Tall Poppy Syndrome & Patriarchal Femininity: An Auto-ethnographic Investigation into New Zealand’s Female-identifying Comedians

This practice-based and auto-ethnographic research project explores the correlation between Tall Poppy Syndrome (TPS) and patriarchal femininity in the performances of female-identifying stand-up comedians in New Zealand. I identify ways TPS, as a patriarchal ideology, has an impact on the subconscious/and or conscious choices of New Zealand’s self-deprecating female-identifying comedians in contemporary performance. I have chosen to analyse TPS through an intersectional feminist lens, focusing on ways the historical construction of patriarchal femininity directly relates to the cultural phenomenon of Tall Poppy Syndrome. I aim to connect this relationship to the ways New Zealand female-identifying comedians ‘perform’ autobiographical comedy, as part of expected social and cultural conventions. As I want to investigate the impact of TPS in an exclusively New Zealand context, my research isolates its case studies to comedians who make comedy primarily for a New Zealand audience, discussing international comedians as a point of comparison.