guaranteed revenue stream from our already established hardcore of supporters and fans within the non PC gender equality field around the world, who, along with everyone else, will be able to enjoy Laughing with Women on newly launched pay-per-view channel, Vimeo on Demand (VoD) – where VoD itself takes a very modest 10% cut. The documentary has the potential to be translated into several languages – gold-digging a familiar if hidden story in every country, until now.
In other words, it sounds like some sort of video gold mine.
So I’d recommend that all gold-digging women out there try to get in on the ground floor of this Tom Martin dude.
Oh, and speaking of Dan Cardamon, here’s the faux MRA’s take on the project:
CORRECTION: This post originally stated that Martin wouldnt’ be paying his crew, but he says he will be paying them minimum wage, so I’ve corrected the relevant passage above.
EDITED TO ADD: Tom has shown up in the comments, and I’m letting his comments through (for now at least), so if you have any questions for him, feel free to head to the comments to address him directly.
I am skeptical that we will get “dynamite footage” out of people with no comedy background doing improv exercises for a week. I’m sure Martin imagines that the men will be firing off hilarious standup routines on the fly while the women stand around looking dour and offering to have sex for money, but having done amateur improv I have my doubts.
That said, I so totally want this documentary to happen.
*cough* Could all just be a ploy to interact with women *cough*
Congratulations Dvärghundspossen
Tom Martin: I will allow feminists to participate in my project to prove that money-grubbing whores are also incapable of humour.
Rest of world: Lol, is this that misandric chair penguin guy again?
Tom even if you prove your point (which you won’t because hahahahahahahaha you are fucking stupid), why would anyone care? Seriously what would be the wider significance or point of this (non-existent) link between two, very nebulous, concepts?
As for the supposed “study”, I can barely even begin to address all the things wrong with it. I know you’re just going to pull it all out of your un-padded arse, but you know the concept of humour is completely subjective, right? How are you going to attempt to prove gold-diggers aren’t as funny (as who? All men? Very unbiased), when people can simply retort that they do find them funny? You can’t ‘prove’ someone right or wrong on that.
Man alive, do I wish I had money to waste on frivolous lawsuits and inane ‘studies’.
Yes, that’s right. Another contradiction is that Tom says that women try to keep quiet to impress men, but PUA’s say that a woman might show her interest in a man by talking more. That’s one of their measures of success on a pickup attempt, if they get a woman engaged in a conversation, especially one with witty banter. And as much as I hate to do this, in this case, I agree with what the PUA’s say. Even a stopped clock is right twice a day.
The point mr Wizard is to scientifically prove (if further proof be needed) that women are stinky bitches. Duh.
Thanks for all the congratulations everyone! 😀 And yeah, I’ll really watch out for unfunny lesbians who might try to become my mistress now when I have this grant.
I still find Tom’s hypothesis completely incomprehensible. Tom, if you’re still around, please explain what you’re going on about!
He’s starting with these premises:
-Women are less funny than men
-97% of women are gold-diggers
How is he going to disentangle these premises with this experiment? He’s going to give them improv classes, then ask them “do you think gold-digging is good?” and be amazed at how their comedy ability improves? How is he going to relate female humor to male humor? Is he going to put men through the same procedure? Are there any male gold-digger’s he needs to worry about in comparison? Who is the jury? Are they all men? Representitive of gender? Representitive of race and cultural background?
There’s no control here, unless he is able to reliably find the 3% of the population that aren’t gold-diggers in his mind randomly on the street. I don’t see how he’s going to assess comedic ability either, or how he’s going to “secretly” present a gold-digging opportunity and then “secretly” present an opportunity to reject it. The whole thing’s a mess.
But please, Tom, propose your methodology in a way that someone could actually reproduce! Look up guides on writing a methods section in scientific paper if you need help doing so.
Shaenon:
What I want is the documentary of the documentary. Someone filming Tom and his hypothetical crew as they desperately try to massage the footage they manage to get into something resembling the incoherent mess of a narrative that they are trying to build.
I just remembered that this is the same Tom who declared that any form of accepting a gift without immediate and equal recompense is gold-digging… Like, if a guy takes a gal out to dinner and pays for it, she’s a gold digger if she doesn’t sleep with him or pay for exactly her portion.
There’s no way this thing will happen.
@kirbywarp
Sounds like expecting people to work without immediate recompense is spot on with Tom Martin’s definition of gold-digging.
Speaking of bizarre anti-feminism, someone I used to like a lot just told me to “fuck off” when I said that chivalry is inherently patriarchal.
