Jo Brand forced to explain why sexual harassment isn’t a joke
British comedian Jo Brand has received huge praise after she was forced to explain the seriousness of sexual harassment to an all-male panel on the hit BBC show Have I Got News For You.
This week's show featured team captains, Ian Hislop and Paul Merton, with guest panellists comedian Miles Jupp and columnist Quentin Letts.
While discussing a headline reporting that an MP had taken his personal trainer to the cinema, Ian said: "Some of this is not high level crime is it, compared to say Putin or Trump?"
As host of the show, Jo felt it was her duty to explain why the panellists should be taking sexual harassment seriously.
Here’s the moment Jo Brand had to explain to the #HIGNFY panel that they should take sexual harassment seriously. pic.twitter.com/4cc4J3ocOw
— Rob Williams (@BobJWilliams) November 3, 2017
“Can I just say as the only representative of the female gender here today, I know it's not high level, but it doesn't have to be high level for women to feel under siege in somewhere like the House of Commons,” she said.
Adding how being constantly harassed "even in a small way … builds up and wears you down."
The 60-year-old received huge cheers from the audience and viewers took to Twitter to shower her with praise.
Watching tonight's #hignfy and may I just say on behalf of all women…. pic.twitter.com/XNTjgYfvKH
— Louise Atkinson (@MsLouAtkinson) November 3, 2017
Think #HIGNFY may regret having 4 blokes try to make light of the recent sex scandal, Jo Brand doing a good job of putting them straight
— Ollie Pope (@Ollieargyle9) November 3, 2017
I love Jo Brand. She is a very good example of a very good human being. https://t.co/evLgWEtsgx
— Robin Ince (@robinince) November 4, 2017
Thank fuck for Jo Brand on #hignfy. Or it would've been a bunch of blokes minimising, normalizing and laughing at sexual harassment
— Rosalynd Southern (@rv_southern) November 3, 2017
Thank you @iamjobrand. It's not one hand on a knee, it's millions of hands on millions of knees, repeatedly, from people with power over you https://t.co/AKT1RLZK2d
— Louise Ridley (@LouiseRidley) November 4, 2017
