Jennifer Saunders / AB Fab

Jennifer Saunders / AB Fab

Jennifer Saunders

Great Britain had an alternative comedy revolution during the 1980s that carried over into the 1990s and while "sitcoms" weren't necessarily viewed by the general public as being glamorous, the genre inspired some of the most memorable British television ever. Shows like The Office, Father Ted, and Blackadder are just a few of the magical programs of British television of this time period. Absolutely Fabulous was just one of these types of talismanic programs -- anarchic and irreverent, and it put women in the role of comedienne. Absolutely Fabulous began in 1992 and lasted until 1995 and then started up again in 2001, running until 2005 (including the Comic Relief special); however, the cult following this show, which was born out of a Dawn French and Jennifer Saunder's sketch comedy act still continues today. There are so many reasons for the cult following, but some of the most basic reasons have to do with the sheer hilarity of seeing Edina and Patsy behaving so irresponsibly. We live in a world where women are expected to act a certain way -- especially mothers and career women in their middle ages, and twenty plus years ago, audiences were craving characters who were more human and less feminine. Absolutely Fabulous brought the over-the-top characters of Patsy and Edina into homes where they were embraced for their sheer immaturity.

Saunders played Edina Monsoon, a character that was believed to be based on legendary public relations guru Lynn Franks (Hall 2006). Franks saw the resemblance apparently, but didn't see Edina as her fictional alter ego -- however, it was said that she had divulged her love for the show. Edina and her best friend "fash mag slag," played by Joanna Lumley, were extremely proud hedonists, "indulging in an orgy of drugs and drink and, in Patsy's case, men, swinging enthusiastically as they had in their 1960s heyday" (2006). They were rich and famous -- celebrities even -- and they could act however they wanted to because of this -- brash, rude, irreverent and sassy. They showed this behavior particularly toward Edina's mother (June Whitfield) and her annoyingly boring daughter Saffy (Julia Sawalha) whom Edina constantly tells off: "I don't want a moustachioed virgin of a daughter, now for heaven's sake do something about it!" (2006). The show was utterly and proudly un-PC and though the writing was especially witty, there were also some very great moments of physical comedy that makes one think about the great comedienne Lucille Ball. Many of the episodes delight in Edina and/or Patsy "falling out of taxis, over hedges, and down stairs while drunk, high, or hung over" (Lavery 2009).

From the outside, Absolutely Fabulous appeared to be like most of the traditional BBC sitcoms of the day. They made fun of the shallowness and superficiality of the fashion and PR industries. Jennifer Saunders created Ab Fab and before doing so had had a career as one half of the BBC comedy sketch show French and Saunders. Dawn French, Saunder's comedy partner, had a career that was more prolific than Saunders. She worked in the theatre and had already created two successful BBC comedy series -- Murder…Most Horrid and The Vicar of Dibley, and had a successful fashion line on top of everything. Saunders, on the other had, hadn't done much outside of her partnership with French -- until 1992 when she had decided to create Ab Fab.

Jennifer Saunders used the platform of Ab Fab for creating two brashly grotesque characters in Edina and Patsy, characters who were not afraid of attacking types of repressive and conservative thinking (Stott 2004). Grotesque is a good word to use when describing Edina and Patsy, a pair of promiscuous and drunken women whose empty-headed views regarding fashion and beauty seem to not only embody them but also make up their physical bodies. But while they may be labeled by feminist thinkers as grotesque because of their carnivalesque portrayals of modern women, the grotesque must not be thought of as a word that is being used derogatorily. Grotesque can be used as the antithesis to the feminine -- or the ideal feminine -- which has been the word to embody so many characters that we see on television. Edina and Patsy are the likes of which British and American audiences had never seen before.

Jennifer Saunders had something to say about the way that certain women cherish inappropriate and superficial ideas about their world and themselves in that world. Stott (2004) notes, however, that women as a whole are not being chastised by Saunders in her creations, rather "these individuals are singled out for the vacuity of their values and their elevation of ideals that ask women to conform to unattainable standards of perfection." Carlson (1991) also notes that Saunders' very candid discussion of sex and the body is part of a broader movement of women writers who "are creating characters who realize a much fuller and more troublesome range of bodily possibilities." Saunders' creation of Ab Fab came about around the same time during the 1990s that other comediennes were coming out with material that dealt with their identities as women, "and the social, physical, and sexual expectations placed upon them" (1991).

The performances of Lumley and Saunders in Ab Fab were both idiosyncratic and culturally determined. The performances drew adoration and repulsion at the same time. The women represented cultural violations and were examples of how the intensity of "pleasure or revulsion can be understood in relation to the social and psychological processes of repression involved in the maintenance of bodily decorum and the pleasurable release of bodily desires" (Arthurs 1999). What was interesting about the representations of these two women created by Saunders is the enviable commitment that they have to one another. Of course, this is the nature of the sitcom genre: the group of characters are the narrative focus as opposed to the individual. It is from the interaction of these characters that comedy develops (Rosemary et al., 2006).

