GLAAD’s Latest Scalp: ABC Drops ‘Work It’
by Tim SlagleABC has relented to objections from the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation and cancelled the unbelievably bad comedy “Work It” after only two episodes.
It’s my guess that with the protests from GLAAD gearing up, ABC felt it would be hopeless to try and defend (note to Canada, you can probably take Detroit).
It also bespeaks a certain prejudice inside of GLAAD who has never said a word about Tyler Perry, Martin Lawrence or Eddie Murphy (who was once known to be quite transvestite-friendly despite his transvestite comedy). Of course, GLAAD has never been terribly courageous about confronting the black community. Political correctness forbids crossing racial lines.
This might reveal a hint as to why GLAAD felt empowered to attack “Work It.” The plot revolved around two men who are forced into women’s clothing just to get a job. Don’t they know that only women are discriminated against in the workplace (and only make three-fourths of a man’s salary)? Perhaps the writers’ ignorance of Women’s Studies 101 made GLAAD think it had been written by conservatives.
“Work It” seemed more of a rip off of “Bosom Buddies,” an equally forgettable sitcom remembered chiefly for launching the careers of Tom Hanks and the other guy, whose name I can’t remember (I think it was Andrew Ridgeley).
I don’t take issue with ABC for pulling the plug. Only half the audience from the show’s premier came back for the second episode (personally, I didn’t even make it to the first commercial). But that doesn’t mean transvestites aren’t funny; they have been a staple of comedy for generations.
I imagine that the first man in a dress routine predated Milton Berle, but that’s all the further back my ambition will let me research (Berle’s tag was the biggest thief in comedy, so I’m quite certain it wasn’t original). The memory of Uncle Miltie trying to walk in high heels, while smoking a cigar, still makes me laugh to this day.
I know that He-Shes were a very popular portion of Circus sideshows and would probably still be today if television hadn’t killed the freak show.
Some of the great movie classics were based on the gender reversal. “Some Like It Hot” saw Tony Curtis and Jack Lemon playing remarkably attractive women. Writers would often find an excuse to put Cary Grant and Bob Hope in women’s clothing, and who can forget Gilligan insisting that he’s not going to dress like a girl? (“You can’t make me, you can’t make me…”)
Probably the funniest cross-dressers were the cast of “Monty Python.” Originally excused by the performers as a means to keep the show under budget, the female characters played by the all-male troupe were some of the show’s most comical moments. It started a tradition in television that inspired other great comedies like “Kids in the Hall,” “Little Britain,” and “Portlandia” here in America. Whereas the Pythons were farcical, modern men actually seem to have mastered the art of playing convincing women. Today, Eddie Izzard packs the theaters doing straight stand-up in full drag.
For the comedy geeks, the reason why drag is funny is because putting a man in a feminine role gives the performer the ability to illustrate the difference between the sexes. It is funny to the eye, but it also allows the performer to make a comic statement about how men and women are expected to act.
Ultimately, the Transgenders of America are tired of being laughed at. They think that if we raise enough awareness, a three hundred pound woman with an Adam’s apple will stop being funny. Unfortunately, it’s just not the case.
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70 Comments
"Of course, GLAAD has never been terribly courageous about confronting the black community. Political correctness forbids crossing racial lines."
Great insight, Tim, and one I never considered before.
As for me, drag comedies are almost invariably, well, a drag. The only one I ever loved was TOOTSIE (and yes I have definitely seen SOME LIKE IT HOT — multiple times, in fact — and the reason for its enduring appeal is lost on me. But every five years or so I give it another look…)
" (note to Canada, you can probably take Detroit)."
They're drunk, not stupid.
Is Good Christian Bitches still on the air? It's not ABC, but still …
My Three Rules for Comedy are:
1. Black man and a Jew team up (the Blazing Saddles Rule)
2. Englishman in a Dress (the Monty Python Rule)
3. Hitler Jokes (The Producers rule)
Stick with that and you rarely go wrong.
Oh, and it was Peter Scolari who suffered with Tom Hanks in Bosom Buddies.
is there ANY courage in Hollywood?
