Late Night Transphobia

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Chelsea Handler, host of Chelsea Lately and definitely no stranger to controversy, mocked Chaz Bono, who appears on this season of Dancing With the Stars, referring to him as "Chastity Bono before she got her penis." (Which in addition to transphobic is just wrong. According to Chaz's book, he hasn't had bottom surgery.) GLAAD is rightfully pissed off.

Jezebel reported this yesterday, condensing it to a single sound bite which was bad enough, but here's the full exchange on her show via GLAAD's blog :

(TW for transphobic language) 

Chelsea Handler: The Dancing with the Stars cast has been announced and, this is season 13, it includes Chaz Bono, otherwise known as Chastity Bono [laughs] before she got her penis [laughs]…. 

Out comedian Fortune Feimster soon said that she was personally most looking forward to watching Bono on the program, saying: 

Fortune Feimster: I’m, I’m like you, I’m excited about Chaz Bono. Cause I used to watch the show… 

CH: I wonder why. [laughs] 

FF: It’s like reality gold, he’s like four reality shows in one, like who doesn’t love that? This was immediately followed by jokes from comedians Bill Bellamy and Jo Koy, who has previously apologized for using anti-gay language: 

BB: I mean who do you vote off? Him or her? I don’t know which one you want to do. [laughs] 

JK: Does, does he/she have both parts? Like, like he’s like ‘I don’t want to use my penis, let’s use the vagina tonight.’ Like [laughs] I don’t know.

The Jezebel post spawned an interesting (and lengthy) sub-thread raising the question, should anything be off-limits for comedians? While I find stand-up comics like Sarah Silverman and Lisa Lampanelli equally problematic, the comparison isn't really applicable here. For one thing, their brand of off-color humor inevitably pokes fun at those who believe racist or homophobic tropes. Handler is a talk show host, and not one creating a character a la Stephen Colbert, so it's generally assumed she believes what she says.