Gender debate at the German Comedy Award: "Why should we always separate them?"

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Ariana Baborie, Laura Larsson, nominated for the German Comedy Award for the podcast "Herrengedeck"

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On Friday, the funniest people in Germany will be honored at the German Comedy Prize (8.15 p.m., TV: Sat.1).

A look at the list of nominations showed how few women are eligible for some categories.

There was criticism of the organizer for that.

"You have to do it first: In the Comedy Prize category Podcast, more Thomas Schmidts are nominated than women," wrote the author Giulia Becker on Twitter at the beginning of September.

Meant were Thomas Schmitt from "Mixed Hack" and Thomas Schmitt from "Baywatch Berlin".

The organizer reacted by adding the category "Best Comedy Podcaster".

One also thinks "meanwhile that we have not adequately represented the diverse podcast scene with the three nominations", the Cologne Comedy Festival admitted as organizer of the industry service "quotemeter ".

Because the vote has already started, the decision for a new category has been made, confirmed Managing Director Ralf Günther of the German Press Agency.

"Winning the prize would not be a victory for us"

By attempting to improve, the organizer achieved the opposite and only exacerbated the controversy.

"Winning the award would not be a victory for us," said Laura Larsson, who, together with Ariana Baborie, has been nominated in the new category for the "Herrengedeck" podcast, told the German press agency.

A second category only for women could therefore not be the solution.

"What about the diverse? What about the queer podcasts?", Adds Baborie: "Why should you always separate them and, above all, only offer these two gender categories?"

It seems like "women and men cannot compete with each other," said Larsson.

The podcast "Herrengedeck" has been around for four years.

Larsson and Baborie have already encountered sexist behavior within the comedy industry in their careers, they said.

When working in the publishing house or in production, she would have noticed how women were systematically disadvantaged - for example when selecting guests for programs.

"Of course they say it internally and not in public. But it is spoken out, and that is a fact," said Baborie.

"I also want to talk about something else"

This is how some podcasters see it, especially when it comes to the comedy price.

"That was an avoidable mistake," says Felix Lobrecht from "Mixed Hack" in his podcast about the first missing women nominations.

"Of course we would also like to have female nominees that evening," agrees his colleague Tommi Schmitt.

Klaas Heufer-Umlauf from "Baywatch Berlin" also started a series of different female podcasts on his Instagram account, which also deserved a nomination.

Industry colleague Hazel Brugger, who is nominated for Best Comedian at the German Comedy Prize 2020, tweeted recently: "The main reason why I want to see more women on comedy stages is now so that I can talk about something other than about it in interviews why there are so few women on comedy stages. "

Their category is also divided: while Brugger competes with Carolin Kebekus and Martina Hill, Felix Lobrecht, Chris Tall and Luke Mockridge can choose from among the men.

This division was abolished in 2017 - Kebekus had won twice since then in the mixed category, in 2019 it was Mockridge.

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