To them, courage is risking satellite parking for a premiere event but STILL being fashionably late.
Other than that it is a word unknown within entertainment circles…
"Political correctness forbids crossing racial lines." – Slagle
…Except when the stakes are high – ask Clarence Thomas, Condi Rice, Allen West and Herman Cain…..
"They think that if we raise enough awareness, a three hundred pound woman with an Adam’s apple will stop being funny."
Didn't Work It demonstrate that there's nothing funny about a three hundred pound woman with an Adam's apple? Which is not to say that transvestites can't be funny, just that they aren't inherently funny in and of themselves.
With the show's poor ratings I imagine it was an easy decision by ABC to throw GLAAD a bone and cancel it.
I wonder how much it was pressure than poor ratings that got this killed. A show that performs against critics is instead 'edgy' and controversial. One that doesn't perform is forgotten and replaced in less than a month.
I've never gotten if you want to chop off your penis you must be understood, if you want to chop off your arm you need mental help. Maybe I'm not tolerant enough to ignore somebody needing psychological treatment.
" But that doesn’t mean transvestites aren’t funny; they have been a staple of comedy for generations."
This is exactly why they aren't funny. I'm guessing this is a minority opinion, but guys in drag is one of the hackiest forms of humor around. It's been done to death. The dress simply serves as a giant flashing "laugh" sign for dumb people with unkeen senses of humor.
Great point about GLAAD and the Black community. And, as memory serves me, some of the racist crap Chris Tucker got away with when it came to Jackie Chan in the Rush Hour movies they made was disgusting. Just more gutless BS from the left and their PC agenda.
Do you really think this show would've been canceled if it were funny and a hit? Heck not. The GLADD controversial would've just added to viewership.
Coffee spit
You should say "except when stakes are Right." Cause that is what it boils down to being, political.
I guess they never saw 'White Chicks' as an offense against trannies then….. I don't remember any GLAAD picket lines outside the Wayan's cribs. I also don't remember any pickets outside Cage or Mrs. Doubtfire, either. So what's up with this crap? Did GLAAD just fall off the turnip truck and decide to make udder implants out of themselves?
Kentucky Fried Movie had the opposite of Rule 1 with the trailer for "Cleopatra Schwartz"
GLAAD is no different than NOW and some of the other professional "Victims" groups. It's just that now they are not bothering to hide their political agenda hence the loss of what few shreds of credibility they ever possessed.
Just go all the way back to Shakespeare. Willy had an all male cast playing everybody. If crossdressing actors was funny enough for Taming of the Shrew, it's funniest enough for me. Twelfth Night had a guy playing a woman playing a man for comedy, so why stop now?
"it was Peter Scolari"
No, I'm fairly certain that Peter Scolari was the lesser known member of Wham!
The show wasn't funny. there are not that many comedies that we watch on TV anymore. The middle and Last man standing are the only ones we are watch. The orginal Get Smart on DVD we watch too. Thank you Buck Henry and Mel Brooks!!! (most anything by Mel Brooks is funny) young Frankinstien, Blazing Saddles, the uncut version. I loved the KKK scene in that movie. so un PC !!
Oofa!
What's sad is; I doubt Blazing Saddles could even get made today. Too many thin skins.
abc gave these guys a platform, to trash conservatives, now the eye of these phony gay advocates is on you. i do not feel sorry for abc, i hope they lost a ton of cash on this. perhaps they will think twice about giving a platform to leftist wackos. if you are a gay or homosexual person, do you really need someone to speak for you?
The "H" card (hate) will come out now
KFM and History of the World, Part I are in their own special category with respect to those rules.
Sort of the ultimate, mega-combination and transcendence of them.
Which one was in Newhart?
Is it possible that the show just stank on ice and would have been axed regardless of what GLAAD did? I ask because I have never seen it.
"Our bedrooms are our business!" the militant-homosexuals said…
I thought it was a Bosom Buddies redux.
Tootsie was a classic film. What made it funny was not so much that Dustin Hoffman was wearing women's clothing, but that the movie was well written and had great supporting actors as well. Terri Gar as the neurotic girlfriend, a deadpan role by Bill Murray as the roomate, a very fetching Jessica Lange as the romantic interest Sidney Pollack as the agent, and who could forget Charles Durning as the lovestruck dad.
