Rosie Jones’ game show, Out of Order, centres daring jokes and bold banter. Metro chatted with the comedian about what is on and off the table when it comes to comedy.
If you’re a fan of Rosie Jones and of judging people – let’s admit that’s most of us – then you’ll be a huge fan of her show, which returns this Christmas for a special festive episode.
Out of Order, which is back for a second series in the New Year, sees host Rosie, 35, joined by team captains Katherine Ryan and Judi Love, who judge members of their willing audience based on first impressions.
You might think this sounds like it could cause offence – but Rosie explained to Metro that with the right line-up and in the right environment, it doesn’t have to.
The comedian is known for not having much of a filter, and she’s no different on her show.
Rosie said it was ‘so important’ to be as unfiltered as possible on TV, but acknowledged there are some conditions: ‘I know that around comedy right now, a lot of people say: “Oh, you can’t say anything anymore.”
‘And I disagree, I don’t think anything’s off the table.
‘But your intention definitely matters.’
She urges people to ask themselves: ‘“Who are you? And are you best placed making that joke? Who is the joke about? Are you being mean and nasty for no reason? Are you punching down? And why are you saying that?”’
Put simply, she said: ‘If the answer to this is: “I’m a privileged white man making a joke about a minority that I am not part of, just because I want to be controversial.”
‘Then a) you shouldn’t be telling that joke. But b) it won’t even be funny, it’s not even clever.’
Rosie, Katherine, 42, and Judi, 45, don’t shy away from punchy statements and observations during the series, with tasks that require them to decide who looks like they’ve faked the most orgasms, to who they’d rank as least smart in a group.
‘We can joke, we can laugh about everything. Because our intention is never mean and nasty. If the joke is directed at a person, we make sure they’re in on the joke’, Rosie explains.
‘The overriding unspoken thing is the show is all about making judgements on what people look like.
‘No one knows that more than me, Katherine and Judi, who are judged on our looks, our talent, our fame and our career on a daily basis.
‘So we will never approach that situation from a malicious or nasty point of view.
‘We want to make it funny. But we also want to make it positive and joyful and everyone is invited to join our brilliant, inclusive party.’
Ahead of the Christmas special, and before the big sleep Rosie says she’s overdue, the 35-year-old gave us an overview of what she’d been up to.
And in the final week before Christmas it doesn’t sound like things are slowing down. Rosie said: ‘I am currently doing promo for Out of Order. I’ve just finished my tour. And I’m literally in the final stages of rewriting my children’s books, which will be the fourth in the series.
‘So yeah, I am tired.’
She dreams of having a ‘big long sleep’ but acknowledged ‘today is not the day.’
You’d not be able to tell Rosie was fatigued, she exudes energy through Zoom the same way she does on screen.
But unlike on her show, she’s not joined by her right-hand women, Judi and Katherine.
We asked Rosie how it feels to be on a comedy show led by women, when it’s still not always the norm. She started by emphasising that ‘irrelevant of gender, Judi and Katherine are two of the most talented comedians on the circuit’.
Rosie went on: ‘We never really set out going: “Right, we want an all-female line-up.”
‘We just wanted to make the best, most funny show possible and that just so happens that the leads are all women.’
They’re sometimes joined by men… The Christmas special features Jon Richardson and Josh Widdicombe as guest comedians.
But the three women are never outnumbered.
‘When you get into it, it does feel so liberating to not be the only woman on the line-up.
‘Because sometimes when you are the only woman on a show, you have that impossible task of feeling like people expect you to speak for all women.
‘And not one person could, accurately, and should sensibly do that.’
Rosie doesn’t want us to stop there: ‘I hope we get to a better place in terms of representation for all minorities in that way.
‘I unfortunately often find myself being the only disabled person or the only queer person on a TV show.
‘And, that again is draining because I am so proud to be a woman and so proud to be disabled and so proud to be queer, but I single handedly cannot represent all of that community.’
Out of Order Christmas Special airs on Comedy Central at 9pm on December 22.
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