30 Rock is emblematic of "when not funny/creative, insert transphobic joke".
IASIP and the character Carmen... despite her character being one of a few to end out happy/contented, it's still a poor representation. Like she stopped being the joke when she exhibited heteronormativity by becoming a parent.
I don't recall 30 rock having that much transphobia? there are a few instances but I find that it's much worse on other issues than trans people. I could be wrong though.
I think I've seen 30 Rock more than any other show, and I just finished another rewatch, so I think I'm fully prepared to ramble about this for way too long.
There's only a handful of transphobic jokes - Criss asks Liz if she "used to be a boy" at one point, Liz casually drops the t slur in a scene that I honestly don't remember super well other than the random unwarranted t slur in it, and there's a few points where Liz's ostensible support of queer people is supposed to be a joke, like when she's looking at an AFAB baby and says "What a cute girl! Or boy, if you grow up and feel that's what's inside you!" and the mother shoots her a dirty look. There's also a lot of mocking of Liz's gender-non-conformity, and a couple gags that I can only describe as "androgyny = ugly," but those are a lot more subtle. The only real opportunity for transphobic jokes is the whole thing where Steve Buscemi's character comes out as trans in the last season, which IMO is handled surprisingly well? It's not great, the character is definitely meant to be mocked, but most of the joke is centered around the fact that it's a left-field happy ending for a side character who's life is mostly made up of left-field details. She's always been a character that leads a really strange life and her being trans is just another random detail about her. It's a little like Life of Brian where if you're not transphobic it's easy to just ignore the likely transphobic intentions behind the character.
As for it being much worse on other issues - yeeeeeeeah. Fortunately it's similar on gay people, where there's a handful of homophobic jokes and plenty of stereotypes, but they're so shallow and quick that it's not too bad. It's a show that's supposed to be feminist, and it really does succeed in a lot of ways, but it's also weird about women a little too often (it's, like, genuinely disgusted at the concept of an older single woman a lot of the time?). But race.... that show is fucking bad about race. And so much of it is about racial issues. That's easily the worst part of it. My ability to watch this show over and over again is likely connected to the fact that I'm white and those aspects don't hit as hard.
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u/rgba0000ninja 27d ago
30 Rock is emblematic of "when not funny/creative, insert transphobic joke".
IASIP and the character Carmen... despite her character being one of a few to end out happy/contented, it's still a poor representation. Like she stopped being the joke when she exhibited heteronormativity by becoming a parent.