Comfort shows without transphobic jokes?

fadingembers@lemmy.blahaj.zone to Transfem@lemmy.blahaj.zone – 113 points –

I've been feeling down lately and I started re-watching futurama for some good nostalgia, but it keeps making transphobic jokes which is kind of just making me feel worse. Anyone have any suggestions for comfort shows to watch?

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Bluey!

It’s cute, it’s short, and it’s great for de-stressing! I put it on almost any time I’m feeling anxious or depressed

It’s written so wonderfully, and can be fully enjoyed by adults just as well as kids

Came here to say Bluey!! My partner and I (both grown ass adults) watch it together and cry tears of joy as we let it re-parent us!! Such a wonderful show!

To tack on "kids shows that are just fine thank you very much" I really enjoy "Tinga Tinga Tales" The animation is crazy, music beautiful, the stories interesting (folk tales) and the characters fun. Great way to wind down for 20 minutes, finding out Why Frog Croaks.

Ted Lasso

Adventure time

Steven Universe

Out Flag Means Death

The Good Place

What We Do In The Shadows

To add what has already been mentioned: She-Ra and Steven Universe.

Steven, especially the first few seasons is super feel good low impact chill show.

Gravity falls is also pretty great for this.

Our flag means death - comedy about an english lord becoming a pirate, their crew and adventures. It's funny, cute and often heartfelt.

They're not fiction, but two that work for me are Great British Bake-Off and Taskmaster. The people on GBBO are so positive and helpful, it's a welcome change from American cooking competitions. Taskmaster is creative and silly, always good for a laugh.

Second the recommendation of Ted Lasso. Ted is a wonderful example of a person who doesn't understand something, knows he doesn't understand, but his heart is in the right place and he wants to learn.

Series 15 of Taskmaster featured Mae Martin, a nonbinary comedian

They were fantastic as well!

The series with Mike Wozniak should be avoided unless you're okay with passing out laughing.

The New Zealand version has a different dynamic, but I enjoy it as least as much as the OG.

Great Canadian Baking Show is similarly positive. Everyone is so nice it hurts! They often help each other finish challenges and it's a competition show :)

Bake Off is pretty much pure comfort. It's just perfect in every way.

The American version isn't bad either. It avoids the worst of reality show tropes, and it still has Paul Hollywood, so not bad at all.

Schitt's Creek and Ted Lasso are great feel good shows with inclusive themes.

I don't remember there being transphobic jokes in The Golden Girls, so maybe that?

There aren't transphobic jokes as far as I remember but it does become mentioned as a plot point a few times, that for the time was pretty good but now it would be dated.

The example that comes to mind is (relatively mild but be wary) >! an episode where Sophia tells Dorothy about a guy that she insists "used to be a girl", and Dorothy doesn't believes her. Later in the episode the guy, in fact, comes out that "I used to be a girl" to a group of people, Dorothy surprised about that. !<

EDIT: found this https://www.indiewire.com/features/general/friends-of-dorothy-was-the-golden-girls-really-as-queer-friendly-as-its-reputation-suggests-213923/

My ultimate comfort show is Star Trek: the Next Generation. If it's just me in the house and nothing good in my video queue that's what I'll turn on for noise.

My partner and I have been really enjoying Spy X Family. Its a nice little found family/comedy series with very wholesome content.

The premise is that the titular Spy has an assignment to make contact with a total shut-in who only appears in public for events at his son's school. So the Spy adopts a child from a shady orphanage and meets a woman who is willing to fake being his wife to get his child into the elite school. Of course, the child he adopted can read minds and the woman he fake married is secretly an assassin. No one but the child knows the truth about everyone and they're each so focused on hiding their own secrets they don't catch on to the others. The series isn't complete yet, but so far the major theme is them coming to genuinely value their little family as more than a convenient facade.

Its just such a cute show, and I go back and forth between cackling and tearing up at how cute they all are. The only thing I think is particularly off about the show is the assassins brother. He's a secret police officer and also incestuously obsessed with his sister. Its a weird inclusion, but he is made fun of by the narrative for his behavior and that is enough for me to still enjoy how good the rest of the show is

My partner and I were going to rewatch Futurama soon, since we wanted to watch the old ones before getting into the reboot. I'm not going to enjoy that as much as I thought I would, am I?

