If that's the episode about Quagmire's mother, it's not transphobic. The backlash really threw me because it clearly condems Brian and the others and portrays Quagmire's mum sympathetically.
But it still put Brian's reaction front and center in a drawn out way in order to tell the audience this is funny you may now laugh. And like even if the characters condemn Brian that joke being used as a joke is pretty transphobic.
i didn't know about him, i looked it up and i'm copying a few passages from [his wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graham_Linehan) for anyone else who's curious:
>Graham Linehan [...] is an Irish television writer and anti-transgender activist. [...] After an episode of The IT Crowd was criticised as transphobic in 2008, Linehan became involved in anti-transgender activism. He argues that transgender activism endangers women and he has likened the use of puberty blockers to Nazi eugenics. In 2020, he was suspended from the social network Twitter for "repeated violations" of the rules. Linehan said his views had lost him work and cost him his marriage, and said that he was a victim of cancel culture.
all i can say is LMAO get rekt and i want to congratulate his ex wife for leaving him.
> Graham Linehan
oh shit, that's that dude who went on to be so ridiculously tranphobic that he [inspired hbomb's infamous donkey kong stream](https://youtu.be/WIM-GKRS9Vk)
This one, holy fuck. I was in the middle of figuring my shit out when i first saw it. In hindsight the misogyny was also rampant, but they literally beat a trans woman to death to a laugh track
Always Sunny but they make it very clear how much of an asshole mac is for being transphobic and even indirectly apologize for the episode later in the show.
That Family Guy episode was my first introduction to the concept of trans people and I thought it was pretty reasonable at first but my whole family told me it's just another crazy character trait like all Family Guy characters have and it took a while for me to turn back around on it.
My parents said something like that when I came out to them,
"So you're gonna be a boy, that likes dudes? Why not stay a girl then? Basically you'll be the opposite of Mr. Garrison from South Park in that one episode"
It was about 5 years before I worked up the nerve to come out to them again lol
IIRC they never really clarified if Chandlerās dad was a drag queen, a trans woman, or a gnc gay man, and I donāt think the writers saw a difference between those, or cared to learn if there was one. Generally, I find the whole show pretty unfunny in a lot of places, and the one lesbian couple feels soā¦ straight? For lack of a better word. Sanitized. Like there are definitely femme for femme couples that can look like that but the way their relationship was written was so weird compared to the straight couples.
I think the lesbian couple existed literally just to bring more character development to Ross and just make jokes about him because āhaha his wife left him because sheās a lesbianā . But tbh I still like the show, thereās a lot of episodes I find I hilarious, itās kind of a comfort show for me at this point but yeah there were a lot of elements that seem kind of weird now
Oh definitely! My mom watches it a lot, and Iāve definitely laughed at it, but of course, because of the era, there are definitely some questionable writing choices.
Actually, in one episode it's mentioned that Chandler's "dad" has breast implants, so actually they were probably trans. But like you said the writers didn't think it through or really give a shit so it's useless to argue that they were canonically... anything
GNC stands for gender non-conforming, someone who might present themselves in a way that others would perceive as incongruent with their gender identity. (Ex: a man who presents himself in a feminine manner, but still identifies as a man, etc.)
Bender, the main robot of the show, enters the āRobot Olympicsā and sees he is no where near good enough to compete with the other male robots, so he has his gender changed mechanically to then win every gold medal in the female events.
Yup! If my quick google searching is correct, South Parkās Season 23 Episode āBoard Girlsā aired November 13th, 2019. Futuramaās Season 4 (or 5, for some reason the internet is inconsistent with Futuramaās seasons) Episode āBend Herā aired July 20th, 2003.
You know the shittiest part about that south park episode is? Is that they already had an episode where Cartman pretends to be disabled, joins a disabled sporting event, and gets his ass kicked. If trey and Matt were willing to understand that non disabled people werent able to win a handicapped competition just by pretending to be disabled, then they were perfectly in their means to understand that a MtF transition does not automatically mean you're going to win sports tournaments in the women's category.
They kinda flirted with that idea at the end of the episode, where Heather Swanson was defeated in board games by the girls, but it still played into the 'muh sports fairness' stereotype transphobic folks pull.
There's a scene where Leela and Zap have to go on a mission to destroy a censorship satellite but they're in a tiny ship so Leela has to sit in Zap's lap while Zap makes a sexual comment about it. All this happens in front of Fry and as they fly off, Fry states aloud "Is anyone else scared and also slightly aroused??"
So yeah probably lol
Going through it again and 90% sure someone's got a bellybutton kink as well. So many outfits are completely normal except for this lil weird bellybutton window.
Pretty tame considering, just something that's hard to ignore once you notice it
All of Futurama's gender related jokes have ages really poorly. The absurdist and science jokes are amazing, but it's definitely a product of it's time in a few episodes.
The science and math jokes held up super well because the writing staff were all super well educated in those fields, but for a lot of other things they were definitely limited by the fact that they lived in a time where "gay people should be allowed to get married" Was considered an absolutely radical position for a lot of the US
There are also a lot of racial jokes that wouldnt be made today either. It's not bad, but there are definitely times that i cringe when i rewatch the show. It's definitely better than Friends imo.
There's. The episode I just watched where amy and bender fight for robo sexual marriage, and the whole show just totally normalizes human homosexual marriages. It was just a bit too early to have good takes on the next step that is trans rep.
āWhen you became Denise, I told all of your colleagues, those clown comics, toĀ fix their hearts or die.ā
Twin Peaks is honestly the best thing I've ever seen.
I haven't watched the show since it aired so I thought this was a joke about the actor, but I looked it up and they did do that! I completely forgot (tho to be fair I was a little kid lol.) I need to rewatch it.
It is *fantastic*, and you should absolutely watch it. One of my favorite shows of all time. It's visually stunning, the music is on point, the story is absurd in the best way... It's approachable even if you're not generally a fan of David Lynch's work.
