Trans Scenes from The Simpsons: What Do You Think?
Filed by: Alex Blaze
January 18, 2011 1:30 PM

http://www.bilerico.com/2011/01/trans_scenes_from_the_simpsons_what_do_you_think.php

A reader emailed in about this Sunday's episode of The Simpsons, where transsexual-Smithers convinces Moe to set up a gay bar, Mo's. I watched it and was surprised that The Simpsons got funny again (there were a few bad seasons there so I had stopped watching). I liked the episode, as it was the usual commentary on American life, poking fun at looks-fascism among gay men, with a whole lot of heart that keeps the ridiculousness from collapsing on its own weight.

The reader who emailed was concerned about the transsexual scenes. I'm trying to discern what they're supposed to mean, other than "Whoever wrote this episode doesn't know the difference between 'transsexual' and 'drag queen.'" There seems to be an implication that they're trying to fool people, that they're not really women, or something vaguely off.

Offensive but still nowhere near as terrible as Family Guy. If the sign said "drag queens for change" instead of "transsexuals for change" I wouldn't have an issue because the characters seem to be drag queens.

I actually see this as more offensive than the Family Guy portrayal...

Quote from: Miniar on January 19, 2011, 06:48:20 PM
I actually see this as more offensive than the Family Guy portrayal...

Although the Family Guy portrayal is a lot less stereotypical, it's the way that the other characters reacted to Ida that makes it more offensive. But then again I haven't seen the entire Simpsons episode so I can't really make a full comparison.

Quote from: Seven on January 19, 2011, 06:57:40 PM
I don't like the "doctor already did" part; before that it could've just been a bunch of crossdressers and/or TV fetishists.

I haven't seen the episode so I'm not aware of the context, but lumping the transsexual and gay protestors in with the furries has the potential to be extremely irritating.

Totally agree; same with the sign that says "Transsexuals for Change". 

I watched it and was surprised that The Simpsons got funny again (there were a few bad seasons there so I had stopped watching).

Those years when the Simpsons were not funny, they were not offensive either.


Comedy is always at someone expense.

Neither is anywhere near as offensive as South Park's Transpecies episode that paralleled the plot of one character seeking surgical reassignment to the plot of another character seeking surgery to become a dolphin, with the "moral" of the episode being that surgery can't make you into something you're not.

I'd have to see more than 21 seconds to know if it's offensive.

Yeah, and I'm sure that the writers of South Park feel real bad about insulting transpeople, pot smokers, hippies, civil war reenactors, Michale Jackson, coffee shops, Hilary Clinton, Oprah, Mel Gibson, people in SF, veterans, parents, other kids, Kentucky Fried Chicken, police, teachers, gays, people with Tourette syndrome, people in wheel chairs, Christian rock bands - do I need to go on?

Quote from: glendagladwitch on January 20, 2011, 10:33:37 PM
Neither is anywhere near as offensive as South Park's Transpecies episode that paralleled the plot of one character seeking surgical reassignment to the plot of another character seeking surgery to become a dolphin, with the "moral" of the episode being that surgery can't make you into something you're not.

Observation: the "transspecies" trope is rooted in the "men and women are different" ecological fallacy of sexism because the implication is that men and women are so different, that transitioning from one to the other is equivalent to "transitioning" into a whole different species.

Quote from: tekla on January 20, 2011, 10:25:39 PM
I watched it and was surprised that The Simpsons got funny again (there were a few bad seasons there so I had stopped watching).

Those years when the Simpsons were not funny, they were not offensive either.


Comedy is always at someone expense.

It doesn't have to be. It's very possible for something to be funny without upholding some form of kyriarchial oppression.

OK, tell me a joke (it has to be funny) that is not at someone's expense.  In a normal stand-up routine it frequently is at the expense of the guy on stage, which is why so few people can tell a joke half-way decently, and even fewer can be good stand-up comdians (perhaps THE hardest job in show biz).  But if The Simpsons, Family Guy, South Park, or the Golden Globe writers are not having fun at someone's expense, they are not earning their money.

Quote from: tekla on January 20, 2011, 11:30:52 PM
But if The Simpsons, Family Guy, South Park, or the Golden Globe writers are not having fun at someone's expense, they are not earning their money.

And none of the money they are getting is mine, thankfully.

That good Vexing, because The Simpsons, Family Guy and South Park were only one viewer away from becoming huge hits like The Simpsons, Family Guy and South Park.

And, by the way, these shows are way tame compared to stuff like Squidbillies.  And god forbid you should ever watch re-runs of The Dave Chappelle show.

Some favorite Squidbillies quotes:

Nothing binds a father and a son more closely than the truth behind the decapitated hooker in the rec room.

She was my dream, my muse. A vision suitable for the wide-screen format. I can still taste her fist against my face. The sweet sugary sweat from a lifetime of diabetes. A heartbeat you could hear from six blocks away. One big pump every hour.

