CBS’s Craig Ferguson Sketch Mocks Trans “Character”
Tonight, the night after the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force and National Center for Transgender Equality released a report about the widespread prevalence of anti-transgender discrimination, The Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson on CBS presented a sketch portraying anti-trans stereotypes and playing off of them for humor at every turn.
The sketch featured Ferguson’s “half-sister” — played by a man — coming out in a skirt and female’s shirt, with an oddly painted face appearing to suggest significant facial hair. The first “gag” was her apparently showing male genitalia as she sat down — to “eww” gasps from the audience.
Ferguson continued forward, mocking at several points that his “half-sister” was sexually unappealing, saying, for example, that no one wanted her in a date auction. There also were repeated negative references to Ferguson’s “half-sister” masturbating.
Ferguson also went so far as to include a “he-she” reference at one point.
Most unfortunately, the gag kept referencing the “CBS Cares” program, which CBS describes as “PSAs featuring Talent from many CBS programs.”
The site goes on to say the PSA have included focus on “Alcohol Abuse, the Arts, Autism, Bipolar Disorder, Breast Cancer, Cervical Cancer, Child Abduction, Child Advocacy, Children’s Health, Colon Cancer, Depression, Diversity/Tolerance, Drug Abuse, Education, Epilepsy, Heart Disease, HIV/AIDS, Identity Theft, Menopause, Mentoring, Obesity, Osteoporosis, Parenting, Prostate Cancer, Schizophrenia, Suicide Prevention, Violence Prevention (including Spousal and Child Abuse) and the V-Chip.”
Accidentally on-point, the “half-sister” character said at one point, “If CBS really cared, they wouldn’t broadcast this crap every night.”
[NOTE: Metro Weekly will post the CBS video once it becomes available. Thanks, in the meantime, to Matt Cherette, for getting us the clip tonight.]
[Photo: Screen capture from early in Ferguson’s Feb. 4, 2011, monologue.]
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