AT FOX, IT'S AS IF THE LAST SIXTY YEARS NEVER HAPPENED

So this happened on Fox Business today:

A segment on Fox Business’ Cavuto repeatedly mocked Caitlyn Jenner, who debuted her new identity Monday on the cover of Vanity Fair, and misidentified her with male pronouns.

Neil Cavuto introduced the segment by asking in an exaggerated voice, “What the hell is going on?!?” The reporter, Dagen Mcdowell then proceeded to incorrectly use the pronouns “him” and “his” to refer to Caitlyn seven times.

Cavuto makes a joke of wanting to end the segment quickly, “Look at the time...” He then introduces his next guest, Charles Payne, as “Charlene Payne” to uproarious laughter. Watch:

Cavuto wraps of the discussion by suggesting the Vanity Fair cover was a sign of the end of American civilization. “Rome, final days. But that’s fine,” he concludes.

I watch this and I think, "Is gender reassignment really such a foreign concept to the Fox audience? It's not as if Jenner is the first person to ever undergo this transition. This sort of thing has been taking place since Christine Jorgensen in the early 1950s."

Yes, but back then, when most Fox viewers were young, the story of Christine Jorgenson was a big joke:

"EX-G.I. BECOMES BLONDE BEAUTY: OPERATIONS TRANSFORM BRONX YOUTH." So said the front page of New York's Daily News on December 1, 1952. Modern science had reached such sophistication that Danish doctors could now turn a man into a woman! At least, that was the gist of the initial news coverage, before Jorgensen returned home to America from Denmark.

Within weeks, comedians like Jack Benny were doing "Denmark jokes" about gender-reassignment surgery.....

For the next two decades, comedians just had to mention Denmark to get a laugh. In a 1954 telecast of The Jack Benny Show ... Benny and guest Bob Hope play hunters in an African jungle. They have shot a beast that is half tiger and half leopard. "He must have gone to a veterinarian in Denmark," Benny quips. Hope ad libs, "No wonder he had his hand on his hip when I shot him." A look of shock crosses Benny's face. He loses his concentration and cracks up. Just as Benny regains his composure, Hope says, "Oh look! He has his claws manicured," and Benny loses it again.

Here's the clip, cued up to that moment:



At Fox, I guess, being transgendered is still hilarious, because at Fox it's still 1954.