Erupt into a Bev-Rage this summer with "Glug"! That's the slogan. We'll add the word "Dawg" for the blacks. They like that word, like they're friends with the product.

Early's tenure as CEO of Dan Halen International had not been long, but it had been distinguished... By drunkenness, hair-trigger violence, and a total lack of performance. I would call it a steady decline in performance, but that would imply that he performed at one point in time. In fact he had not. He was drunk.

And if you really want to be offended, like to the max, try this.

Quote from: tekla on January 21, 2011, 12:38:02 AM
That good Vexing, because The Simpsons, Family Guy and South Park were only one viewer away from becoming huge hits like The Simpsons, Family Guy and South Park.

I don't think you get the clearly illustrated point:
I don't give a ->-bleeped-<- whether or not they're huge hits, my prerogative is making sure none of my money goes their way, because I like my money being spent on thing that I like and support - and that none of my time is wasted watching such utter drivel.
All clear?

Well it's a good thing then that the entertainment industry in the USA is so backward, or else people all over the world would be watching it.

 

Can you two just can it.  Why are you just baiting each other on open threads? Why not exchange pm and bait each other at leisure?
Any more and the thread will be locked etc.

Cindy James
Global Moderator

Quote from: CindyJames on January 21, 2011, 01:45:21 AM
Can you two just can it.  Why are you just baiting each other on open threads? Why not exchange pm and bait each other at leisure?
Any more and the thread will be locked etc.

If my intention was to bait Tekla, then I would not hesitate in following your advice.

Because freedom of speech is the most basic and important freedom we have left in the electronic age.

It may well be the ONLY freedom we have left, and, at that, it's pretty much confined to comedy anymore.  To censor comedy, is to censor life itself, particularly when that censorship comes from people who don't even understand what's going on when comedy goes down.

Now...

It's kinda beyond awesome that I lost a reputation point for posting Dave Chappelle.  I have not laughed that hard in years.  Some people just don't get humor do they?  (I'll explain that at the end).

In the US, Dave is not considered 'a good black comic' he's ranked up there with Richard Pryor, the Smothers Brothers, Dick Gregory, Mort Saul, Rowan and Martin, and Lenny Bruce as people (who like Lady Gaga) are/were trading art for politics and used their art to make a statement.  Like Stewart and Colbert do.  (Which by the way is what The Simpsons, Family Guy and South Park do too.  Look up 'satire' in your on-line dictionary).

Now, tomorrow I'm going to hang stuff in the Cow Palace with my rigging buddy.  We've been working for over a decade now together as a team.  I trust my life (really, I'm 55 feet in the air, sitting on an I-Beam, or he is) to him, as he does to me.  And I'm going to tell him about this.  I'll have to do it a good 15 minutes before I start because that is how long it's going to take him to stop laughing and stand back up again.  Oh yeah, he's AA, and I'm a honky, at work they call us 'salt 'n pepper' - as in 'Get Salt and Pepper to do that' because flat out, we're the best riggers ever.  But he will love it.

Now, the deal with those shows is that pretty much, and I think because of people like the most puritan among us, those that are really what the jokes are really about (I'll explain that at the end) for the most part, the ONLY way to criticize 'the system' is through comedy, cartoons in particular.  There is no real political commentary left on TV outside of cartoons and Stewart and Colbert, and that's exactly what this is, political commentary as curve ball.

So, here is the real joke in the Clayton Bixby sketch, are you ready?  The only people who find that racist, are....

Because the only people (in the USA) who would find that offensive are the white, trailer trash, white supremists, KKK members - because that's who it's making fun of.  Not black folk.

Quote from: tekla on January 21, 2011, 01:03:37 AM
Well it's a good thing then that the entertainment industry in the USA is so backward, or else people all over the world would be watching it.

Actually my view, and the point of view of many is that people all over the world are watching it not because it is particularly good, because arguably it isn't, but because many people are actually pretty base in their tastes in entertainment. Many people like smoking, that doesn't mean cigarettes are necessarily a "healthy" product.

Much American TV is like a "dark side" to the human need for entertainment, kind of the entertainment equivalent of eating junk food, which you know may one day kill you, but which still has a strangely addictive quality.

Bottom line is its a free world, and in a world where people DO some of the daft things they actually do, we really shouldn't be surprised that a substantial part of the human population has, what I would consider as somewhat questionable viewing tastes.

Personally I prefer stuff which is more intellectual but each to their own. Perhaps 95% of American TV simply leaves me stone cold and utterly bored, so I am clearly not part of the target audience. I take the point that Tekla makes about some of it being satire. Which of course is why the jokes don't play so well outside the USA.

Anyway building on what Cindy said, by all means lets debate this, but let's try to put our points across in a reasonable and constructive way rather than just letting it become an "offend fest". Thanks.