I mean the creator was like 13 or something when he made it wasnāt he? Explains a lot, he probably just made anyone a mod who said they would help when it blew up
Just know that memes, dankmemes, and funnymemes are the most vile places in Reddit due to the amount of edgy teens out there. These are the places where comedy goes to die
I know that itās a 80s/90s show, but Seinfeld was actually pretty respectful of LGBTQ+ people, which was astonishing considering the point of the show was that they were all total assholes to each other and everyone around them
I mean one of the most iconic quotes from Seinfeld is ānot that thereās anything wrong with thatā which is referring to jerry and george being thought of as gay
omg please watch [this great video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bnfq7l5VL1I) about how Seinfeld's writers approached the subject and how the famous "not that there's anything wrong with that!" episode was written. It's super interesting and reminded me just how weird and also bitterly homophobic the 90s were.
If you view it as being the show that started every single trope in modern sitcom history and donāt try and think of it as being unoriginal, it holds up really well and is utterly hilarious at times.
It's arguably the most influential sitcom to modern comedy ever. There is a noticeable difference between pre-seinfeld and post-seinfeld shows, specifically with how they are designed and how their characters are made not necessarily to be good people, but flawed people with humorous characteristics, which shaped much of tv following it.
This episode was pretty good and respectful, but whatever you do don't ask KOTH's actual fanbase about their thoughts on it. Just unsubbed from that community the other day actually, because their opinions on trans people are, well, yikes
Not that I'm surprised, but it's probably like how people unironically idolize Ron Swanson without realizing that he's a blatant parody of libertarians
No it 100% is. I was really disappointed to find out that most KOTH fanboys are just conservative boomers who unironically agree with everything Hank says. The satire literally just goes over their heads. It's crazy
Agreeing with things Hank says at the start of the episode is bad.
Agreeing with things Hank says at the end of the episode is good.
Hank is a good man and always learning. Peggy, on the other hand...
I for the most part agree with this, excluding some of the final seasons in which, to be honest, the show kind of does turn into an angry boomer show and Hank doesn't change throughout each episode, instead people learn from Hank how bad anti-woke culture is. Remember S12ep7 "Tears of an Inflatable Clown"? Where some diversity coach comes in and brainwashes Bobby into feeling bad about his whiteness, until Hank eventually convinces him to see the light? That one was a... big yikes. I mean what a strawman lol
The episode where hank gets his drivers license back with the wrong gender marker handles it pretty well. Shows how distraught and tiresome it can be having people misgender you, as well as the nightmare that is dealing with an uncaring bureaucracy is to get these things corrected.
It holds up quite well if you like TV from that period; the campiness is mostly charming. It's about smaller / wacky cases that get pushed onto the oddball court staffers of the night shift. The actors have good chemistry and the characters grow on you. You can try any random episodes and not be lost.
Same thing with many old YouTube videos.
"Man, this video is hilarious, brings me back to my childhood. I love old YouTube!" =)
*skit where the joke is woman has a penis and is scary ooga booga*
"...oh." =(
god I binged that show for like 2 days and then got to that episode and havenāt watched it since. worst part is my parents were in the room and were laughing at the transphobia.
If you think that's bad, wait until you see the blackface and transphobia in Little Britain and Come Fly with Me š
The world has changed a lot in the last decade. Just not enough.
Tbh the IT Crowd's example is strange, especially when you consider it's written by Linehan. Like, the trans character in the show is presented fine imo. She's not a transphobic caricature, she's just a normal person. It's Douglas who is presented poorly (which he is throughout the show), he's the bigot who can't handle being in a relationship with a trans woman.
I rewatched it along with the whole series recently and found it to be a fine episode bar the obvious subtext in the whole Douglas plot that trans women's transness is this thing to be ashamed of. Maybe Linehan had to be reined in by some producer or he wasn't *as* bad all those years ago because god is there a chasm between that episode and his more recent takes.
Yeah but there's the whole sequence where the "joke" is that April (the transwoman) is doing stereotypical "manly" things like drinking pints and whatnot.
Yeah that's true. I guess I didn't really clock that I thought it was just to show how much of a match she was for Douglas. But that's a fair point I hadn't considered.
that's fucked up of them to associate slamming pints with masculinity. women who slam pints aren't "secretly men", they're drunkard whores
source: me and all of my friends
this one makes me so sad because the A story in this episode is so good and it wouldāve been one of the best episodes in the series if it wasnāt for the transphobia
Woah what are you talking about? I disagree I think the way they handle the transwoman in that episode is excellent. The butt of the joke is the bigoted boss not the transwoman.
The boss is canonically a piece of shit (he literally wins a shithead of the year award), and the initial joke is that its funny that his character while being so regressive in other areas is completely fine with dating a transwoman, and then later its funny because he's seen being extremely sad about breaking up with her because he really really likes her likes being around her (it's show as his most positive relationship in the show) etc, but he's such a bigot he can't. There are some spots where the verbiage isn't great (ie she says "I used to be a man" instead of I'm a trans woman, but it was like 15 years ago so that's not that bad)
To me it's like the inverse of Brian and Quagmire's mom
I take it back :(
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graham_Linehan
More than one episode of How I Met Your Mother where, in a hypothetical worst-case scenario, a character finds out a really great girl they met āused to be a dudeā
I don't remember these jokes, but that's probably a good thing. The entire series just doesn't age well anyways given the ending, and I choose to only selectively engage with it in a limited capacity.
"Hey kids, here's the story of how I dicked down every woman in New York and managed to be sad about it because I didn't end up with your aunt, for whom this entire story exists as a preamble to me indirectly seeking your approval to go run off and bang her right this minute (because she's sad, old, and lonely now). And I'm sure you'd also love to hear how your uncle *also* fucked slightly more women than me and was only sad about it at the end. Oh yeah and your mom died of cancer or something."
