GenderLife Forum: The Information Exchange

After you've transitioned to having a sense of humour by all means feel free to tell me I don't understand what's happening on a TV comedy sketch.

By that logic any cis male who 'studies' trans people in an academic environment is better qualified to talk about us than any non academic trans person. Its like saying that you understand womens issues cos you've studied sewing.

Sorry, I'm not buying your privilege.

I ran a moderately popular webcomic for roughly 3 years, so I'm quite qualified to play the comedy/humour card.
So get fucked

THIS

Okay, take a deep breath. Damn, 15 years already? I didn't find the joke funny. I found it in bad taste. I also felt that the best course of action is to just let this die. Why?

People are prejudiced. Like I said in another part of the forum, 40 years ago they were still telling Polish and Italian jokes on the Tonight Show. 70 years ago you were hearing jokes about blacks and Jews. You don't hear them anymore. That wasn't that long ago, but may appear to be to some who didn't live to see and hear them.

That "Crying Game" play off on Letterman was just tired and old. It shows he's run out of material a very long time ago.

Soon his generation and mine will be off the air, and these kinds of jokes will also be gone. But watch Letterman? I've got better things to do with my time.

In the meantime, let's support Amanda in being successful on her new job. All I can say is that it's about time. Even if this is all the "change" we're going to see in the next four years it was worth it.

Yes, I largely agree with you.

But I won't sit there and let the next gend\eration of comedians apologize for him - he fucked up - even if someone else wrote the script, he still fucked up running it - and someone needs to let him and the next generation of comedians know this - Nigger jokes, wog jokes, fag jokes, and a variety of other jokes aren't appropriate for mainstream television - neither are tranny jokes.

I daresay he's got the memo already, but it does pay to be blunt to the apologists.

Sorry if this hurts peoples feelings, but I'd like people to be treated as human beings.

[Spot the unintentional, but horribly appropriate typo. My backspace key on this KB is character sized.]

If no one speaks up, they won't realise that it is wrong and they'll keep telling tranny jokes.
Pretty simple.

Staying silent is tantamount to okaying the jokes.

I did send them something when this came out.

"RE: Amanda Simpson transgender joke

Hey Dave, did you know you can be funny without making an oppressed minority group the butt of a joke?"

But that's all. He's not going to apologize on TV or anything for it. All the network beancounters are looking at is whether advertising goes up or down because of it.

Exactly. Sending messages like "not to joke with transsexuals" or to "apologize for the harm done to an already persecuted group" is the wrong way to go about it, IMO.

It will make the next jokes even more cruel, or will make the media eventually ignore us altogether (which may be a blessing... or a curse, depending).

Just making those guys notice that humour doesn't always have to be rude, infantile and demeaning does the job, I think.

PS: Still, there is a lot of very race-related or gay-related humour out there, mostly to make the point that racists and homophobes are morons. South Park, American Dad and Family Guy are chock-full of those jokes. Like a quartet singing to a guy in the hospital that he "got the AIDS... not just HIV but full-blown AIDS" or Cartman telling token that he must be good at playing bass because he is Black (and he, who had never played bass before, is good at the first try).

I'm not quite sure Letterman's intentions were that different. What was funny was not Amanda, but the over-reaction of the announcer. I felt like the point of the joke was making people laugh at the transphobia of the guy, but I may be wrong.

If you want to see the depths of horror and depravity, read what Pat Robertson has said about Haiti having done a "pact with the devil" to become independent from the French.

He's repeating an old hateful tale (a version of the Mark of Cain myth), and using it to discourage people from trying to help millions of fellow human beings.

Now, THAT is hate. THAT is evil. Not some announcer playing regressive moron.