As for recommendations, I don't know if I would call it a comfort show since it can get really disturbing at times, but Doom Patrol is a great show, lots of fun and super queer.

There are a few episodes where being trans is almost the entire premise.

There are two different "Gender Bender" episodes where Bender is either cross dressing to act as a heel in pro wrestling, or surgically altered to become a fembot and compete in sports.

There is another episode where an alien removes the gender differences for the crew, and then changes the gender of the crew. They shoot a saucy pin-up calendar.

And then there's the Dungeons and Dragons episodes where Hermes is a hermaphrodite centaur.

Oh, and the mind swapping episode where everybody changes brains, but that's more Freaky Friday than gender swapping.

Pardon me if it's rude to ask but do you mind explaining why those episodes are transphobic? Specifically the Bender gender swaps, I don't remember the other examples you mentioned.

The wrestling one is just somewhat off kilter? It's not outright transphobic, more just kinda silly. It doesn't reference gender as an identity as much. More so gender as performance I'd say. It's a comparatively brief portion of the episode compared with the Olympics based one. The rest of the episode is pretty great tho and is all about a misogynistic asshole getting his comeuppance from a downtrodden woman who's always been told that fighting is for boy's. It's actually a great episode.

The Olympics one is self evidently transphobic. The premise is he's not actually a woman, he's doing it to beat fembots at the olympics. In the episode he undergoes hormone therapy and sex reassignment surgery... well the robot versions of those things. He is portrayed as having done this purely to win at sports. There has long been an established hate conspiracy narrative about trans women transitioning to beat women at sports. It was around back then, and this episode plays into the narrative quite a lot.

Futurama is my favorite animated show of all time. I love it with all my heart and for literally about a decade I skipped the gender bender Olympics episode every single time it came up. But I've come to appreciate some aspects of its very transphobic very misogynistic narratives. It's not something I'd sit and watch for fun, but as time as passed some small moments have stood out to me as being kinda interesting deconstructions of what gender is and the complexities of personal identity. Like when bender struggles with the idea of "detransitioning", even if it's for the wrong reasons and doesn't accurately portray any kind of transfeminine struggle in a genuine light. You can tell they sorta had half an idea what gender identity was and the ways in which trans people struggle with it. But the motives are never gender in and of itself, it's never about who bender is but always what he gets from gender performances.

Make no mistake though. It's among the worst. Not because it's the most hateful vile episode of any animated show ever, but because it's Futurama. I hold that show to a very high standard, as do a lot of people. They punched down on trans and gender diverse people there. They had no reason to do that. They played into a frankly insane amount of misogyny to make it all fit together too, in a way they hadn't done as much with other episodes. Look at Kif, look at all his episodes and the many ways his character deconstructs gender and sex in positive ways that show tolerant and informed viewpoints. It's not like they didn't know how to handle gender complex characters.

But with that one episode they just really gave a big fuck you to gender diversity, to gender diverse people, to trans women, and broadly to gender and sexual minorities as a whole. The whole thing is profoundly disappointing to me to this day. It's not enough to ruin the show for me, I love the show way too much for that. But it's embarrassingly bad and dishearteningly bigoted from a show that I expect so much more from.

Well, I still don't entirely understand what specifically about the episode makes it transphobic but I appreciate you taking the time to respond.

This is a weird grey area for me. I see it as a silly episode where bender does some reprehensible shit, sort of learns his lesson but than continues being a shitty person. I don't remember anything about the episode that makes it stand out from other episodes where he similarly exploits some facet of society (foster kids, soup kitchen, pimp are a few that come to mind). However, given my perspective it's very likely I've overlooked aspects of it and I am not trying to defend the episode just understand what I'm missing.

Again, I'm sorry if I'm being rude or this is not the place to discuss something like this. Feel free to ignore me or tell me to go away.

This is a weird grey area for me. I see it as a silly episode where bender does some reprehensible shit, sort of learns his lesson but than continues being a shitty person.

That episode really bothered me -- decades before I realized I was trans it was my least favorite episode of the entire run. It just came off as too mean spirited, and relied too heavily on the man-in-a-dress "joke".

Core egg memory unlocked, I was obsessed with the Freaky Friday remake with Lindsay Lohan And Jamie Lee Curtis and would watch it again and again wishing I could wake up and be a girl in about 7th grade.