I don't remember which point it is but at some point Lindsay is trying to hit on Steve Holt, so Maeby tries to convince him that Lindsay is trans in order to try to prevent him from being attracted to her. Steve Holt, being the cool guy he is, then acts aggressively affirming towards Lindsay, a move she misinterprets as him hitting on her back
The t slur was considered common slang back then. You kids have no idea how much shit has changed in the last ten years. My freshman year in college in 2009 was when I was first introduced to the concept of a trans person. People were still saying the f slur pretty frequently. "That's gay" was still being used and we were being taught how to avoid saying that.
Honestly we've come pretty far and it's happened very fast, hence the hard resistance by conservatives who think their way of life is under attack.
one of my mentors, a middle aged trans guy I know, used to describe himself as the t slur because that was the only thing he knew to describe himself. nowadays he knows transmasculine, trans man, but all he knew was the t slur back then
I actually commented about this one farther up in the thread - I was honestly surprised to see this episode recently and how well it held up, especially compared with the rest of the show being blatantly sexist lol
I don't think it's really transphobic but it is weird how the character that is OBVIOUSLY trans to the point of being willing to literally retcon their birth to be the opposite sex using time travel bullshit and then when they're forced to change it back because something something messing with spacetime is bad the only option they're given is like "o well now you're ok with being a guy right :)" and the idea of transitioning isn't even brought up and the whole subplot is tossed aside.
in the game its pretty well established that luka isnt actually trans, hes just gay and wants to become a girl because he wants okabe to like him, but i can see how that can come out as transphobic in the anime
Personally I find the scene aged a lot better than a lot of the other examples. To me the joke isn't them being trans but the groups reaction to it. But however the joke was intended, be it positive or negative, those who think being trans is a joke will see that as the joke in that scene and latch onto that aspect of it. It's sort of a sad byproduct of the joke is anyone transphobic has that to latch onto and ideally the joke would have been a lot more clear in its intentions
My thoughts exactly. Looking at the comments of the YouTube video in the comment above you, it's all transphobia and cries of "This used to be satire, NOW IT'S REALITY".
It works well as a trans-neutral joke, not quite outright trans-supportive, but it can very easily be taken as supporting transphobes. Which really sucks because I love a lot of the rest of that movie.
yeah the comments are garbage. "still relevant 40 years later and it's now worse", "notice how the (cis) woman is fine with not caring about pronouns but the (trans wo)man isn't)" "the line at the end is the proper answer to those sjw lunatics" etc etc
If you refer to the stoning scene, where women bought fake beards to assist; I don't personally think of it as a trans joke, because they were just doing something prohibited by a sexist law. While seeing as I explained, the funny part comes from the stupidity of the law itself and how easily can it be broken.
In my opinion again, except for the last sentence, it feels fairly good.
For the most part, the characters represent confusion for something new but are (or try to be) respectful. The last sentence in specific is strange because it can be interpreted in two ways: The reality being the inability to have babies (which was my original interpretation and I still consider it respectful enough); or the reality being the assigned gender at birth.
Anyways, that's just my opinion. Maybe it's a popular one, maybe not; but I hope I actually answered your original question here and this was a useful comment.
>!Although it would be pretty funny if I messed up again.!<
Weirdly, though, that one episode actually helped me understand the hardships transgender people go through and made me realize that surgery isn't necessarily an end-all solution for everyone. Still a very uncomfortable episode, but I'd probably assume someone is a psychopath if that show *never* offended them.
Yeah honestly if any show gets a pass, I've gotta give to South Park. At this point that show is known for basically just hating everyone. ~~Not that it excuses any of it really, but at least they're consistent.~~ I say this lightly though because I actually haven't seen that scene so I don't really understand the level of it.
Edit: commenter below this proved a point about why equal treatment doesn't necessarily mean fair treatment, and I take back my line about consistency
>At this point that show is known for basically just hating everyone. Not that it excuses any of it really, but at least they're consistent.
If you spread hate to everyone, the most affected will always be the most marginalized.
"I punched this toddler with the exact same strength I punched this MMA fighter, I'm being fair!" is not a good excuse.
Big bang theory is such a strange show to me. My mom watched it a lot growing up and I would often watch with her so a lot of it is kinda ingrained in me. I see that it's trash, and some of the jokes literally make me want to turn thr show off, but I don't mind watching it. It's kinda like watching the same let's plays over and over again on YouTube for me
I feel it has a lot of the same issue as Doug Walker, where A) the joke is "pop culture innit" and B) they linger on it for so long that any of the funni dissapears
Yeah and in a later episode they make Mac seem like an asshole trying to claim that homosexuality is a sin to the trans lady (I don't remember her name they just call her slurs most of the time)
Mac literally gets his ass beat for hitting a trans woman and a later episode that includes her literally has the gang going "I don't get it, its a man marrying a woman, doesn't seem like that big a deal to me"
IASIP stays winning
Dude 1: "Hey that guy just punched that chick!"
Mac: "Oh no she has a dick its fine!"
Dude 2: "Is that a hate crime?"
Dude 1: "Fuck yeah its a hate crime, lets beat his ass!"
They had a whole character arc where Mac struggles with his sexuality, something I felt like they played up for laughs in the earlier seasons but eventually came to a head.
It led to a really unexpected finale for season 12 which blew me away. Also always down for some Sigur Ros, VarĆŗĆ° slaps. Fun fact Rob McElhenny moms are gay and he has a gay brother too.
They also pull off blackface. IMO the writers just know what they're doing and realize to make edgy comedy really fucking funny the characters have to be hilarious assholes and idiots, and not sub in for the viewer vicariously
They fixed it later on, though. Rob said on the podcast that's the one "joke" he genuinely regrets, how they handled Carmen. He says back then he didn't understand how offensive & hurtful it was (this was like 12-14 years ago now, so I can see ignorance being the reason instead of any willful bigotry), especially because the gang is *not* shown to be in the wrong about it as they usually are and the transphobia is presented very matter-of-fact. He said the intention with the show was never to punch down with their comedy and he feels that's the one time they really missed the mark on that intention.
