Boys' club? The men of Mock the Week: Rory Bremner and Dara O'Briain, Hugh Dennis and Frankie Boyle. Photograph: Angst Productions
And on this week's missing words round: "No ----- on comedy panel shows". Laughs? Sense of style? Actually, it's "women".
Three episodes into the new series of Have I Got News For You and there's still not an XX chromosome in sight; you're more likely to see Angus Deayton. Oddly, the men-only quiz is fairly common, as visitors to the "home of witty banter" can testify; Mock the Week, Never Mind the Buzzcocks - if there's somewhat-scripted, topical humour to be done, it's a job for the boys.
The ultimate gentlemen's club is QI, where women are as welcome as a reference to the FA Cup. Of the 51 guest panellists, 12 have been women - all the more inexplicable given that Jimmy Carr has appeared nine times.
While the absence of women is most evident on television, radio isn't much better. Not wishing to speak ill of Humph, but Samantha was typically the closest I'm Sorry I Haven't A Clue got to a female. And while, in an act of profound charity, Just A Minute likes sporadically to revive Jenny Eclair's career, Clement Freud, Nicholas Parsons and Graham Norton seem happier when it's just the boys.
Instead of denouncing it as the latest incarnation of the patriarchal society and set up a chapter of SCUM, it would be better to ask: what might the reasons be?
While the scoring systems in these panel quizzes are a secondary consideration, the battle for laughs is all encompassing. Whether it's Ian Hislop and Paul Merton combating with sarcastic quips and surreal meanderings, or Frankie Boyle and Andy Parsons rushing for the microphone in Mock the Week, comic competitiveness seems like a male bloodsport. Certainly Jo Brand and Liza Tarbuck seem happier to play the game for, you know, fun.
Perhaps the problem is that panel shows are reluctant to take chances, meaning the guests tend to follow a formula, of which women are not a part. Though the temptation to rely on a safe pair of hands is understandable (even if they do belong to Phill Jupitus), it ignores the fact, that though British comedy can be male dominated, we certainly have our share of funny women. While no one is advocating that Catherine Tate, the test-card girl for the 21st century, gets any more airtime, what of Jessica Hynes (née Stevenson) or Josie Long? Don't let Katy Brand and Jocelyn Lee Esien ruin it for everyone. Women don't have to be relegated to the odd-one-out round.
