Ellie Gibson and Helen Thorn, the comedy duo behind the podcast and live show Scummy Mummies, first crossed paths in early motherhood, bonding over the horrors of parenthood and a shared craving to talk frankly about the challenges (horrors) of postpartum life and beyond. Today, their work extends to peripheral subjects such as body image, aging, relationships, dating, and wine. And more wine.
With over 170k followers on Instagram and one of the most popular parenting podcasts on the… er… the podcast realm… they’re kind of a big deal.
Though, confession, I had never heard of them before. But, I am a ‘mummy’, and a single one at that (which perhaps makes me more likely to be scummier than your more traditionally attached mum), and therefore I already qualified as a viable fan (in contrast, there was only a single male in the audience – ‘Charlie’ – and he didn’t get away with it).
The point is, I didn’t know what to expect. I just wanted a laugh. And, no plot-twist, that’s what I got…
The show is a mix of stand-up, musical numbers, and a dazzling array of deliberately unflattering outfits (picture a catsuit representing the female sex organ), all celebrating 10 years of the Mummies’ journey so far. It is energetic, generous, and seemingly unselfconscious.
My companion for the evening and I both made comparisons to French and Saunders. The pair permeated that same similar underdog confidence that comes with utterly embracing what others might describe as ‘flaws’, displayed a relieving awareness of just how ridiculous aspects of human existence are, and deployed hilarious use of the physical form.
I bellowed with laughter at some of the more relatable references to mothering young children and those dreaded ‘forced’ friendships with other parents (e.g. the politics of navigating school WhatsApp group-chats). Most of the song adaptations were lyrically glorious and delivered with unreserved gusto.
Ellie and Helen are utterly down to earth, relatable, self-deprecating, and for that reason have awesome ‘best-mate’ vibes – they are fun, energetic, and empathetic, but also make it very obvious they are willing and ready to give it all up to neck gin at any moment.
However, I came away feeling that for all the body positivity and female camaraderie (lots of comments on how useless ‘him-indoors’ can be), things weren’t quite that positive. The constant references to alcohol wore a bit thin: I think the "Mummy needs her wine" moment is coming to a close. It’s been normalised for quite some time now that the solution to a stressful day’s parenting is a large glass of sav blanc, but the ever-growing sober-curious movement is rising against this, seeing it almost as yet more oppression as we pour our pennies, literally, into a glass to numb ourselves to a life we are entitled to be fully present and alive within. I started to find the constant positioning of alcohol as a means to rebel and relax more sad than funny. And whereas there is something so incredibly empowering about seeing two middle-aged women be outwardly free in their ‘mum bods’, I couldn’t help but feel the acceptance here had more of a flavour of resignation than celebration to it – it was more, “look how AWFUL my body is,” than “my body is AMAZING!”. And, the ‘men are idiots’ perspective is one that I think disempowers everyone – better to say both sexes are awesome, because we are, just for necessarily different reasons.
All in all, it was a thoroughly entertaining evening, and I am a new follower, although I’ll be the one sitting in the corner sipping the 0% Peroni and trying to have positive thoughts about the male of the species.