Saunders created the complex and interesting female characters that television was craving yet without losing meaning. Saunders was ahead of her times, in a way, as today our existence has become so commercialized and there are more goods in circulation, which means there are many more goods to purchase. More and more we are trying to satisfy our needs and desires by consuming both goods and services (Svendsen 2006). Saunders understood the desire and the temptation as women to own all of these goods that can make us prettier, better, richer and -- hopefully -- happier. "Do you like them or no? I like them if they're Lacroix" (Absolutely Fabulous, Svendsen 2006). We have become a consumption culture and this culture is directly targeted to women. Saunders' creation of the Ab Fab girls made audiences laugh at them -- and at themselves, but its reason for going down in history and for making it a cult favorite is that it speaks to us on a higher level.

They placed their characters in opposition to the traditional representations of women in British television comedy -- such as the sexual accessories of The Benny Hill Show, the domesticated, subservient wife of The Good Life and the nag of Faulty Towers. Saunders' and French's very presence…was a timely intrusion into a realm of comedy previously the exclusive domain of male performers, from Monty Python to the double acts of the 1970s: Morecombe and Wise and Little and Large (Foster 2010)

The autonomy that women were getting was confirmed by the creation of Absolutely Fabulous as well as by the pairing of Lumley and Saunders. The writing and the acting emphasized -- always with hysterically funny results -- the female experience. "Many of the scenes worked to reinforce the centrality of women's talk and to parody the position and representations of women in the media" (Foster 2010). When it comes to writing, Saunders definitely must be given credit with raising the profile of female comediennes on television (2010) as well as drawing attention to women's capabilities behind the scenes as Saunders was the show runner in the final season of the series.

The appeal for Ab Fab is in its cathartic novelty of Patsy and Edina's frantic search for self-gratification, violation of social codes, and ability to provide a respite from the cliches of 'womanliness' that pervade the very medium through which Ab Fab became so popular (Waddell 2006). The two characters are unrestricted by a sense of duty, personal anxiety or fear of reprisal. The characters of Patty and Edina created so boldly by Saunders undermines the socially constructed notions of the 'feminine,' ferociously challenging the customs governing the ways that women are expected to appear and behave.

Waddell (2006) notes that in the 1990s she gave a paper on females images of the grotesque at a university seminar accompanied by various Ab Fab clips and showed a scene where Patsy and Edina crawl around a bathroom floor passing a joint to each other while pontificating on their lost youth and the imaginary rotting corpses of surgically made-over icons. She notes that "the laughter from the women in the group led to a pretty obvious bleeding of mascara" (2006). During this uproar, a male voice from the audience piped up and said he didn't find any of it funny. A few more men murmured sounds of agreement. The man said these women were nothing more than a couple of drunks. He ended with the comment, "I don't get the joke" (2006). Umberto Eco has a theory on comedy and cathartic pleasure, "the rule has to be completely understood and, according to Eco, 'inviolable'" (2006).

For women to be able to express themselves freely without worrying if men get the joke or not is important and about time. Sex has always been a part of a discursive notion of 'fun', one with rigidly drawn boundaries which position readers in specific ways. "Men were in on the joke; women could play too, so long as they weren't frigid, lesbians, humorless feminists or ugly" (Chq 1998). Saunders had finally created women that were imperfect in the way that women could understand and identify with and thus relate. The fact that men may have had a hard time "getting the joke" proves that it was time for a woman to write some funny females who were not subject to the ideals or expectations that men had of them.

Waddell (2006) considers that to understand female indulgence and excess as a 'sad' loss of dignity fails to take into account women's desire for spectacle and transgression. These 'behind-closed-door' urges most probably constitute the archetypal pattern of the grotesque reflected in Edina, Patsy and the entire atmosphere of Ab Fab. "It's not surprising that female grotesque imagery should rise through the media as a compensatory factor for a mode of expression that has been largely repressed by the media" (2006). Saunders was demanding recognition when she created a show that was overtly sexual, gender bending, excessive and self-indulgent. She seemed to know as well that female indiscretion only lead to a greater demand for these things.

Today it is easy to think of Sex and the City as an Ab Fab knock-off. Kim Catrall, like Edina, owns her own PR firm and her best lady friends talk sex, drink plenty of cocktails and contemplate the brighter days of their youth. Women love Sex and the City (SATC) for the honesty and the heart that the female characters bring to their roles. To call the girls from Sex and the City 'grotesque' might offend fans of the show, but the Carrie, Charlotte, Samantha and Miranda have all had moments of superficiality. While you wouldn't have seen Carrie or any of the girls from SATC doing drugs like the women on Ab Fab, they have been known to be catty -- especially if there is only one size 7 of a glorious pair of Leboutins left and three women are walking towards it. This is where we see the grotesque in SATC -- in their ostentation and their vulnerability to the tawdry. But arguing over that last pair of kitten heels and spying on your ex's girlfriends are maybe not something all women have done, but they are probably scenarios most woman have considered or fantasized about. Candace Bushnell created her SATC girls by making three-dimensional women who were at once girly, deep, lovely, and capricious. Bushnell not doubt came from the same school of thought as Saunders as both creators are interested in releasing the feminine from the constraints of a man's world and giving them their own unique voice in which they can have their own desires.