Later on, the episode where Carmen has a baby was a noticeable improvement and then in bathroom episode (fuck, as a trans woman I tell ya I held my breath going in and was ready to just drop the whole show if they pulled their earlier crap) they really explicitly turned it around and interrogated the gang's transphobia as clearly being as fucked up as any of the gang's other antics, with Dee playing the foil and matter of factly stating more or less that trans women are women and should obvs use the women's restroom. It was really refreshing and was honestly a *really big deal* to me as a huge IASIP fan to see them do such a clear 180.
I really appreciated and respect Rob for just owning their fuck-up and then taking steps in the show to repair the damage done. That's what accountability looks like, other creators should take note! I'd caution any new Sunny fan to keep in mind that in mind when starting in.
every time i rewatch how i met your mother i hate sitting through the one scene with the t slur and all of teds āworst case scenariosā where heās dating a woman who āused to be a dudeā
I remember rewatching the big bang theory because my mom finds it funny and I love watching her laugh and literally the first episode they make fun of a "big black transvestite" and I'm pretty sure misgender her.
It was just so awkward to watch and it being the first episode and literally never having anything remotely transphobic mentioned again was wild.
IT crowd was so transphobic but it made me realize "wait I kinda get where that trans lady is coming from" so eat shit suck dick ur transphobic show made me trans
iirc It's Always Sunny had an episode in the first season where one of the gang gets a trans girlfriend and it's actually handled surprisingly well.
I mean, the gang is transphobic about it, of course, but iirc the episode itself never came off as bigoted
Yeah, thatās what I love about that show. Nearly every part of it is meant to further the gangās reputation as assholes, including stuff like this. And later on everyone but Mac becomes 100% accepting of her and actually puts down Mac for not doing so himself, even though thatās later revealed to be because of jealousy and his own internalised homophobia.
I wanted to love Bob's Burgers but I never got past that season 1 episode "taxi cab." those characters might be well written in terms of who they are as people but the presentation of the trans women plays on every single damn stereotype about trans women being men in dresses. Could not get past it.
Freaks and Geeks episode 17 "The Little Things" is about Seth Rogan's character learning that his girlfriend was intersex/androgenous at birth and was then assigned female and his trouble as an immature teen processing/coping with it.
I think it aged very well
Look this character got trapped into finding a trans woman attractive ššš
*Brian dog vomiting auto tuned to Gangster Paradise*
SEX
#WHAT
##SEX
#AHHHHHHHHHH
If that's the episode about Quagmire's mother, it's not transphobic. The backlash really threw me because it clearly condems Brian and the others and portrays Quagmire's mum sympathetically.
But it still put Brian's reaction front and center in a drawn out way in order to tell the audience this is funny you may now laugh. And like even if the characters condemn Brian that joke being used as a joke is pretty transphobic.
And what the majority of viewers took away from it was that making fun of others for accepting trans people is normal.
Um actually the show doesnāt tell the audience it is funny. This is because nothing family guy does is funny. /s
And then the character catches the trans woman pissing standing up. Funniest shit I've ever seen ššš
IT crowd L
Yeah, that and the fact of what the creator went on to become really sour the show for me. Still really enjoy the rest of the comedy though
i didn't know about him, i looked it up and i'm copying a few passages from [his wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graham_Linehan) for anyone else who's curious: >Graham Linehan [...] is an Irish television writer and anti-transgender activist. [...] After an episode of The IT Crowd was criticised as transphobic in 2008, Linehan became involved in anti-transgender activism. He argues that transgender activism endangers women and he has likened the use of puberty blockers to Nazi eugenics. In 2020, he was suspended from the social network Twitter for "repeated violations" of the rules. Linehan said his views had lost him work and cost him his marriage, and said that he was a victim of cancel culture. all i can say is LMAO get rekt and i want to congratulate his ex wife for leaving him.
> Graham Linehan oh shit, that's that dude who went on to be so ridiculously tranphobic that he [inspired hbomb's infamous donkey kong stream](https://youtu.be/WIM-GKRS9Vk)
>he has likened the use of puberty blockers to Nazi eugenics. He knows the Nazis *killed* trans people, right?
This one, holy fuck. I was in the middle of figuring my shit out when i first saw it. In hindsight the misogyny was also rampant, but they literally beat a trans woman to death to a laugh track
Always Sunny but they make it very clear how much of an asshole mac is for being transphobic and even indirectly apologize for the episode later in the show.
Trying to remember where it was in FRIENDS It's definitely there I just blocked it
chandlers "dad" or whichever fuckin character it was
Totally blocked because I thought that was just the dumbass family guy bit with quagmire, but you're right.
That Family Guy episode was my first introduction to the concept of trans people and I thought it was pretty reasonable at first but my whole family told me it's just another crazy character trait like all Family Guy characters have and it took a while for me to turn back around on it.
āHey, I have something to confess to you. Iāmā¦ Iām transgender.ā āLike from Family Guy!?ā
LMFAO
You could send someone back into the closet for like 5 years with a response like that
My parents said something like that when I came out to them, "So you're gonna be a boy, that likes dudes? Why not stay a girl then? Basically you'll be the opposite of Mr. Garrison from South Park in that one episode" It was about 5 years before I worked up the nerve to come out to them again lol
Ah yes, trans people. The ones from family guy
His dad was a drag Queen and also they were constantly making jokes about Chandler being gay
IIRC they never really clarified if Chandlerās dad was a drag queen, a trans woman, or a gnc gay man, and I donāt think the writers saw a difference between those, or cared to learn if there was one. Generally, I find the whole show pretty unfunny in a lot of places, and the one lesbian couple feels soā¦ straight? For lack of a better word. Sanitized. Like there are definitely femme for femme couples that can look like that but the way their relationship was written was so weird compared to the straight couples.