I
Let's be honest. This wasn't canceled cause it was 'offensive to gays'. IT WAS OFFENSIVE TO ANYONE WITH A IQ OVER ROOM TEMP!
This was a steaming pile of crap. Only crap smells better! Not one laugh in the episode I saw. The guy who greenlit this crap next job should entail the question "do you want fries with that?"
It was that FREAKING BAD!
This.
The show looked too freaking stupid to live.
Not quite an apt comparison, as women were outright forbidden from playing female roles on stage. It was a societal convention that thankfully was abolished when the Puritans were tossed out of power. People were just stuck with boys and young women playing men. And correct me if I'm wrong, but 'Shrew' had no cross-dressing subplot.
The truth is they just made a turd of a show and no-one watched it. GLAAD actually gave it more publicity than it otherwise would have gotten.
The point was that men playing women shouldn't be a big deal. There are two types of scenarios, men playing women and men playing men playing women. Python's Pepperpots were funny because they were supposed to be women but they were so decidedly bad at it that it was classic. The first guy to play Juliet wasn't crossdressing, he was playing a woman. Now Twelfth Night was a cross dressing comedy from centuries ago. My point is GLAAD's complaints are much ado about nothing.
There' s actually a decent movie on the topic called "Stage Beauty" with Claire Danes & Billy Crudup from a few years ago.
"My point is GLAAD's complaints are much ado about nothing."
Certainly "A tale told by an idiot!"
IF YOUR CHILD THINKS THEY'RE NAPOLEON, YOU TAKE THEM TO GET HELP.
IF YOUR CHILD THINKS HE'S A GIRL G.L.A.A.D. AND THE "TRANS-SEXUAL" CULT WANT YOU TO GET HIM A DRESS & HEELS AS A LEAD-UP TO GENITAL MUTILATING SURGERY.
guys in drag is one of the hackiest forms of humor
IT'S IMMATURE COMEDY.
IT'S ALSO AN IMMATURE LIFESTYLE.
Who wanted to watch guys dressed up like sick F@gots in the first place, keep gays off tv and in the hiv wards where they belong
Did this show get a shot on ABC simply because the network thought it would be controversial?
To me, transv/transs/homosexual are all unfunny. Why would I watch any such program?
First it was about wanting to not be victims of violence and basic human rights. Then, it was AIDS, when a gay man was Patient Zero (as were most of the first victims who were too lazy/stupid to USE A CONDOM). Then it was about wanting to marry, to adopt kids, to openly serve in the Armed Forces. Now it's about gays using shows like "Glee" to make themselves heroes while openly bashing anyone who disagrees with them. Now it's about GLAAD versus Tracy Morgan and "Work It". Next, it will be about treating pedophilia and other sexual deviancies as "normal".
Actually, we can thank GLAAD for helping to sink another useless, unfunny sitcom.
TV is largely propaganda getting us ready to OWS to kick us out of our houses and give them to crack addicts, meth heads, and convicts.
Those shows about junk collectors or ice road truckers are good because it is fun to see people doing real work and business.
sicking. your bigotry knows no bounds. Don't you know that hitler killed millions of god's chosen people the jews? you claim to be a zionist yet you are a HITLER fan?
israel weeps for her lost generation…
Bad journalism. This has nothing to do with the fact that it has guys in drag. Its the fact that the show was just bad.
my brother Darryl
not to be confused with my other brother Darryl.
pre-Shakespeare…
Assuming you're not being sarcastic (I have a bit of a tin ear these days), then what better reason to make fun of him and laugh at him?
Check out some of the drag sketches in "Portlandia" or "Come Fly With Me". It's still a ripe area for humor.
no sarcasm here.
I AM OPPOSED TO ADOLF HtILER unlike "zionist" here….no real zionists think hitler is a funny subject. Millions of dead jews agree.
His promotion of hitler and his values having nothing to-do with zionism.
Liar.