Why do audiences -- mainly women -- find these type of characters so pleasing to watch? Saunders took her Ab Fab characters to an outrageous level, but not so outrageous that women could not see themselves in them anymore -- likewise with Bushnell and Sex and the City. Women identify with both, even though most would consider Patsy and Edina a bit crazy and even though most would consider Carrie Bradshaw's shoe allowance preposterous.

American television executives worried that Ab Fab -- and especially the wrecks of characters, Patsy and Edina -- had no redeeming qualities, yet around this same time, Joanna Lumley was signed by Proctor and gable to advertise Fairy Glazeguard (Slide 1996). Advertising agencies discovered, contrary to what American television executives thought, that "Lumley's appeal ranged from the middle-class to the middle-ages, from working-class consumers of alcohol to yuppies with their cellular phones" (1996).

While discussing Sex and the City, it should also be noted that Sarah Jessica Parker, like Jennifer Saunders, produced the show that made Carrie Bradshaw a name everyone knew. Parker executive produced later episodes of Sex and the City and is an executive producer on both films. Both Parker and Saunders have clearly shown that women are just as capable of making meaningful and popular entertainment with women who maybe behave 'inappropriately' at times when they should be acting like 'responsible adults' (Rhodes & Westwood 2008).

There is a very common and orthodox set of values and expectations that tell us what women in their forties should be like: they should have proper jobs and/or be good mother; they should behave 'reasonably', putting others needs ahead of their own (so long size 7 Leboutins). Edina and Patsy (and the SATC girls as well) represent a sort of rebellion against and transgression of these stereotypes and values, by acting selfishly, doing whatever they want whenever they want, and making no attempt at being a responsible, 'appropriate' adult (whatever than means). Edina is an awful mother whose daughter, Saffy, has had to pick up her mother's slack, maturing before her time to make up for her mother's immaturity. There is a role reversal seen in Ab Fab with Saffy and Edina that is a fresh and hilarious take on the mother / daughter dynamic. While there isn't any doubt that watching these older women make a mess of their own and their families' lives is funny, one can't deny that the show's success signifies that a lot of women could identify with the 'bad mother' (2008). Kirkham and Skeggs (1998) suggest that Ab Fab offers the viewer, but more importantly, women, in general, the pleasure of both transgressing feminine ideals of beauty, motherhood and proper behavior. They both exceed the norms of femininity, which again, leads one to believe that these depictions are easier for real women to identify with, rather than unnatural ideals of femininity and womanhood.

Saunders' Ab Fab wasn't just a way to alternatively see women, even though it appears that was its main objective; it also explores a number of social and economic contextual themes. Kirkham and Skeggs (1998) argue that Edina and Patsy represent aspects of Thatcherism with their "bullish, selfish and hideously materialistic" behavior. The critique of material values of Thatcherism is seen in nearly every single episode. A "lack of collective values is arguably central to the Thatcherite project and its evangelical individualism, and this is accompanied by an economic rationalism in which business imperatives are paramount and the pursuit of profit a valorized instrumental goal" (1998).

The emphasis on profits at all costs is taken to its limits in Ab Fab in the Romania baby episode, where Edina imports Romanian babies and works on the sales angles available as if they were simply another commodity. This lack of values, this corrosion of ethics, values and community is made explicit against the characterization of the daughter Saffron, who is used to represent a caring 1990s student into ecology and social issues, 'Mum', Saffron says in a moment of exasperation, 'people don't get more interesting the more money you spend' (Rhodes & Westwood 2008).

Saunders' apt talent to take important issues in the world and bring them to light in a funny yet meaningful way is perhaps her greatest talent. She is considered one of Britain's foremost comediennes and she is thought of as a business woman in her own right, breaking through the world of male dominated television sitcoms in Great Britain (e.g. The Office, Blackadder, etc.). Saunders was able to use her gender as well as gender-specific topics as a way of freeing women from the mold that television sitcoms such as Are You Being Served created.

Ab Fab is smart and aggressive at the same time and this is due to the talents of Saunders and Lumley. It takes a very impressive actor to be able to play these types of characters without being judgmental of them or portraying them as simply stupid -- for that they are not. While the earlier episodes tend to offer "bold brushstrokes in characterization designed to produce maximal comic effect, nuances in the characters' personalities emerge over the course of the series" (Lavery 2009). And once again, it must be noted that while neither character -- Edina nor Patsy -- seem to know what the words loyalty or respect mean, their relationship is the center of the show and they are the only real constant and true thing in each other's crazy lives (2009).

When Absolutely Fabulous first came out in Britain in the 1990s is appeared to be an early reaction to the 'laddism' (i.e. reckless and binge drinking) phenomenon that dominated British popular culture. Largely based on alcohol, sex and other forms of hedonism, laddism was almost the opposite of the 'new man' social construct. "In television, the epitome of laddism is the sitcom Men Behaving Badly, who male protagonists' lifestyles are the embodiment of hedonistic, infantile irresponsibility" (Lavery 2009). Lavery (2009) insists that if one were to discount the fashion industry, the pursuits of the main protagonists of Absolutely Fabulous and Men Behaving Badly are strikingly similar.