Woke is the word that they love to use, isn't it? You can't pin them down on a direct meaning for it but it's not the actual meaning that the people who originally coined it use. If you look in almost any right leaning tabloid newspaper, you'll see it bandied around as if it was smear. The same people who tell you that it’s racist to call someone a Gammon or Karen are the same people who will use woke as an insult and follow it up with ‘You can’t say anything anymore.’ Weird.
Agenda is another word. To me it suggests that the Woke Liberal Elite gather in secret rooms drinking posh tea and eating fancy biscuits. If there was a Woke Liberal Elite meeting and I was invited, the first point I'd raise on the agenda would be a name change. Something snappy like the Woke Action Now Klub or Woke-Kings 9 to 5, Woke A Way to Make a Living with a caveat that we're in the process of de-gendering the word 'king'.
Anyway, I digress. My point is that recently I hosted a comedy competition for new comedians. It was called the West End New Act of the Year. It was a competition open to all acts who had been performing under three years and the application process was open to all on a first come first served basis. We organically ended up with around 100 applicants for the heats with a rough 50-50 split on gender and a handful of non-binary acts.
The social make-up of the competition final was interesting. Of the 12 finalists, women and non-binary acts outnumbered the male acts by 8 to 4. We had three judges, one man, two women and of the women one of them was gay. The audience was a young, metropolitan elite mob.
Before I continue, do you know of the LSE’s Gender Balance studies? In 1993 Sweden’s Social Democratic party brought in strict gender quotas for its candidates. That led to an increase of elected women by 10%. The LSE study found that competence of male politicians increased in most areas (https://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/workplace-gender-quotas-incompetence-efficiency-business-organisations-london-school-economics-lse-study-a7797061.html). It became known as the Crisis of Incompetent Men. The results suggest that if you increase diversity of competitors, it doesn’t affect the best candidates only the rank average.
Now all the ducks are in a row for our judges and the Woke Liberal Elite audience to return a champion that the Youtube shiterati all pretend comedy is currently filled with. So, who should be picked as their winner? A straight white man! And not only that, the Woke Liberal Elite audience members elected to pick a straight white man for one of the runner-up spots too.
Anyone who was there would find it hard to argue with any of the winners, they were all very worthy. However, it does seem to fly against the current tabloid narrative. I am very aware of the difference between proof and evidence but could it possibly be that those that accuse others of an agenda actually have one themselves?
I’ve yet to see Woke Liberal Elite in action but I know of comedy clubs that claim to be fighting against Woke-Brigade and Cancel Culture by only hiring certain acts that you can’t hear anywhere else except at almost every comedy club around the country most weekends.
I have no doubt though someone will put a far right enabling spin on this with no evidence. Something like 'the reason why they won is because the public are sick of all the woke' and the un-balance of the internet will be restored.
If you’re attending the Edinburgh fringe and you want to see a selection of the acts that were featured in our competition, then please come to: The West End New Act of the Year Showcase 6th - 27th 23.35pm Banshee Labyrinth (PBH Free Fringe)
Or if you'd just like to hear more of what I have to say...Action Figure Archive Vol.2 with Steve McLean, 6th - 27th 3pm, Roti (PBH Free Fringe)
