84-Year-Old Sings a Naughty Original
July 2, 2014 7:25 AM Subscribe
This post was deleted for the following reason: Sorry for the late delete, but a humor bit making fun of a trans woman is really, really not a good post for Metafilter. Sorry we didn't catch it sooner, but yeah, no. -- taz
That was really the most awesome thing ever and Howard Stern is a creep.
posted by Slarty Bartfast at 7:41 AM on July 2, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by Slarty Bartfast at 7:41 AM on July 2, 2014 [1 favorite]
hee hee, "stood before judges"
posted by Slarty Bartfast at 7:43 AM on July 2, 2014
posted by Slarty Bartfast at 7:43 AM on July 2, 2014
Never seen the show, and likely won't again, but RJ is a funny dude. I hope he keeps writing songs like this. Get the man a YouTube channel. His comedic chops are good.
posted by 724A at 7:50 AM on July 2, 2014
posted by 724A at 7:50 AM on July 2, 2014
What a sad song. Poor narrator loses a chance at love because of their own inner demons.
posted by muddgirl at 8:10 AM on July 2, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by muddgirl at 8:10 AM on July 2, 2014 [1 favorite]
I didn't quite see it that way, I thought it was a bit campy, but the general tone was respectfully humorous. He always used the right pronoun, the subject never stopped being a "girl", she just happened to have a penis, and that would have crossed his personal line relationship-wise. As an old-timer this is meant to be a funny song. In a few years, this may a standard genre of heartbreak/love songs. Yay, progress.
posted by pleem at 8:23 AM on July 2, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by pleem at 8:23 AM on July 2, 2014 [1 favorite]
and that would have crossed his personal line relationship-wise
Exactly. It's sad that the narrator's body image issues got in the way of what is described as an otherwise-great relationship. (I recognize that the tone was humorous, but I still find it quite sad underneath that.)
posted by muddgirl at 8:54 AM on July 2, 2014 [1 favorite]
Exactly. It's sad that the narrator's body image issues got in the way of what is described as an otherwise-great relationship. (I recognize that the tone was humorous, but I still find it quite sad underneath that.)
posted by muddgirl at 8:54 AM on July 2, 2014 [1 favorite]
I'm conflicted. I like that people over the age of 25 can be seen on TV but on the other hand I was really hoping that vaudeville was dead.
(Less a comment about RJ's performance and more of a comment about America's Got Talent/The X Factor/American Idol etc etc)
posted by potsmokinghippieoverlord at 9:46 AM on July 2, 2014
(Less a comment about RJ's performance and more of a comment about America's Got Talent/The X Factor/American Idol etc etc)
posted by potsmokinghippieoverlord at 9:46 AM on July 2, 2014
Jessel may be a relative newcomer to performing, but the shift apparently came after a long career behind the scenes in show business as a Broadway composer and Hollywood comedy sketch writer.
posted by drlith at 9:56 AM on July 2, 2014
posted by drlith at 9:56 AM on July 2, 2014
"Besides, hers is bigger than mine." — pushed it into comedy gold
posted by BrotherCaine at 11:32 AM on July 2, 2014
posted by BrotherCaine at 11:32 AM on July 2, 2014
This shit is never respectful and it's never funny and fuck all of this. And it's not progress.
posted by Corinth at 3:35 PM on July 2, 2014
posted by Corinth at 3:35 PM on July 2, 2014
Like, it's not sad for that white cishet dude. I'm not sad for that dude. That dude is a bigoted fuckwad. I'm sad for the woman he wrote off. I'm sad for all the trans people who are instantly written off by assholes like him. Because he can go get a beer with his asshole buds and joke about how someone beneath him thought they had a legit shot at a relationship, and she has to go back on OKCupid or wherethefuckever and slog through more abuse and writeoffs. He can go on national TV and have an auditorium full of cis people laughing uproariously about how hilarious it is that this woman is trans - cis people who all curiously just so happen to have the same asinine anti-trans "preference" as he does. She doesn't have anybody laughing with her - if she's lucky she has a friend with a shoulder to cry on about the umpteenth dude to dump her when she came out to him no matter how pretty or awesome she is. He gets cheers, she gets jeers. At least he just wrote a transmisogynist song instead of, you know, killing her.
It's a fucking Reddit comment. It's the shit you find underneath blogs. "Hers is bigger than mine" isn't comedy gold, it's a fucking Mike & Molly punchline. It's an Austin Powers joke. It's a Kenny Powers joke. It's a Tucker Max joke. It's a tired, old joke.
This isn't "a future genre of heartbreak/love songs," because trans people being goddamned trans isn't anything new and cis people being horrified by trans people also isn't anything new. This is a current genre of actual misery. I can't even tell what this prediction is other than a reference to the trans-woman-as-deceiver trope. It's certainly not progress to have an old white cishet dude up on stage making fun of a trans woman and joking about her genitals. In what world is that progress? Because in this world it's the goddamned status quo.
And gendering someone correctly doesn't automatically make you "respectful," especially if you're only gendering a trans woman correctly because saying "he has a dick" isn't as fucking laugh-out-loud funny to reality TV audience morons as "she has a dick" is.
posted by Corinth at 4:53 PM on July 2, 2014 [4 favorites]
It's a fucking Reddit comment. It's the shit you find underneath blogs. "Hers is bigger than mine" isn't comedy gold, it's a fucking Mike & Molly punchline. It's an Austin Powers joke. It's a Kenny Powers joke. It's a Tucker Max joke. It's a tired, old joke.
This isn't "a future genre of heartbreak/love songs," because trans people being goddamned trans isn't anything new and cis people being horrified by trans people also isn't anything new. This is a current genre of actual misery. I can't even tell what this prediction is other than a reference to the trans-woman-as-deceiver trope. It's certainly not progress to have an old white cishet dude up on stage making fun of a trans woman and joking about her genitals. In what world is that progress? Because in this world it's the goddamned status quo.
And gendering someone correctly doesn't automatically make you "respectful," especially if you're only gendering a trans woman correctly because saying "he has a dick" isn't as fucking laugh-out-loud funny to reality TV audience morons as "she has a dick" is.
posted by Corinth at 4:53 PM on July 2, 2014 [4 favorites]
"This video is private :(" ... YouTube won't let me see it! I'm not sure that's such a loss from the comments here, tho.
posted by Philby at 7:10 PM on July 2, 2014
posted by Philby at 7:10 PM on July 2, 2014
No problem, here's a different link to the same video.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 8:21 PM on July 2, 2014
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 8:21 PM on July 2, 2014
Or you can enjoy the actual video for the song.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 8:25 PM on July 2, 2014
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 8:25 PM on July 2, 2014
Gee, thanks. Thanks for posting a video of a guy making fun of trans women and making my trans wife cry, because we got to watch a huge audience and a bunch of celebrities laughing at the very idea that women like her exist--and even old cis straight white guys know about it! Thanks for reminding genitally-variant people like me that we are considered freaks and laughingstocks.
Gods, that was depressing.
posted by DrMew at 9:30 PM on July 2, 2014 [2 favorites]
Gods, that was depressing.
posted by DrMew at 9:30 PM on July 2, 2014 [2 favorites]
« Older "It's a privilege to want less." | Where it went wrong for African teams at the World... Newer »
This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments
I don't know where this places.
posted by fiercekitten at 7:40 AM on July 2, 2014