Hilarious, right? Reddit certainly seems to think so. I tried to voice some objections but got quickly beaten down in a flurry of upvotes. /r//funny is not the best place to put liberal objections to anything, of course. Because free speech, etc. The children that inhabit this place are very fond of pontificating about that one. And I agree, to an extent. You have the right to behave like an ass, of course, to be as rude as you like. I have the right to think you're an ass for doing so. And sometimes a deliberately offensive joke that flies in the face of received opinion can make us re-examine our own attitudes, as well as be very funny.
This isn't that joke, though. This is yet another recycling of "Transsexuals, aren't they weird?" for big laughs. There's nothing clever or original about that. We've seen it a million times before. How about this one, for instance? (All these may be triggering, so don't watch if you think it may upset you; they certainly did me):
Because the transsexuals aren't women, d'you see? Funny, huh? Or maybe this one from usually reliable Russell Howard?
Bleh, can't even begin to comment on that one. I could go on, there are hundreds of examples. All of them with one thing in common: There is no joke.
Nothing. De nada. Go on, try and find me a joke other than "LOL Transgender". But it isn't just that these non-jokes exist, it is that there are no alternatives either.
Lots of things are funny about being trans. Hormonal emotional reactions, physical changes, changes in your perspective on the other sex, the unexpected reactions of cis people... There truly is a goldmine of comedic potential here. But of course bigoted cis comedians, that see the sexes as like alien races to each other, indeed that have comedy that is often heavily reliant on emphasising the difference between the sexes, have no either interest in mining it or understanding of it.
I saw a trans comedian recently and was thoroughly disappointed with how little she chose to speak about her experience. I can understand that, one doesn't want to have your whole life be about being trans. But if we don't, these cis idiots will. And they will get it so, so wrong.
I want to hear some proper trans jokes in circulation. Ones that start with something like "This trans woman walks into a bar". I don't mind being in a joke, I'm just sick to death of being the whole damn punchline. Anyone have a good one to start us off?
A trans woman walks into a bar. The bartender asks if she wants a cosmopolitan. She replies, "Hell no, get me a Guinness like I ordered every time I came here when you thought I was male. "
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