I hope Colbert has gotten better but both him and Stewart had a long sordid history of using transwomen’s mere existence as a punchline.
I stopped watching Colbert before The Colbert Report went off the air, for reasons like this. I also stopped watching The Daily Show around the same time. I never followed him on network television, so genuinely don’t know if he’s any better or more fucking importantly if he ever apologized. To my knowledge, I’ve never heard of Stewart or Colbert making a long-winded apology to the trans community for using them as the butt of their jokes for an incessant amount of time on the Daily Show.
here, via archive.org is Tumblr’s “Your Moment of Hate” which was dedicated to documenting the jokes in which being transgender was a common punchline on the Daily Show.
The author of the blog had this to say in a post titled “Why Stephen Colbert’s Transphobic Jokes Are Not Satirizing Transphobia”:
In each grouping above, one of the jokes is from Jon Stewart and one is from Stephen Colbert. Yet, despite the fact that Jon Stewart is a liberal comedian, they are almost indistinguishable from each other.
That’s the thing, jokes mocking and dehumanizing trans people are a liberal problem. Liberal comedians and comedy shows do it constantly. Nearly all of them. It’s borderline harassment.
Colbert isn’t using these jokes to mock conservatives’ transphobia, he’s just using time-tested trans jokes (ones often used by other liberal comedians) for easy laughs. And because liberals (as well as conservatives) find the idea of a trans person to be the most hilarious/disgusting thing ever, these jokes fucking kill.
Purists have destroyed progressives chances in America. Protesting anyone not 100% aligned with your idealogy has led us to destruction by a group of lemmings that solely align on group think.
Colbert and Stewart have done this country a massive service over the years. We could only hope Stewart would run for president at this point. Meanwhile you’ll blacklist comedians for daring to use jokes.
“It’s just a joke!” has been the defense for people like Andrew Dice Clay and other conservative comedians who think because you tried to make an othered group the punchline it makes it okay.
“It’s just a joke! Why can’t those jews take anything seriously?”
“It’s just a joke! I don’t see why they get all uppity! It’s just a word.”
Sorry you’re getting down voted for giving citations on someone being an asshole when the hivemind loves them. If someone documented a Republican doing these they’d upvote you.
I’m not even sure what a purity test is anymore… I’ve only seen it in defense of transphobia. I have no power over Colbert’s choice of jokes. I can only criticize bigotry where I see it.
I’ve had tough conversations about transphobia with other trans people, supportive family members, friends… literal, personal, allies and I’m sill critical of them sometimes. Why the fuck should I give Colbert, with a huge megaphone and audience, a free pass?
They just want a safe punching bag to mock as they claim a moral high ground, even though they agree that trans people are “crazy” like Republicans do.
I hope Colbert has gotten better but both him and Stewart had a long sordid history of using transwomen’s mere existence as a punchline.
I stopped watching Colbert before The Colbert Report went off the air, for reasons like this. I also stopped watching The Daily Show around the same time. I never followed him on network television, so genuinely don’t know if he’s any better or more fucking importantly if he ever apologized. To my knowledge, I’ve never heard of Stewart or Colbert making a long-winded apology to the trans community for using them as the butt of their jokes for an incessant amount of time on the Daily Show.
here, via archive.org is Tumblr’s “Your Moment of Hate” which was dedicated to documenting the jokes in which being transgender was a common punchline on the Daily Show.
https://web.archive.org/web/20150215064620/http://yourmomentofhate.tumblr.com/tagged/The-daily-show
The author of the blog had this to say in a post titled “Why Stephen Colbert’s Transphobic Jokes Are Not Satirizing Transphobia”:
Yes let’s parse comedy to remove all context and delivery.
Stfu.
Purists have destroyed progressives chances in America. Protesting anyone not 100% aligned with your idealogy has led us to destruction by a group of lemmings that solely align on group think.
Colbert and Stewart have done this country a massive service over the years. We could only hope Stewart would run for president at this point. Meanwhile you’ll blacklist comedians for daring to use jokes.
“It’s just a joke!” has been the defense for people like Andrew Dice Clay and other conservative comedians who think because you tried to make an othered group the punchline it makes it okay.
“It’s just a joke! Why can’t those jews take anything seriously?”
“It’s just a joke! I don’t see why they get all uppity! It’s just a word.”
Sorry you’re getting down voted for giving citations on someone being an asshole when the hivemind loves them. If someone documented a Republican doing these they’d upvote you.
The best thing about liberals is the purity tests.
It’s not a purity test to not want people punching down on marginalized people.
I’m not even sure what a purity test is anymore… I’ve only seen it in defense of transphobia. I have no power over Colbert’s choice of jokes. I can only criticize bigotry where I see it.
I’ve had tough conversations about transphobia with other trans people, supportive family members, friends… literal, personal, allies and I’m sill critical of them sometimes. Why the fuck should I give Colbert, with a huge megaphone and audience, a free pass?
They just want a safe punching bag to mock as they claim a moral high ground, even though they agree that trans people are “crazy” like Republicans do.