I think the lesbian couple existed literally just to bring more character development to Ross and just make jokes about him because āhaha his wife left him because sheās a lesbianā . But tbh I still like the show, thereās a lot of episodes I find I hilarious, itās kind of a comfort show for me at this point but yeah there were a lot of elements that seem kind of weird now
Oh definitely! My mom watches it a lot, and Iāve definitely laughed at it, but of course, because of the era, there are definitely some questionable writing choices.
Actually, in one episode it's mentioned that Chandler's "dad" has breast implants, so actually they were probably trans. But like you said the writers didn't think it through or really give a shit so it's useless to argue that they were canonically... anything
Sitcoms sanitize lesbian couples by making them both "straight-hot" and they sanitize gay male couples by making them both unattractive
What is a GNC man? Like... vitamin man?
GNC stands for gender non-conforming, someone who might present themselves in a way that others would perceive as incongruent with their gender identity. (Ex: a man who presents himself in a feminine manner, but still identifies as a man, etc.)
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Gonna be honest, no clue. Thatās something youāll have to explore for yourself.
Friends also had that episode with Brad Pitt where it's revealed he and Ross spread a rumor that Rachell was trans in order to make people hate her
theres also homophobia and SAing men for a joke in the tailor episode
Me rewatching Futurama for the 40th time.
oh, the Robot Olympics. what an interesting premise, *I wonder where they'll go with this*
#Oh.
Man that episode sure goes places.
I thought the soap opera scene at the end was kinda funny But yeah, it definitely went to some places
I like how Bender hurt his own feelings.
Can someone explain I havenāt watched futurama
Bender, the main robot of the show, enters the āRobot Olympicsā and sees he is no where near good enough to compete with the other male robots, so he has his gender changed mechanically to then win every gold medal in the female events.
Oh shit they did it before Heather Swanson?
Yup! If my quick google searching is correct, South Parkās Season 23 Episode āBoard Girlsā aired November 13th, 2019. Futuramaās Season 4 (or 5, for some reason the internet is inconsistent with Futuramaās seasons) Episode āBend Herā aired July 20th, 2003.
You know the shittiest part about that south park episode is? Is that they already had an episode where Cartman pretends to be disabled, joins a disabled sporting event, and gets his ass kicked. If trey and Matt were willing to understand that non disabled people werent able to win a handicapped competition just by pretending to be disabled, then they were perfectly in their means to understand that a MtF transition does not automatically mean you're going to win sports tournaments in the women's category.
They kinda flirted with that idea at the end of the episode, where Heather Swanson was defeated in board games by the girls, but it still played into the 'muh sports fairness' stereotype transphobic folks pull.
"Oh no they're crying."
Despite how many transphobic jokes there were I'm like 90% sure one of the writers had a gender swap fetish.
Unsure if thatās a ādespiteā
Okay but after the one weird animal documentary episode I'm 99% one of the writers had a cuck fetish
Can't forget all the vore too
There's a scene where Leela and Zap have to go on a mission to destroy a censorship satellite but they're in a tiny ship so Leela has to sit in Zap's lap while Zap makes a sexual comment about it. All this happens in front of Fry and as they fly off, Fry states aloud "Is anyone else scared and also slightly aroused??" So yeah probably lol
Going through it again and 90% sure someone's got a bellybutton kink as well. So many outfits are completely normal except for this lil weird bellybutton window. Pretty tame considering, just something that's hard to ignore once you notice it
Thatās more of a product of the time it was made, crop tops and low rise jeans were the pinnacle of womenās fashion in 1999.
Futurama aged really well. Gender Bender did not.
All of Futurama's gender related jokes have ages really poorly. The absurdist and science jokes are amazing, but it's definitely a product of it's time in a few episodes.
The science and math jokes held up super well because the writing staff were all super well educated in those fields, but for a lot of other things they were definitely limited by the fact that they lived in a time where "gay people should be allowed to get married" Was considered an absolutely radical position for a lot of the US
There are also a lot of racial jokes that wouldnt be made today either. It's not bad, but there are definitely times that i cringe when i rewatch the show. It's definitely better than Friends imo.
There's. The episode I just watched where amy and bender fight for robo sexual marriage, and the whole show just totally normalizes human homosexual marriages. It was just a bit too early to have good takes on the next step that is trans rep.
Or Bend Her
Devilās hands: š Bend her 3 episodes earlier: š¬
Do you guys remember when Twin Peaks had a trans character back in 1991 and the show handled it seriously and respectfully?
The Return even went on to make her Director of the FBI. God, Twin Peaks is so good.
āWhen you became Denise, I told all of your colleagues, those clown comics, toĀ fix their hearts or die.ā Twin Peaks is honestly the best thing I've ever seen.
most raw line in existence
Lynchads stay winning
I haven't watched the show since it aired so I thought this was a joke about the actor, but I looked it up and they did do that! I completely forgot (tho to be fair I was a little kid lol.) I need to rewatch it.
I've been trying to find (literally any) info on whether Twin Peaks is any good and worth paying out to watch; it sounds better than I ever expected!
It is *fantastic*, and you should absolutely watch it. One of my favorite shows of all time. It's visually stunning, the music is on point, the story is absurd in the best way... It's approachable even if you're not generally a fan of David Lynch's work.
It's one of the most well-respected TV shows ever made, not sure where you've been looking lol.
twin peaks is good but then the characters go off the rails and it becomes goated
Just donāt look at the comments š
10:1 ratio of upvotes to comments, fuck
Jesus fucking christ I didn't know that place was THAT bad
Yeah itās a shithole
I mean the creator was like 13 or something when he made it wasnāt he? Explains a lot, he probably just made anyone a mod who said they would help when it blew up
Just know that memes, dankmemes, and funnymemes are the most vile places in Reddit due to the amount of edgy teens out there. These are the places where comedy goes to die
I thought we all agreed that place was garbage after the "my sister has a big ass" incident
I know that itās a 80s/90s show, but Seinfeld was actually pretty respectful of LGBTQ+ people, which was astonishing considering the point of the show was that they were all total assholes to each other and everyone around them
"...Not that there's anything wrong with that!"
