Female talk show actresses collectively "break the circle": Will "female topics" become a new hot track?

With the popularity of programs such as "Talk Show and His Friends" and "The King of Comedy: Stand-up Season", the number of female talk show hosts has not only increased, but their sharp and true expressions on topics such as workplace, emotions, and family have also aroused widespread attention and discussion in society. This article will take you to a deeper understanding of how female talk show hosts "break the circle" on stage, and whether "female topics" can become a new track in the entertainment industry.

In the year of talk shows, the comedy fruit is divided into two parts. The two online talk shows of Goose Peach, "Talk Show and His Friends" and "The King of Comedy: Stand-up Season" (hereinafter referred to as "Talk Show and His Friends" and "The King of Comedy: Stand-up Season"), are competing against each other. More female talk show hosts are "taking the stage", which has become one of the recent eye-catching hot spots.

From the continuous related hot search topics, it is not difficult to see the powerful topic harvesting power of "her perspective": Yu Zhen's diss #rapper collapses, men collapse, but not women# has become the most popular annotation of the battle between the B-game circle and the hip-hop circle; #Yang Li is the voice of flesh and blood growing wildly##Yang Li dares not say that she doesn't know this and can't say it# speaks out for the dilemma of female talk show actors covering their mouths; although Echo's "Second Sister's Story" received the lowest votes offline, it received two hot searches; the image of Xiaolu telling jokes in a wedding dress swept the screen...

Their jokes involve the personal experiences of contemporary urban women, such as workplace, emotions, urging marriage, original family, body anxiety, menstrual shame, etc., and are more acute and extensive than in the past few years. The "portrait of female talk show actors" has aroused heated discussions and also promoted the influence of the program to break the circle. On October 8, Netflix's stand-up comedy special "Ali Huang: Single Lady" was launched, and the Chinese comedy queen and the new TV queen attracted attention at home and abroad. Can the domestic talk show industry still find the next Yang Li?

1. After Yang Li became famous: gender issues exploded

From "old hands" to "new hands", this year's female comedians contributed a large number of popular scenes to the show.

Called "still at the peak of her powers" by Luo Yonghao and "the queen of comedy" by Yang Tianzhen, Xiaolu, who scored the highest score of the show, is one of the most popular talk show contestants of "Happy List" this year and a hot favorite to win the championship. Her famous quotes such as "My marriage can fail, but my wedding cannot" and "Marriage really hurts feelings" have been widely circulated.

Shanhe directly addresses body anxiety and questions the saying of "lucky husbands": "This is the first time I've heard that you can see the fate of another person from their face." Yan Yi and Yan Yue no longer just play the "twins" joke. Through the topic of "naming", they mentioned when the verb "招娣" will be used for women. Echo complained about the preference for boys over girls in her family, "We must work extra hard to look effortless like our sons," which resonated widely with the audience. Yarong, a working woman, took to the talk show stage again and complained about her blind date experience.

Daguoshou in "Stripping Friends" has a master's degree in philosophy, which adds philosophical depth to the performance; Shi Yan in "Happy List" further explores the "introverted" track and discusses married life. Cai Cai's #Menstrual Shame Wonderful Eight Minutes# makes the performance go beyond entertainment and have a wider practical significance.

There has not been a female "king" in the five "Talk Show Conference". Siwen, who won the third place in "Talk Show Conference", once said: "Many types of work have differences in strengths and weaknesses between men and women, and talk show is a more positive energy." From Siwen's joke about "the brother who sleeps on the upper bunk", Zhang Cailing's joke about "cultural differences", Li Xueqin, who spans film and television variety shows, became the best player. This year, the scale of the topic is obviously more courageous. The two programs have a total of 27 female talk show players, including 15 in "Talk Show Friends" and 12 in "Happy List", which together account for nearly one-third of the total number of players. The sense of presence and the quality of the jokes are increasing, which also enriches the perspective of the program content.

In addition to the shows, female talk show performers are also making their own voices more heard. In March, Xiaolu, Yan Yiyanyue, Niao Niao and other female comedians made an all-female podcast called "Little Fool". On Women's Day this year, a talk show called "Three Good Sisters" was held in Shanghai, with performers including Yan Yiyanyue, Xiaolu, Yarong and others. Bu Jingyun, a female talk show performer, founded the "Like Talk Show" label in Xi'an, and opened a female special show "Girls Have No Limits" in mid-September this year.

The emergence of female talk show performers and gender issues is related to the high proportion of female audiences in first- and second-tier cities. Survey data shows that in the portrait of talk show audiences, the proportion of female audiences has surpassed that of male audiences. Among them, first- and second-tier cities account for more than 60%, audiences aged 18-24 account for more than 70%, and more than 60% have a bachelor's degree or above. This group of people has a more tolerant and open aesthetic, a stronger degree of female consciousness awakening, and higher social media activity, becoming the driving force behind each hot search topic.

According to industry insiders, female employees account for more than 70% of the behind-the-scenes team of a talk show. Only when the industry matures and becomes more segmented will more female creators emerge. In addition, the black swan incident that broke out in the talk show industry before has led to stricter review of the entire industry. Gender issues are relatively safe areas of "offense" and "ridicule", which also gives female creators a relatively large creative space.

