Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders have been a comedic duo for over 40 years, transforming the comedy landscape for women in the UK. In their early days, the predominantly male comedy scene included stand-up comedians with routines that would be considered controversial today. Kathy Burke, an actor and director who appeared with French and Saunders, notes that women at the time were limited to supporting roles to men in sitcoms. However, women such as French and Saunders, Pamala Stephenson, and Victoria Wood began to change this establishment thinking in the 1980s, showing that women can stand alone or as a comedic double act.
French and Saunders met while studying at the Central School of Speech and Drama in 1978, with the desire to teach drama. Despite their initial impressions of each other, they shared a flat together and found they had the same sense of humor. They would dress up as punks and shout things to people on the street to entertain themselves. They started performing sketches at the actors’ cabaret at drama school, with their breakthrough coming in 1980 at The Comic Strip, a group of comedians considered “alternative” at the time.
The Comic Strip included Alexei Sayle, Adrian Edmondson, Rik Mayall, Nigel Planer, and Peter Richardson, with French and Saunders being the only women. They began to break down gender stereotypes and proved that women could be funny and just as relevant in comedy as men. They did this while being satirical and goofy, performing farcical and ludicrous routines. This was the point of their job as comedians — to be feminists and make us laugh.
Maureen Vincent, their agent of more than four decades, said that many TV executives at the time thought women weren’t funny and were actually heard saying so. French and Saunders showed, however, that they could be funny, that they could stand alone or as a group act, and they gained popularity as a result
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