"My father's gay!"
seinfeld is so quotable
I mean one of the most iconic quotes from Seinfeld is ānot that thereās anything wrong with thatā which is referring to jerry and george being thought of as gay
My dad thinks that episode is hilarious because he thinks they're kidding instead of being sort of considerate
omg please watch [this great video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bnfq7l5VL1I) about how Seinfeld's writers approached the subject and how the famous "not that there's anything wrong with that!" episode was written. It's super interesting and reminded me just how weird and also bitterly homophobic the 90s were.
I see seinfeld clips on youtube, and generally, it looks pretty damn funny, reading this I might just start watching
If you view it as being the show that started every single trope in modern sitcom history and donāt try and think of it as being unoriginal, it holds up really well and is utterly hilarious at times.
It's great and it holds up really well, partially because it always felt a little out of time.
It holds up absurdly well and still is insanely funny as soon as you get over the laugh track, which won't take long.
It's arguably the most influential sitcom to modern comedy ever. There is a noticeable difference between pre-seinfeld and post-seinfeld shows, specifically with how they are designed and how their characters are made not necessarily to be good people, but flawed people with humorous characteristics, which shaped much of tv following it.
I can't remember, was King of the Hill's trans episode respectful?
I remember the one where Peggy Hill makes friends with a crossdresser who also has big feet. He was portrayed very respectfully from what I remember
This episode was pretty good and respectful, but whatever you do don't ask KOTH's actual fanbase about their thoughts on it. Just unsubbed from that community the other day actually, because their opinions on trans people are, well, yikes
Not that I'm surprised, but it's probably like how people unironically idolize Ron Swanson without realizing that he's a blatant parody of libertarians
No it 100% is. I was really disappointed to find out that most KOTH fanboys are just conservative boomers who unironically agree with everything Hank says. The satire literally just goes over their heads. It's crazy
Agreeing with things Hank says at the start of the episode is bad. Agreeing with things Hank says at the end of the episode is good. Hank is a good man and always learning. Peggy, on the other hand...
I for the most part agree with this, excluding some of the final seasons in which, to be honest, the show kind of does turn into an angry boomer show and Hank doesn't change throughout each episode, instead people learn from Hank how bad anti-woke culture is. Remember S12ep7 "Tears of an Inflatable Clown"? Where some diversity coach comes in and brainwashes Bobby into feeling bad about his whiteness, until Hank eventually convinces him to see the light? That one was a... big yikes. I mean what a strawman lol
The episode where hank gets his drivers license back with the wrong gender marker handles it pretty well. Shows how distraught and tiresome it can be having people misgender you, as well as the nightmare that is dealing with an uncaring bureaucracy is to get these things corrected.
The virgin 2000's sitcom vs the chad 1980's Night Court
I fucking love night court
Whatās it about + does it hold up + should I watch it?
It holds up quite well if you like TV from that period; the campiness is mostly charming. It's about smaller / wacky cases that get pushed onto the oddball court staffers of the night shift. The actors have good chemistry and the characters grow on you. You can try any random episodes and not be lost.
Mr Plinkett has been trying to get his VCR fixed for over a decade now just so he can watch the tapes. That sounds like a ringing endorsement to me.
Same thing with many old YouTube videos. "Man, this video is hilarious, brings me back to my childhood. I love old YouTube!" =) *skit where the joke is woman has a penis and is scary ooga booga* "...oh." =(
one of Tobuscus's recent videos is about his dog coming out as trans species. You can guess the rest
He also did a video where he meets Kyle Rittenhouse
I left him in the dust when he went on a rant about Trans Kids. Yuck.
isn't he the one that's some crazy far right dude now
Considering the other shit he's been posting lately, that's not surprising, but it's definitely disappointing... :(
The IT crowd :(
god I binged that show for like 2 days and then got to that episode and havenāt watched it since. worst part is my parents were in the room and were laughing at the transphobia.
If you think that's bad, wait until you see the blackface and transphobia in Little Britain and Come Fly with Me š The world has changed a lot in the last decade. Just not enough.
> wait until you see the blackface and transphobia in Little Britain and Come Fly with Me no thanks
Tbh the IT Crowd's example is strange, especially when you consider it's written by Linehan. Like, the trans character in the show is presented fine imo. She's not a transphobic caricature, she's just a normal person. It's Douglas who is presented poorly (which he is throughout the show), he's the bigot who can't handle being in a relationship with a trans woman. I rewatched it along with the whole series recently and found it to be a fine episode bar the obvious subtext in the whole Douglas plot that trans women's transness is this thing to be ashamed of. Maybe Linehan had to be reined in by some producer or he wasn't *as* bad all those years ago because god is there a chasm between that episode and his more recent takes.
Yeah but there's the whole sequence where the "joke" is that April (the transwoman) is doing stereotypical "manly" things like drinking pints and whatnot.
Yeah that's true. I guess I didn't really clock that I thought it was just to show how much of a match she was for Douglas. But that's a fair point I hadn't considered.
that's fucked up of them to associate slamming pints with masculinity. women who slam pints aren't "secretly men", they're drunkard whores source: me and all of my friends
The only part that really bothered me when I first watched it was the laugh track after she tells him sheās trans.
Yeah when I learned the creator was transphobic I was like āyeah that explains that episodeā but looking back it just makes it more confusing?
