GLAAD, the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, has denounced the CBS sitcom “Mike & Molly” for what it called an “offensive scene predicated on the hateful notion that transgender people are inherently disgusting.”
The offensive scene came within the first few minutes of the February 11 episode entitled “The Princess and the Troll.” In the scene, the show’s main character Mike is talking with his police partner and best friend Carl about Carl’s checkered romantic past of picking up downtrodden women off the street:
Carl: It’s been a long time since I’ve trolled for bus pass ass.
Mike: (Laughing) Not since the shemale incident of ’08. You spent the whole night crying and gargling!
Carl: Learned a lot of lessons that night.
The use of the derogatory term “shemale” is offensive in and of itself, but Mike goes on to categorize what happened as a traumatic experience which left Carl disgusted and weeping with regret. The joke relies on the assumption that transgender people (and the thought of being with one) are revolting, and invites the audience to laugh right along. And last night that audience was 10.4 million people.
GLAAD said in met with CBS’s Vice President of Diversity and Communications to discuss the show, and that the network has committed to meeting with GLAAD staff to discuss a number of other incidents on CBS comedies and dramas in the past year that increasingly “add up to a disturbing trend.”
