In his standup special “Supernature,” comedian Ricky Gervais angered many hysterical types with the portion of his routine addressing the shifting approach to gender norms. He jokingly referred to “The old-fashioned women. You know, the one with wombs…those F-ing dinosaurs…” He then mocked the sensitivities of many by delivering a fake conversation where that old-fashioned type gal was angered over the bathroom use of trans individuals.

• “Oh! They want to use our toilets!”

• “Well, why shouldn’t they want to use your toilets?”

• “It’s for ladies!”

• They ARE ladies - look at their pronouns! What about this person isn’t a lady?”

• “Well…his penis.”

• “HER penis, you bigot!!”

• “Well, what if he rapes me?”

• (exasperated) “What if SHE rapes you – you TERF whore!”

Now depending on your perspective, this bit was either deeply offensive or uproarious and revealing (Count me in the latter camp). However, we can all agree that today this kind of humor is just not funny anymore. Not because we all are hypersensitive and find this to be inappropriate humor, but because the press has adopted what was once farcical and outlandish thinking as reasoned and intellectual positions. 

Gervais was satirizing the concept that having a penis made you a woman, but now -- less than two years since his stand-up routine – the media are literally insisting his jokes are a reality. Time Magazine has a new, lengthy piece about a dire situation that has arisen in Florida. It is centered upon, as most can guess, Ron DeSantis and his policies. Time’s writer Shefali Luthra looks at the new toughened abortion law and how it is making things more difficult in Florida.

...For pregnant men.

You read that correctly. This insane piece goes on at length about the case of a “man” whose pregnancy has come as a surprise, and there is a very short window of time for him to make his decision about whether he will keep the baby. The entire article reads like a surreal attempt at fiction that defies common sense.

He’d heard about Roe v. Wade being recently overturned but hadn’t yet learned what that meant in his home state.  When the nurse told him, it sank in how little time he had. If Jasper wanted an abortion, he had three weeks to make up his mind, raise the money, and schedule not one but two appointments. He had no idea how long he might have to wait to be seen by a doctor. All he knew was he had to move quickly.

This is the level our press has fallen to that we are expected to buy this line of reasoning. A person has become pregnant, yet we have to acknowledge they are something besides a child-bearing female. I understand that they are desiring to alter their sex, yet if we do not go along with the labeling we are effectively becoming science-deniers -- even though basic biology does not recognize their desire. This is someone looking to alter their genetic makeup, and we are told we are the one who lacks understanding even as this person could not grasp how fertilization takes place.

Time Magazine presents all of this melodrama as if it is perfectly normal, and we are expected to accept it.

This was yet another way his body didn’t fully feel like his own, and another way it felt like Florida—which had also recently passed a law outlawing gender-affirming care for people younger than 18—was attempting to deny him basic physical autonomy. In four days, he knew, he’d be confronted with the decision about whether he wanted to end his pregnancy or if he could envision life as a parent. He hardly felt prepared.

Look at this tableau another way. Much like the insistence that female sports are expected to accept the incursion of trans athletes, here we have another way women are becoming marginalized in a decidedly female realm. We have been lectured at length that the Dobbs decision was a complete assault on women and female autonomy, correct? Now we are given this insistence that Ron DeSantis and his aggressive abortion policies are being oppressive – to men.

The press is sliding further into ridiculousness. In the process, outlandish concepts are attempted to be normalized by these agenda-driven mopes. Later in his routine Ricky Gervais addressed the cancel culture and people dredging up old social media posts, done to get people canceled. An irony he points out is there is a lessened chance of that, as things considered offensive today were not even considered a decade back. 

“The worst thing you can say today,” he offered, “to get you canceled on Twitter and death threats, is ‘Women don’t have penises.’ Now, no one saw that coming. There are no 10-year-old Tweets of people saying ‘Women don’t have penises. Do you know why? We didn’t think we had to!” 

Time Magazine, and the media in general, have become jokes these days, and in so devolving they have managed to kill off humor to a degree. Wild exaggerations made for satirical effect just a couple of years back have become normalized to a degree, at least in the arena of public discourse. That should underscore the level down to which the press has fallen. Things comedians created for shock and laughs a short while ago are becoming the blueprints the press wants for our society.

These things are no longer outrageous, say the journalists, and they are no longer topics to be laughed at they try to lecture us. The response that is needed? The press should be the ones we laugh at now, as their efforts to normalize the outrageous are where humor can be found.