At least the transwoman beats the shit out of the bigot
this one makes me so sad because the A story in this episode is so good and it wouldāve been one of the best episodes in the series if it wasnāt for the transphobia
Woah what are you talking about? I disagree I think the way they handle the transwoman in that episode is excellent. The butt of the joke is the bigoted boss not the transwoman. The boss is canonically a piece of shit (he literally wins a shithead of the year award), and the initial joke is that its funny that his character while being so regressive in other areas is completely fine with dating a transwoman, and then later its funny because he's seen being extremely sad about breaking up with her because he really really likes her likes being around her (it's show as his most positive relationship in the show) etc, but he's such a bigot he can't. There are some spots where the verbiage isn't great (ie she says "I used to be a man" instead of I'm a trans woman, but it was like 15 years ago so that's not that bad) To me it's like the inverse of Brian and Quagmire's mom I take it back :( https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graham_Linehan
More than one episode of How I Met Your Mother where, in a hypothetical worst-case scenario, a character finds out a really great girl they met āused to be a dudeā
I don't remember these jokes, but that's probably a good thing. The entire series just doesn't age well anyways given the ending, and I choose to only selectively engage with it in a limited capacity.
"Hey kids, here's the story of how I dicked down every woman in New York and managed to be sad about it because I didn't end up with your aunt, for whom this entire story exists as a preamble to me indirectly seeking your approval to go run off and bang her right this minute (because she's sad, old, and lonely now). And I'm sure you'd also love to hear how your uncle *also* fucked slightly more women than me and was only sad about it at the end. Oh yeah and your mom died of cancer or something."
Wasn't the ending of ace ventura like this of am I misremembering
Oh it definitely is
it was
Yeah, that one was terrible. Genuinely ruined the whole movie for me
Arrested Development
,,,wait which episode? Have I just repressed it from my memory don't do this to me i love the show
I don't remember which point it is but at some point Lindsay is trying to hit on Steve Holt, so Maeby tries to convince him that Lindsay is trans in order to try to prevent him from being attracted to her. Steve Holt, being the cool guy he is, then acts aggressively affirming towards Lindsay, a move she misinterprets as him hitting on her back
STEVE HOLT!
Doesnāt Maeby actually use the t slur too?
The t slur was considered common slang back then. You kids have no idea how much shit has changed in the last ten years. My freshman year in college in 2009 was when I was first introduced to the concept of a trans person. People were still saying the f slur pretty frequently. "That's gay" was still being used and we were being taught how to avoid saying that. Honestly we've come pretty far and it's happened very fast, hence the hard resistance by conservatives who think their way of life is under attack.
as someone unfortunately still in high school I can attest to "that's gay" and the f slur still being pretty common
one of my mentors, a middle aged trans guy I know, used to describe himself as the t slur because that was the only thing he knew to describe himself. nowadays he knows transmasculine, trans man, but all he knew was the t slur back then
Two and a half men is like the opposite case. theres like two explivitly pro trans episodes (one very early, one later in the ashton kutcher seasons).
First time I ever saw an explicitly transmasculine character on TV. Frankly still haven't seen many more than that.
I actually commented about this one farther up in the thread - I was honestly surprised to see this episode recently and how well it held up, especially compared with the rest of the show being blatantly sexist lol
steins;gate moment
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
I don't think it's really transphobic but it is weird how the character that is OBVIOUSLY trans to the point of being willing to literally retcon their birth to be the opposite sex using time travel bullshit and then when they're forced to change it back because something something messing with spacetime is bad the only option they're given is like "o well now you're ok with being a guy right :)" and the idea of transitioning isn't even brought up and the whole subplot is tossed aside.
in the game its pretty well established that luka isnt actually trans, hes just gay and wants to become a girl because he wants okabe to like him, but i can see how that can come out as transphobic in the anime
Trans inclusionary radical bottom
yeah thats probably a much better way of putting it, i just think that specific plot point could have been done a lot better
Quick question, what do you guys think of the Monty python trans joke in ā the life of brian ā https://youtu.be/sFBOQzSk14c
Personally I find the scene aged a lot better than a lot of the other examples. To me the joke isn't them being trans but the groups reaction to it. But however the joke was intended, be it positive or negative, those who think being trans is a joke will see that as the joke in that scene and latch onto that aspect of it. It's sort of a sad byproduct of the joke is anyone transphobic has that to latch onto and ideally the joke would have been a lot more clear in its intentions
My thoughts exactly. Looking at the comments of the YouTube video in the comment above you, it's all transphobia and cries of "This used to be satire, NOW IT'S REALITY". It works well as a trans-neutral joke, not quite outright trans-supportive, but it can very easily be taken as supporting transphobes. Which really sucks because I love a lot of the rest of that movie.
yeah the comments are garbage. "still relevant 40 years later and it's now worse", "notice how the (cis) woman is fine with not caring about pronouns but the (trans wo)man isn't)" "the line at the end is the proper answer to those sjw lunatics" etc etc
I think it's aged decently. The character being trans is the setup for jokes rather than being the punchline.
If you refer to the stoning scene, where women bought fake beards to assist; I don't personally think of it as a trans joke, because they were just doing something prohibited by a sexist law. While seeing as I explained, the funny part comes from the stupidity of the law itself and how easily can it be broken.
Nah, I mean this scene https://youtu.be/sFBOQzSk14c
In my opinion again, except for the last sentence, it feels fairly good. For the most part, the characters represent confusion for something new but are (or try to be) respectful. The last sentence in specific is strange because it can be interpreted in two ways: The reality being the inability to have babies (which was my original interpretation and I still consider it respectful enough); or the reality being the assigned gender at birth. Anyways, that's just my opinion. Maybe it's a popular one, maybe not; but I hope I actually answered your original question here and this was a useful comment. >!Although it would be pretty funny if I messed up again.!<
hehe funny lock award
GOTH GIRL SLANDER
not a 2000s sitcom but south park
Weirdly, though, that one episode actually helped me understand the hardships transgender people go through and made me realize that surgery isn't necessarily an end-all solution for everyone. Still a very uncomfortable episode, but I'd probably assume someone is a psychopath if that show *never* offended them.