I'm sure most guys spend this amount of time and energy on that thought hehehehe

Oh my...

Is that why I enjoyed this movie so much??

Maybe? What were your thoughts on the movie The hot chick? It was another one of those movies from that time in my life. I liked that Rachel’s kid brother would crossdress and when the parents found out, all dad had to say was “If you’re gonna wear heels, you gotta learn to walk in them”.

Also, obvious “wake up a woman “ theme aside.

I don't think I've ever seen The Hot Chick

But yeah, something about swapping bodies has always kinda fascinated me, now that I think back

I don't think I've ever seen The Hot Chick

Dear God, It's a Rob Schneider Adam Sandler flick. Sure it was during their golden years, but even their good stuff is pretty middle of the road garbage. Not that it's a bad thing, you should just know when you're gonna go dumpster diving to have a fun time.

I like shit fest movies like the Room and the weird B movie Lloyd Kaufman films like Poultry-geist from time to time, but rewatching some of those is hard.

Yeaaah, okay. I'm not gonna bother warching it then, that's not the kind of movies I'm after rn

Dogs in Space

Farscape

She-ra and the Princesses of Power

All are scifi, the top two are sillier and the bottom two are longer and get a bit serious and emotional at times.

If you haven't seen Farscape and you like scifi space opera wackiness and Jim Henson puppets, seriously give it a go. It's very comforting and fun.

Farscape is a deep cut.

Even Sillier than that is a British comedy called “Red Dwarf” and as far as I recall there is no transphobia. The closest I remember is an episode where the main character ends up in an alternate dimension with the female version of himself. They hit it off and the male main character of the series ends up pregnant, to his distress. At the time I remember it being a really interesting way to bring up gender dynamics without being too laboring, though it’s been a while, and I also haven’t seen the new seasons they apparently made after the show got cult status.

Edit to add: a Reddit thread has this to say about Red Dwarf and being trans

In series 8, Kryten is assigned to women's prison wing, just because he doesn't have a penis when he clearly resembles a male, sounds like a male and acts like a male. That's regardless of the fact that he has no chromosomes because he's an android (not even gynoid, so another good point). The show makes it out as ridiculous that the only reason why he's treated as female only because of his lack of penis.

Also, in the episode DNA, it's shown that when he's turned into human male, he's still an android on the inside because he clearly feels discomfort from certain dysphoria, where he finds appliances sexually attractive and inability to adjust to human biology lacking robotic features.

Edit to add to the edit, I forgot the ships on board computer actually does upgrade themselves to present female

Holly upgrading to female is the first trans representation my GenX child self saw in life.

Farscape is problematic as well.

Humans! Are! Superior!

I joke. But Farscape got me through more than one breakup. Very queer friendly. It didn't shy away from being fetish friendly as well. Rigel in a dominatrix suit still delights me. Described by one critic as, "One American's introduction to the Australian S&M scene."

Since most of the effects were practical, they aged far better than my other faves, DS9 and Babylon 5.

The Expanse is the best television I have ever seen and is extremely queer friendly. It's dark, but so was Farscape.

Eh I'd quite confidently say Farscape is far less problematic than any other show of it's era and a great many after it.

And humans are not superior in that universe, they once believed they were and evolved into universally hated (but really hot) hyperfascists. Bringing them down was one of the biggest eventual arcs in the show and it wasn't done by Chriton being superior, he just had wormhole weapon tech in his head that he didn't want and believed nobody should have.

Chriton is one of the most basic life forms in that part of the galaxy too, he's barely more sentient than food and it's mentioned almost once an episode. He gets by by the skin of his teeth and his only real skills are maths and making friends/pissing people off.
(I do like that he also looks like a bit of a gormless idiot too, and testament to the writing and actor as he never comes across as an entitled white boy either.)

Babylon 5 has held up better than DS9 in my opinion, like both are good but B5 is just very clearly much better. The Expanse is fantastic though I agree with you fully there.

(Btw I'm not really arguing with you about anything here, I just wanted to rant about Farscape a little as I love it dearly.)

Totally meant as tongue in cheek. Farscape could be re-released today without any changes and still be considered to be fantastic and queer friendly.

