It bothers me less depending on how old the episode is, and the overall tone of the joke. Older “let’s put this guy in a dress for cheap laughs” type stuff is lame, but not as bad as more recent attempts to make hatred more palatable by disguising it with a thin veneer of “humor”.
One of the most egregious examples I can think of from recent media was from Kimmy Schmidt where the people that take issue with trans/enbyphobia were turned into the butt of a joke because.... they're annoying I guess?
Came out of left field in a show I thought was queer friendly but I realized later on that it tracks with the brand of feminism that Tina Fey follows. (I never watched 30 Rock and don't intend to so I had no idea she was already problematic)
No, that old stuff is just as bad. Go watch the end of Ace Ventura: Pet Detective. It was just simpler then because the writers considered that type of hate to be ubiquitous instead of needing nuance or explanation.
It's like saying older racism wasn't as bad as the more recent attempts to galvanize people into nazis. But I contend it was for the same reason above. You're seeing recent attempts at both towards being more palatable specifically because it's not as accepted now.
Huh. I just deleted an entire paragraph replying to you, but then I did some introspection. Where are you consuming media? I haven't experienced much transgenderism or similar thing recently, but my experience seems to be very curated. I don't watch TV, but I listen to radio and watch a lot of YouTube and some Netflix. I'm also following social media sites, most recently lemme, for decent conversations.
I'm curious where you're seeing "hatred more palatable by disguising it with a thin veneer"?
It's a bit of a lengthy read, but here is an article that gets into the messiness of Zoolander 2 and Deadpool. Long story short, they both attempt to be more performatively progressive with their depictions but end up perpetuating many of the same harmful stereotypes of queer individuals. They become the same low brow entertainment as before with a few tweaks to make them more acceptable. That being said, I still liked Deadpool. I think the industry is still evolving and we need to continue to let it evolve in a positive direction.