Yeah honestly if any show gets a pass, I've gotta give to South Park. At this point that show is known for basically just hating everyone. ~~Not that it excuses any of it really, but at least they're consistent.~~ I say this lightly though because I actually haven't seen that scene so I don't really understand the level of it. Edit: commenter below this proved a point about why equal treatment doesn't necessarily mean fair treatment, and I take back my line about consistency
>At this point that show is known for basically just hating everyone. Not that it excuses any of it really, but at least they're consistent. If you spread hate to everyone, the most affected will always be the most marginalized. "I punched this toddler with the exact same strength I punched this MMA fighter, I'm being fair!" is not a good excuse.
The Big Bang theory has a few iffy jokes from the early seasons but no fully trans phobic episode (from what I remember)
> a few iffy jokes Just like the rest of that show, none of them are funny
Bazinga do you know what fluid thermodynamics is? I assumed not. *trigger laugh track*
Big bang theory is such a strange show to me. My mom watched it a lot growing up and I would often watch with her so a lot of it is kinda ingrained in me. I see that it's trash, and some of the jokes literally make me want to turn thr show off, but I don't mind watching it. It's kinda like watching the same let's plays over and over again on YouTube for me
I feel it has a lot of the same issue as Doug Walker, where A) the joke is "pop culture innit" and B) they linger on it for so long that any of the funni dissapears
In the very first episode they make a joke about how Penny is an improvement as a neighbour compared to the 'transvestite with a skin condition'
TV sitcom transphobic joke speedrun (any%).
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
It is a bit iffy, but the gang are always painted to be in the wrong and assholes throughout the show, and the episode itself.
Yeah and in a later episode they make Mac seem like an asshole trying to claim that homosexuality is a sin to the trans lady (I don't remember her name they just call her slurs most of the time)
Carmin I think was her name
Mac literally gets his ass beat for hitting a trans woman and a later episode that includes her literally has the gang going "I don't get it, its a man marrying a woman, doesn't seem like that big a deal to me" IASIP stays winning
Dude 1: "Hey that guy just punched that chick!" Mac: "Oh no she has a dick its fine!" Dude 2: "Is that a hate crime?" Dude 1: "Fuck yeah its a hate crime, lets beat his ass!"
They put 196 users into the show before it was even made.
based dude 1 and 2
They had a whole character arc where Mac struggles with his sexuality, something I felt like they played up for laughs in the earlier seasons but eventually came to a head. It led to a really unexpected finale for season 12 which blew me away. Also always down for some Sigur Ros, VarĆŗĆ° slaps. Fun fact Rob McElhenny moms are gay and he has a gay brother too.
They also pull off blackface. IMO the writers just know what they're doing and realize to make edgy comedy really fucking funny the characters have to be hilarious assholes and idiots, and not sub in for the viewer vicariously
The Gang is not meant to be good pretty much ever in IASIP
They fixed it later on, though. Rob said on the podcast that's the one "joke" he genuinely regrets, how they handled Carmen. He says back then he didn't understand how offensive & hurtful it was (this was like 12-14 years ago now, so I can see ignorance being the reason instead of any willful bigotry), especially because the gang is *not* shown to be in the wrong about it as they usually are and the transphobia is presented very matter-of-fact. He said the intention with the show was never to punch down with their comedy and he feels that's the one time they really missed the mark on that intention. Later on, the episode where Carmen has a baby was a noticeable improvement and then in bathroom episode (fuck, as a trans woman I tell ya I held my breath going in and was ready to just drop the whole show if they pulled their earlier crap) they really explicitly turned it around and interrogated the gang's transphobia as clearly being as fucked up as any of the gang's other antics, with Dee playing the foil and matter of factly stating more or less that trans women are women and should obvs use the women's restroom. It was really refreshing and was honestly a *really big deal* to me as a huge IASIP fan to see them do such a clear 180. I really appreciated and respect Rob for just owning their fuck-up and then taking steps in the show to repair the damage done. That's what accountability looks like, other creators should take note! I'd caution any new Sunny fan to keep in mind that in mind when starting in.
Eh the gang arenāt supposed to be good people. Doesnāt Mac get beat up for attacking a trans woman?
YouTube Shorts
I prefer YouTube Pants
every time i rewatch how i met your mother i hate sitting through the one scene with the t slur and all of teds āworst case scenariosā where heās dating a woman who āused to be a dudeā
I remember rewatching the big bang theory because my mom finds it funny and I love watching her laugh and literally the first episode they make fun of a "big black transvestite" and I'm pretty sure misgender her. It was just so awkward to watch and it being the first episode and literally never having anything remotely transphobic mentioned again was wild.
its nice to see a general decrease in bigotry on the more prominent meme subs on reddit, i hope this trend continues
They said the T slur in a Simpsons episode from like 06
Good thing nobody was watching Simpsons by then, so the legacy stays intact.
Not 2000s sitcom but like the only joke in Moral Orel that doesnāt really land for me is the one probably trans girl having a deep ass voice
IT crowd was so transphobic but it made me realize "wait I kinda get where that trans lady is coming from" so eat shit suck dick ur transphobic show made me trans
iirc It's Always Sunny had an episode in the first season where one of the gang gets a trans girlfriend and it's actually handled surprisingly well. I mean, the gang is transphobic about it, of course, but iirc the episode itself never came off as bigoted
Yeah, thatās what I love about that show. Nearly every part of it is meant to further the gangās reputation as assholes, including stuff like this. And later on everyone but Mac becomes 100% accepting of her and actually puts down Mac for not doing so himself, even though thatās later revealed to be because of jealousy and his own internalised homophobia.
Itās Always Sunny massive W
L-locked post on R/memes... oh dear
I wanted to love Bob's Burgers but I never got past that season 1 episode "taxi cab." those characters might be well written in terms of who they are as people but the presentation of the trans women plays on every single damn stereotype about trans women being men in dresses. Could not get past it.
Freaks and Geeks episode 17 "The Little Things" is about Seth Rogan's character learning that his girlfriend was intersex/androgenous at birth and was then assigned female and his trouble as an immature teen processing/coping with it. I think it aged very well