You've made your loathing of Jews who stand up for themselves and their people quite clear.
Your pretense of outrage at the mockery of Hitler is just that – pretense, to cover for your true outrage of a Jew mocking the idol of anti-Semites everywhere.
hey buddy you might think it is hip to make joke about hitler but real JEWS DON'T.
You may want to give credit to his actions but WE DO NOT.
qualify your accusation of "loathing of jews….".
—–NEVER AGAIN—-
Your bigotry is disgusting.
What would an anti-Zionist jackal like you know about Jews, real or otherwise?
Absolutely nothing.
Peddle your faux outrage at your klaven, no one is interested in it here.
How am I anti zionist?
i am not the one who promotes Adolf hitler as an acceptable comic prop. Trivializing the deaths of millions of my brothers and sisters.
I am anti Holocaust cheerleaders who glorify the murder of millions of Jews.
That is people like you.
you are a troll not a chosen one.
Are you really that stupid to think people cannot check your other comments?
You are liar.
And you are certainly no Jew.
Don't waste your time BZ. This Ron Silvers is ZMB. He claims to be a black Jew. But as a Paulbot, he believes that 911 was – wink, wink – an inside job. These truther people are also Holocaust deniers. His good friend the nazi troll who posts here under thousands of different screen names, who ZMB/RonSliver always vigorously defends, is a truther and Holocaust denier (among other wretched things).
please post the specific comment your are claiming. I have identified your support of adolf hitler.
Fail.
You poor idiot liar.
We used to get a decent class of moron anti-Semite around here.
Now I'm stuck with something as pathetic as you.
That's so sad.
make sure you check ZMB's comment stream as well. That, along with Zionist 792 and Technocrat 792.
That is not me.
I hav a much more nuanced style of writing.
Though I do assert that zionism is equivalent to racism., ie zionism = white supremacy, black power, ect. I have told that to bronxzionist. I do not believe that he is a hitler fanatic that has been suggested by someone else then credited to me. I DISAVOW THOSE ASSERTIONS.
I disagree with bronxzionist on some issues but others i agree with him.
Some of his posts are really some of the best on breitbart as he clearly is highly knowledgeable about many subjects.
He plays the anti-smite card too quickly,(on me) and without good reason this diminishes his other arguments.
*nice conspiracy theory though.
clever. HanSolo et. al. posts with several screen names at once too. Just a coincidence that ZMB showed up at exactly the right time.
Nuanced style, lol. Like those posts that merely say 'Ron Paul 2012'.
But yes. agree with you, BZ is brilliant!
That's is silly.
Hitler didn't mind being hated or loathed. And he loved being feared.
But mocked? Laughed at? Made into joke?
IMHO, every laugh makes Hitler's soul writhe, in whatever Hell he's in.
Especially, if its a Jew laughing or making the joke.
You go ahead uphold whatever it is you think you're upholding. I'll go and re-watch "Der Fuerher's Face."
Launching the careers of Peter Scolari and the other guy… Who was that? The guy from Bachelor Party with Adrian Zmed and Tawny Kitaen? Hmmnm. Peter Scolari, otherwise known as Mr. Bill ("Ohhh Noooooooo!") Now that guy can ACT!
Great spin! I like it!
Bosom Buddies was stupid the first time around. What made them think this was going to work.
Ah, going for the "fling accusations of what you're doing in the hope it deflects attention away from you" strategy, jackboot?
BTW: Mocking Hitler, making him look like a doofus or silly, is not fandom. Which is why Mel Brooks uses him in his jokes so often.
Ah, going for the "fling accusations of what you're doing in the hope it deflects attention away from you" strategy, jackboot?
BTW: Mocking Hitler, making him look like a doofus or silly, is not fandom. Which is why Mel Brooks uses him in his jokes so often.
You're not fooling anyone, ye "just signed up this week pretending to be someone different" trollboi.
Are you really that stupid to think people cannot check your other comments?
He's like a small child who doesn't realize sound carries into the next room… except not as cute and adorable.
That is not me.
I hav a much more nuanced style of writing.
Oh, of course. Nuance. Right. *eyeroll*
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