At the same time, controversy over whether the focus on gender issues and the narrowness of the topic selection has gradually erupted, which is particularly evident in Ma Yili's evaluation of Tang Xiangyu. After Tang Xiangyu once again gave a wonderful output on the topic of urging marriage, Ma Yili said, "I think what everyone here might want to see more is how you get out of this predicament." Subsequently, Ma Yili encountered a large-scale trial on platforms such as Weibo and Bilibili. Netizens called it "Why not eat meat syndrome" of 2.08 million people, criticizing her for not understanding talk shows and Tang Xiangyu.

Tang Xiangyu said on Weibo that "what I want to shout out the most is not to urge marriage", and Yang Li expressed her support for the female talk show host, "Everyone's creation is made up of his life experience. When you want to avoid your life experience, you can't create. I am good at one track, which is already excellent. Do I have to be perfect?... Let's talk about this in the future. If you feel offended, just watch something else."

If "discourse is power", female talk show performers are striving for greater discourse power, such as Qiqi said, "My predecessors fought for the freedom to sit at the table, I want to fight for the freedom to sit at the table and eat my fill", and Zhang Hui said, "We strong women don't care about our lives." What can be seen in their creations is that using comedy to deconstruct the universal tragedy in past life experiences and arouse reflection and attention is the meaning and charm of the language art of talk show.

2. Is feminism the secret to hit movies, TV shows and variety shows?

It is undeniable that nowadays, more and more film, television and variety show works are using feminism as a code, and the "big woman" character has also become a hot keyword for artists' public image IP.

The female perspective expressed in "We Are Not Kind Enough", "She and Her", and "The Making of a Vulgar Girl" has become the secret to the popularity of high-scoring Taiwanese dramas. South Korea's "Siren's Call" and other "all-female + survival" programs have received rave reviews. Last year's global box office champion was "Barbie". A lot of the popularity came from social media discussions of secondary creations and audience comments. In a context where there is still a difference in the right to speak between men and women, feminist themes are destined to take the lead.

My Sister became a dark horse by focusing on the topic of "preferring sons over daughters"; after Hello, Li Huanying!, the box office hit Hot and Spicy was released, and Jia Ling endorsed lululemon and was regarded as a representative of "big women"; recently, Determination to Run Away won the highest score of the year's domestic films with a Douban score of 8.9, reshaping the elderly women with subjectivity; Wish You Happiness! brought together many hot topics such as the cool-off period for divorce and the loss of a child; Half-Ripe Men and Women marked "Pure Love Warriors Do Not Watch" and portrayed a rare "evil woman, imperfect woman" with flaws in sexual morality on the screen; and recently, female talk show actors collectively took the table, effectively balancing entertainment and social issues. It is not difficult to see that women's issues are an eternal hot topic.

In addition, although gender issues are a hot topic, they also face certain risks. The difficulty lies in how to strike the right balance. From the perspective of talk shows, it is difficult to get a high score by using one's past and female perspective as a "hell joke". Content that directly hits the pain points may face "breakthrough" resistance from male users. Content that is neither painful nor itchy is difficult to please female users and may be questioned as "pseudo-feminism". Marriage and love are more likely to become sensitive areas for female fans to quit and turn over.

Looking at the variety show market, the first season of "Sisters Who Make Waves" aroused the audience's attention and discussion on the power of Chinese women. Since then, every season has tried to raise the theme, but gradually fell into the aesthetic fatigue and innovation dilemma of the Nth generation of variety shows.

Previously, "all-female variety shows" were in full swing, such as "College Students Who Love Singing·Girls' Season", "Burning Moon", "Women's Reasoning Club", etc. Many of these variety shows attracted a lot of discussion when they were first officially announced, but gradually lost their voice. When "female power" became an empty label, the original routine template was rigidly applied to "all-female guests" without a more practical and fitting design. The variety show lost its entertainment value, did not explore the depth, and thus lost its popularity.

The gender-related scandals include but are not limited to the public opinion storm caused by "I Am the Mountain" and the uproar caused by "Mr. Nightingale" at the iQiyi Yuexiang Conference.

Yang Li, who has been pushed to the forefront of the storm, seems to be becoming a "screening mechanism" and a "symbol of gender opposition". All brands that have commercial cooperation with Yang Li may face the risk of resistance from male users, and brands with female users as the main body may be relatively more suitable for cooperation. For example, Shede Wine Industry, Intel and Procter & Gamble, which cooperated with her, have all had similar experiences.

Another person facing doubts is Xiaolu, with some netizens believing that "Xiaolu is following Zhang Cailing's script this year." As both are Chinese-foreign couples, the story of Zhang Cailing and her foreign husband "Big Fat Wife" and the story of "Xiaolu and Thomas" are compared together but have different reputations. Under strict scrutiny, Xiaolu has been labeled as "a delicate wife's perspective" and "a cold-faced person washing underwear" by some netizens.

"Her variety shows", "Her movies" and "Her dramas" do have a lot of potential to be tapped, but they also face many challenges. The audience will sense whether it is sincere or not at the first time.

Author | Mia Editor | Li Xunhuan This article is written by the operation author [Entertainment Unicorn], WeChat public account: [Entertainment Unicorn], original/authorized to be published in the operation party, and any reproduction without permission is prohibited.

The title image is from Unsplash, based on the CC0 protocol.