The context is Crichton covered in regurgitated white "stuff", carrying a sword two sizes too big, nerdy goggles, and a shield made of hull plating. Aeryn's expression ofz "we're fucked" makes the scene for me.

I assume that you are in the US - and I don’t know if this is available- but the BBC show ‘The Detectorists’

You can use a VPN for BBC iPlayer. All you need to provide is a postcode for which you can use any random address

Just make sure you pay your TV license at tvlicensing.co.uk, other wise the license officers might pay you a visit and charge you a fine of £400 with their “TV detector” vans. /s

the deal is that bbc stops being institutionally transphobic and racist and ill pay my tv licence again :)

Oh heavens, you do what your conviction tells you, I’m just a cheeky American that grew up with RuneScape and an endless supply of British media that wanted to be in on the joke.

One of my favorite episodes of the Young Ones was when the TV license officer comes to inspect their house and they’re trying to hide the TV.

  • Pretty Cure
  • Hakumei and Mikochi
  • Non Non Biyori
  • K-On!
  • Owl House
  • Star Trek TNG
  • Aikatsu!
  • Little Witch Academia
  • According to Jim (it's been a while, but I'm pretty sure there's no homophobic joke in it)

TNG had some pretty misogynistic and racist bits, though.

Lower Decks is a delightful show with the intelligence of TNG and the inclusiveness of Our Flag Means Death.

5 more...
5 more...

I'm sure you've already been through the usual suspects. So here's my list. Hopefully some more esoteric ones will help out.

  • Our Flag Means Death

  • Star Trek: Lower Decks

  • Los Espookys

  • Good Omens

  • Killjoys

  • Black Mirror

  • The Magicians

  • The Umbrella Academy

  • Sandman

  • The Orville

  • Farscape

  • Love, Death, and Robots

Black Mirror? That's the only show I had to stop watching for my sanity, and I like some pretty dark stuff.

What transphobic jokes are in Futurama? I can't seem to remember anything specific.

The Good Place is a great series.

Stranger Things perhaps.

Avatar Last Airbender and Legend of Korra

Bob's Burgers

Futurama had that one Episode "Bend-Her" where bender decides they suck too much to compete in the mens robo-lympics so he gets gender reassignment to crush all the fembots and get a gold medal..... If they made that full length episode, i'm sure there are plenty of one offs and side gags throughout that didn't stick out to me at the time.

I hated that episode. That type of premise felt out of date when it was released.

It was surprising to me because they had a really early episode where Leela beat up her sensei really because he was sexist so it was so weird that "Bend-her" was a choice.

I've been rewatching Futurama and honestly there is a lot of jokes even in the first season that made me uncomfortable. Mostly sight gags of horribly depicted trans femmes played for laughs. I wouldn't call it a safe show.

30 Rock is my comfort show - it's on Hulu rn. It's definitely a little dated, but is still very funny! Also Bob's Burgers is pro lgbtq+ and has over a dozen seasons, so plenty to keep on all the time! Also on Hulu

Bob's burgers is kinda nuts. The quality of the show has never dipped. I don't think they have a bad episode. In my mind it's still "the new show" but the Simpsons was already going down fast at season 10

I've heard good comments about Orange is the new black, although I've never watched it.

I just remembered The Last Of Us series came out, but I forgot to check it out.

I rewatched Sailor Moon not too long ago, and it's pretty LGBTQ+ friendly for something out of the 90s.
Whatever you do avoid the dic dub at all costs.
The VIZ dub is pretty good, but the DIC dub is garbage.
The originals can get repetitive at times.
The reboot has better pacing with a less helpless main protagonist, but some of the story bits made more sense to me in the originals.

YMMV

Holy shit. Orange is the new black is great and I like the show, but the biggest trigger warning in the world for trans femmes. There is some incredibly disturbing, and accurate depictions of trans hate crimes. :/

If you're of OG Futurama age, King of the Hill is pretty good about not being transphobic. I will always love Hank refusing to speak to Peggy's friend Caroline when she answered the phone in boy mode. No, he's looking for his wife's friend Caroline. Please don't try to confuse him with stories about who she used to be. He used to sell jeans, and only people close to him know that.

King of the Hill. Actually has a couple of drag queens and trans storylines and they're treated respectfully