Newsflash: Tim Minchin's Transphobic and Bears Stop Shitting in the Woods!

I am a huge fan of stand-up comedy. I’ve been to 9 live gigs since 2008, my bedroom walls are covered in posters, my bookshelf is full of comedy DVDs and anyone who knows me will tell you that I am obsessed with stand-up and I bring it into all conversations. I quote comedians when making an argument and last year I even used a couple of comedians as part of my revision for an exam (I got an ‘A’ so it works!). One of my favourite comedians is Tim Minchin – not heard of him? Google is sexy ass right now! He’s an articulate, intelligent, direct and hilarious comedian who tackles subjects like religion and prejudice with his material. So, to people who know me it is clear why I love Tim Minchin and his work – I love comedy + I dislike ignorance and stupidity = Tim Minchin.

So, imagine my surprise when I logon to Twitter, for the first time in a few weeks, and my timeline is full of Tim Minchin defending himself against accusations of Transphobia. Tell you something, I was more than surprised. I was confused, annoyed, astonished but above all else I was amused. The mere idea of him being accused of such a thing was so incomprehensible to me that I had to go and find out what was going on. The further into it I looked, the more entertained I became.

This whole thing started with one mild-mannered person tweeting Tim Minchin about his use of the word “tranny” on TV:

“Hey, @timminchin - I love your work, but please lay off the "tr*nny" jokes. Some of us find that really offensive.”

His reply to this:

@auntysarah Ugh, serious? Are you talking about 8/10 cats? I can't remember what I said, but don't remember it being really offensive.

To me, that comment is fair enough. Programmes are filmed at least a few days before they are broadcast so it’s perfectly reasonable that he would not remember everything he had said. He’s also very busy: he’s still on tour and “Matilda the Musical” – which he wrote the music and lyrics for – opened yesterday (25/10/2011) so busy, busy man, try remembering everything you said on a TV show with all that going on. So far, nothing nasty just two reasonable comments from two reasonable people, then things start to get a bit darker.

TransMediaWatch then joined in the conversation with a comment that was both understandable but slightly bitchy at the same time:

“@timminchin @auntysarah with all due respect Tim, it's usually the people who are offended who get to decide what's rude.”

I totally agree but when discussing these things with a person who is in the public eye it is a good idea to research their work before commenting (a hashtag used by Tim Minchin later on just proves this point).

Tim Minchin replies:

“@TransMediaWatch @auntysarah I had no idea that "tranny" was derogatory. Good to know.”

He admits he didn’t know something, you’ve educated him. Yay! It’s all over...oh wait, apparently not. TransMediaWatch:

“@timminchin @auntysarah gotta ask you though Tim, would you *really* ever introduce someone in polite company as a "tranny"?”

Like the figurative dog with it’s bone. He’s owned up to his previous ignorance and you keep digging (obviously having still done no research into his material)?! Actually, what idiot with a Trans. friend would introduce them as a “tranny”? If the friend is a Trans-man then you introduce them the same as you do any other man, you just go “and this is my mate Dave” not “this is my mate Dave-the tranny” everyone (with Trans friends/relatives/what ever) knows that! It’s common sense! 

Tim Minchin responds:

“@TransMediaWatch @auntysarahI have drag friends who use it, so only know the word as equivalent to "queen", unrelated to transgender.”

So, now we’ve had a decent explanation for his mistake. It is now painfully clear that he did not intend to offend anyone. Is it over now? Like fuck it is! The person in control of TransMediaWatch at this time was feeling bitchy or had a bad day or something because he/she/they didn’t show any sign of acknowledging the fact that Tim Minchin wasn’t aiming to offend anyone and he didn’t like the fact that they were offended.

“@timminchin @auntysarah we have black friends who are happy using "nigger". What's your point Tim?”

Dude! (Shall point out I call everyone ‘dude’. Whether they be male, female, intersexed or my neutered cat everyone is ‘dude’ in my eyes at some point). As I was saying – Dude! Calm the fuck down! No need to start a fight. We’re all friends here! We’ve established the fact that he did not know that “tranny” was offensive so leave it now and embrace the amazing ally we have in this eloquent specimen of Natural Selection.

So, then some other dick pipes up saying that this has made him question whether to watch any future shows etc. that Tim Minchin does. Hey dumbass! You’ve obviously never watched his stuff before because if you had then you’d know where he stands when it comes to LGBT discrimination and you’d know he’s disgusted by it! Either that or you just don’t understand these things.

Anyway up until this point I had been amused by the idea of Tim Minchin (also known as ‘the man who restored my faith in heterosexuals’) being Transphobic, but TransMediaWatch then said something which did actually slightly annoy me:

“@timminchin why the reluctance for a quick: "Sorry, I had no idea that term would offend people, but now I do"”

Dude! (again, I use it as a unisex term, if the Queen turned up at my door and said something disturbing I’d say “Dude...”) Really? You’re going to needlessly continue this? Okay. This comment did annoy me purely on the basis of “you could be getting on with some real ‘shoot the Transphobe down’ work, but instead you’re wasting your time having a go at a guy who has already said he didn’t know it was offensive. Not only that, but because you keep going on about it some of his fans are going “oh, I don’t like him now because he’s going to keep using that word” – fucking idiots! Although, part of me does think ‘if you’re not smart enough to understand him then piss off’. 

Tim Minchin’s response:

“@TransMediaWatch @auntysarahYour appeal to mr to apologise is childish and simplistic. I'm trying to learn. You ever seen my shows?”

Notice the use of the words “trying to learn” that should explain everything now can we leave it alone? No! Keep digging! Why the fuck not! (By the way, I’m back to laughing at it by this point and if you want to read the tweets then go onto Twitter and see for yourself the rest of the stuff). 

This goes on for a while and by the end of it TransMediaWatch has a bunch of new followers and is looking up Tim Minchin material and Tim Minchin is making jokes about it:

“I used the word "tranny" on 8/10 cats. Found out today that to the trans folk it's an abusive term. I didn't know that. #onlyaginger” – his fans will get it, non-fans click here.

“2 clarifiers b4 bed. 1. A word is as offensive as those who have been victimised by it tell us it is. That's why I won't use the term again.
2. Left to my own devices I may well have said "sorry" for hurt caused or damage done. But I fucking hate being told what to do by gays.” – TransMediaWatch retweeted this and sent him a “J”.

This whole thing made me laugh in a weird way. I was amused by the sight of a group (who tackle ignorance) starting an argument with someone they know nothing about – oh the irony. I was entertained by the concept of Tim Minchin being discriminatory towards the LGBT community due to his songs/poems defending us (e.g. Mitsubishi Colt, 5 Poofs and 2 Pianos, Cont. and many more) and stories of his including one – which is a personal favourite – involving his daughter putting a coin in her mouth and then he tells her what her mouth is for and what it will be for (if you have no idea what I’m on about then click here if you know exactly what I’m on about *high5*).

The other thing that got me about this whole thing is the fact that I love TransMediaWatch and I think the work they do it great but I also like seeing them being wrong about someone because it just shows you that while education is still heavily required, people aren’t always as bad as the media would have you think. Yes, a lot of people are prejudiced and ignorant but other people are our friends, family, loved ones, idols, mild-obsessions...awkward...who just don’t know when something is offensive to some people because they don’t know anyone who is offended by it. In a kind of round-a-bout way I like that this happened because it just shows you that people can surprise you and first impressions are nothing to go by.

Even though I wasn’t the one being proved wrong about someone, this time, it did remind me to ignore first impressions of people, in general because it could turn out that “the bitch” you run away from after meeting her for the first time is actually the best friend you would ever have.