Global Anchor Jeff MacArthur Has Some Thoughts About and for Female Comedians

This article originally appeared on VICE Canada.

It's hardly been a week since some gross bros made international news at a Toronto FC game by yelling "fuck her right in the pussy" into a female sportscaster's mic and then defending the act as a joke. We're still talking about it, in fact, and while there's some disagreement over whether or not someone should lose their job over harassment-comedy that happens outside the workplace, we can at least rest assured it will be a few months before a media personality sticks his foot in his mouth regarding women. Right? Because journalists have been obsessed with this story, happening as it did to one of their own, and surely men can think, reflect, and shut their goddamn pie holes while they decide if a thing really needs to be said.

Oh, buddies. Guys. Men. Come on, now. I had so much faith in you to not fuck up for at least a week or two! But you couldn't do it, could you? The siren song of being a jerk on TV proved irresistible for Jeff MacArthur, and he ruined it for everyone.

Global's Morning Show in Toronto did a segment this week about a comedian, Jen Grant, who took to her blog after being harassed during a gig. A few audience members yelled degrading things at her, and because it was a corporate gig, where the rules are different, Grant couldn't tear them a new one. Grant, along with fellow comedians Jess Beaulieu and Julia Hladkowicz, talked about some of the shitty experiences they've had as female comedians, there was some stilted B-roll of Hladkowicz walking down the street (god bless local news), and cut to the anchors for a short wrap-up before commercial. Maybe some morning TV viewers have had their minds opened, and we all move on.

Not quite, because co-anchor and apparent comedy expert MacArthur needed to set the record straight on a few things. A few things these "professional comedians" and "women" didn't get right about being a professional comedian who is a woman.

"I guess in [Grant's] rider she signed off on, that she couldn't kind of come back at, take down hecklers," MacArthur said to his co-host, Liza Fromer, who may be an angel sent from above to deal with MacArthur's shit. After she explained (again) that corporate gigs have stricter, more audience-friendly rules, he stuck to his guns. "You talk to any comedian, you can't do that. You can not allow the audience to take control."

There's a lot to unpack in MacArthur's oblivious response to three women who actually know what they're talking about. Christina Walkinshaw, another Toronto comedian, had some thoughts.

"I think the big point Jeff is missing is that we're talking about sexual harassment here. NOT heckling. There's a difference," she wrote to me today. While heckling might be someone angrily yelling "get off the stage" or responding, "Oh yeah, that happens to me all the time!" to a joke, those comments don't carry the weight of implied violence that, say, a demand to " show us your bush" does.

"We all know how to engage hecklers," Walkinshaw added. "I love to ask crowds for their opinion on stuff from the stage, and interact. That doesn't make me feel vulnerable at all.

"But 'my friends and I agree—we'd fuck you' is threatening. Makes you think you should sneak out the back door and pray you never run into this guy on the street."

"It's enraging and unfair," wrote another comedian, Rhiannon Archer, to me today. "Leaves you feeling trapped and helpless. Why can't I just do my work and not be commented on?"

Archer says she rarely deals with sexual material in her act, but has been introduced to audiences by other comedians with lines like, "Your next guest is a female, guys, so if you play your cards right…" "Your next guest and I were making out in the back and I licked her," and, "Your next guest is hopefully funny as she is sexy."

Professional comedian Jeff MacArthur would probably have some sage words of wisdom for Walkinshaw and Archer, something about how they should just stand up for themselves and not take that shit. After all, he went on to say to Fromer that if Jen Grant signed a contract knowing she couldn't say whatever she wanted to the audience, she might as well have known some drunk corporate types would harass her while she worked. What else did she expect? What else do any of these women comedians expect, being funny and crass in public?!

MacArthur ended the segment saying that "Whether it's males or females, when it comes to comedy, all I'm going to say is that if that's harassment, then you better be able to live by your own rules and not ridicule and go after other people."

I mean, sure. I think we all agree comedians shouldn't sexually harass audience members! Apparently there's less consensus, at least at one Global TV office, that audience members also shouldn't harass comedians.

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