The most recent issue of The Joker: The Man Who Stopped Laughing features a Silver Age-parody backup story in which the Joker, cursed by magic-wielding superhero Zatana, grows a clone of himself in his own stomach. After the Joker literally vomits up his own mini-Joker, the glowing-skull-faced Doctor Phosphorous declares "Guess you weren't pregnant after all!" Ba-dum-tisch, cue the laugh track, curtain falls. Again, this is a backup story, designed the pad out the pages of the book with a fun Silver Age satire that has no impact on the continuity of the main story (let alone the rest of the DC Universe).
Regardless, Fox & Friends decided to dedicate an entire segment (above) to having a meltdown about the "new Batman storyline" in which the "Woker" is trans — despite the fact that none of that is actually true.
(Also this is completely unrelated to the actual Trans Joker parody film that DC Comics shut down)
My friend Parker Molloy did a great job breaking down the entire Fox segment, which is uhhhh, definitely something. She even tried to reach out to some non-sensationalist right-wing journalists for commentary on both the comic book, and the news segment, and this is what she got:
I reached out to an anchor at a different right-wing media outlet that covered the story as an example of how "Hollywood loves to make everything trans." I asked what the outrage was about and received a message that explained that this particular host is a libertarian who doesn't "care a bit what anyone identifies as… or wants to dress like… or sleep with AS LONG AS THEY ARE ADULTS AND NOT PUSHING THEIR CHOICES ON CHILDREN."
I explained that the comic had nothing to do with LGBTQ people, had nothing to do with gay people, had nothing to do with trans people, and so on. Then I shared the image where Doctor Phosphorous says, "Guess you weren't pregnant after all."
I followed that up by explaining that this particular title was not even marketed to kids. It has a rating of "T+ (teen plus)," which is specifically for "readers age 15 and older" as it "may contain moderate violence, mild profanity, graphic imagery and/or suggestive themes." The other ratings are "E (everyone)," "T (teen)," and "M (mature)."
The response I got was "It's the marketing toward kids content. That's honest[ly] my only issue," which, just… [screams into the void] it's impossible to deal with these right-wingers who freak out at the mere thought that a character might (but isn't, in this case) be gay or trans.
Face, meet palm.
This Fox News Segment Perfectly Illustrates How Off-The-Rails The Right-Wing Anti-Trans Attacks Have Become [Parker Molloy / The Present Age]