I know it’s just one person, and I’m very used to anti-feminists, but this honestly hit me hard because I thought we got along well. Just one of those things I have to get used to, I guess. I hate it when I lose friends, even when they’re shitty.
Yeah Aaliyah, that was really assholish behaviour. Okay if that person isn’t that well-versed in feminism and goes “What do you mean? I don’t understand? Chivalry is putting women first, how’s that patriarchal?” and actually asking you to explain, but merely telling you to fuck off – yep, anti-feminist asshole.
Except that then he’s accepting something for nothing and he’s a whore. It’s dizzying.
If it’s any consolation, he’s proving your thesis. Presumably this guy thinks of himself as chivalrous, but he’s ready to instantly lash out at women who don’t think or act the way he wants.
Congratulations Dvärghundspossen! That’s wonderful news!
@kirbywarp:
“I just remembered that this is the same Tom who declared that any form of accepting a gift without immediate and equal recompense is gold-digging… Like, if a guy takes a gal out to dinner and pays for it, she’s a gold digger if she doesn’t sleep with him or pay for exactly her portion.”
But if she does sleep with him, she’s a whore, so she can’t win.
@kitteh
Yeah, but remember, the biggest gold-digging whores of all according to TM are Saudi women. You know, they ‘withhold’ the sex for so long, and they all have men drive them around and stuff!
Maybe he could conduct his *cough* study in the KSA for more gold-digging potential.
@Aaliyah:
How crass. Tell him to fuck off too.
I’m not entirely sure the concept of chivalry is inherently patriarchal though? The generalized assumption of “Defend women!” is, but’s a bastardization. The Chivaleric code itself is really just from chevalier – horse soldier. It’s like Bushido, actually (Which is fun for those who claim that Europe never had a warrior caste and that the only legit honour code is found in Japan, rawr rawr katana!)
Or do you know I something I don’t? (This is quite likely) Because if so, I’d love to know more.
Tom what happens if a woman gold-digs through raucous comedy acts
We’ve had some very interesting discussions of chivalry here, but of course I never bookmarked them…
Off topic, my friend just rescued a little black white kitten on Friday that had gotten trapped between a wall and a storage shed. It was down to skin and bones and covered with fleas, but they got her checked out and cleaned up, and she’s living in one bedroom of their apartment while they look for a good home for her. (I suspect that their home may end up being the good home they find because they are clearly already TOTALLY IN LOVE WITH HER and their other cat seems more intrigued by the visitor than hostile to it.)
I have to get her to send me some pictures because she is adorable. Well, she’s a kitten so maybe we can just stipulate to adorableness.
I guess it would depend on what people mean when they think of chivalry? In my mind it’s always just been about being helpful in general to people in general… not so much holding doors for women, then slamming them in the faces of men, which I do anyway, but only for giggles.
@Fibinachi
Engaging with him, even if it just means telling him to fuck off, is going to make me even more stressed out (today I’ve been dealing with bitterness among my journal commentators towards one another and my father yelling at me again). I’m tempted to say that to him, but it really isn’t worth it. And he and some others are just going to accuse me of being “butthurt” anyway (which is true, I guess, but that doesn’t mean that he’s not being an asshole).
By “chivalry” I’m referring to the general practice of benevolent sexism that involves the man being the guardian and the woman being the weak one in need of protection. I’m pretty sure that’s patriarchal.
@thekidwiththereplaceablehead
XD words cannot express how glad I am I wasn’t drinking while I read that.
@bigmomma
XD this thread is perfect.
@kittehs
What adorable penguins!
@bigmomma
fuck that is perfect XD Both disturbing and hilarious at the same time.
@the boring fedora
We know, he said 97% of women are gold diggers. Huge difference 😉
I’m 99% sure you don’t need game to get laid if you’re low income, cuz my dad only has unemployment benefits and isn’t a pua and he’s getting married in a month. It clearly isn’t a necesity.
And posting before wordpress eats my comment. /sowwyz.
@dvärghundspossen:
Belated congratulations!
@daintydougal:
Ha, that’s exactly what I thought. Also the earlier linked A Voice for Pierre comic. “Female Penguins are whores!” Love it.
@freemage:
Love the idea. Working title: Tom Martin: The real comedy behind the scenes.
Is this Tom Martin guy for real, or is he just some very bizarre sort of comedian? Because I’m not laughing. Is he one of those ironic, surreal performance artists who do everything just for the attention, not to make any coherent point?
“Of course you’re not supposed to laugh. The irony lies in the fact that it’s not funny, which makes it funny. Also pink zebra with a typewriter riding a one-legged hippopotamus.”