Hitting theaters in February 2016, Zoolander 2 has been long awaited by fans of the goofy original — but its new trailer isn’t sitting well with a lot of folks.
The film features an androgynous character played by Benedict Cumberbatch. In the trailer, he’s asked by Zoolander (Ben Stiller) and Hansel (Owen Wilson” if he’s “a male or female model” and is asked whether he has “a hot dog or a bun.”
Cumberbatch’s character then lets out a giggle and says “Whoops.”
A petition is asking for the film to be boycotted — and not for appearing markedly unfunny. For being transphobic.
How about we take this to the next level?
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The petition states:
“Cumberbatch’s character is clearly portrayed as an over-the-top, cartoonish mockery of androgyne/trans/non-binary individuals. This is the modern equivalent of using blackface to represent a minority.
“If the producers and screenwriters of Zoolander wanted to provide social commentary on the presence of trans/androgyne individuals in the fashion industry, they could have approached models like Andreja Pejic to be in the film. By hiring a cis actor to play a non-binary individual in a clearly negative way, they film endorses harmful and dangerous perceptions of the queer community at large.”
Check it out yourself below and leave a comment telling us your opinion.
H/t: LGBTQ Nation
Jennifer Mercury
It sounds pretty mild to me. Not like American Dad or Ace Ventura. I’ll probably still see this movie, unless there is worse than what is described in the article.
Cam
Well, when you say “Some people are calling for”
It’s actually one person on Twitter Sarah Rose who has about 500 followers and says they are an activist.
aliengod
How ridiculous! They can find something to be offended about with everything.
Daniel Schlageter
Maybe some people should watch the fucking movie first.
Creig Stearne
Some people are uptight dick heads who need to get a life.
Brandon Humphries
It’s the hotdog comment that is the worst. It is a transphobic joke. I just don’t see how it isn’t, but what gets me is that it is so dated. Jokes like that were spent 15 years ago. The rest of the movie remains to be seen. They could have had a gender fluid character and it not be insulting , even played by a via person but it doesn’t look promising.
Christopher Shawn Marshall
I’m all for trans rights and have trans friends but goddamnit, just watch the fucking movie as a movie and stop reading so much into it…it’s a fucking movie…I’m sure the writers never sat down and thought “how can we make this seem transphobic”….even as a gay guy I’m getting tired of this overreaction at every turn…ridiculous
Xzamilio
Tina Fey said it perfectly: Getting in trouble with the internet is not real.
And “blackface”? It’s getting really damn old that when someone gets offended by something, the two biggest go-tos are either a Hitler reference of blackface. Bitch, this ain’t even close to that. Besides, the main ones who love making racial juxtapositions with their own butthurt-ness are the same ones that don’t even pay attention to minorities. I’m not insensitive… or maybe I am. Either way, real shit happening has made me indifferent to this first world nonsense, and trans or not, it is first world nonsense.
robho3
Ok first issue—- why would anybody make a sequel to that movie in the first palce.
Second issues– sick of all these trans people saying people are transphobic blah blah blah— lighten up – get a sense of humor——another thing—-YOU GOT SHE MAIL!!!!!
Carl Szulczynski
Is that Caitlyn in the pic without make up?
Themaaster1
Seriously you can’t say something or do something now days with out being told its wrong just get over it its a joke for a movie
Alistair Wiseman
I believe this “transphobic” petition is reason number 3,427 of why they don’t like us.
Derek Perron
Ugh – fear and comedy are too different things.
Sand Nierenberg
Scarey
Chris Sledge
ð???
Dwayne420
I’ve actually heard many trans friends over the past 25 years use the exact “hot dog or bun” line. Hmmm…maybe they should have just recorded joking conversations between trans people and used those lines…then there would actually be an issue with this movie to discuss. It’s a comedy and not directed at or intended to insult trans people.
Try putting that energy and concern into addressing real issues facing trans people like being homeless, being able to find employment, depression, suicide, medical assistance…
DerekR
@Alistair Wiseman: Who is they? And why are so worried about pleasing them?
Vanessa Forbes
I’ll watch the movie first. I’m not going to base my opinion on an heavy edited trailer.
Cagnazzo82
Stop giving that ‘some person’ the attention he/she doesn’t deserve.
Enough is enough with this faux outrage nonsense.
Glücklich
I’m Benedict-Cumberbatch-as-creepy-androgynous-character-phobic. Yikes! That browless face and that hair are nightmare-inducing.
Jessie Diaz
Zoolander 2. watsh it or not. DAMN
Stache
While we’re at it shouldn’t male models be outraged at their portrayal too?
David Wickham
FFS
rickperryisgay
Oh i might just see it twice. It looks fucking hilarious. That joke was the best part and made me actually laugh out loud.
TO
If anyone should be offended or flattered, it is fashion designer Rick Owens. The character is clearly very influenced by Rick and many of his androgynous male models with no eyebrows that he has been sending down the runway for years and years. He loves himself a shaved eyebrow with a no make up face! And, it also kind of looks like him as well. Congrats Rick, you made it again!
Alistair Wiseman
@DerekR:
Apparently, you are not familiar with my posts. I am not part of the gay left approval seekers.
David A. Peña
Oh geez. Can’t a movie just come out, and for once, there not be some sort of media fueled frenzy to rile up the ultra sensitive?!
Masc Pride
Wow, t r a n n i e s sure do love their movie boycotts.
Aromaeus
I’m gonna go out on a limb and side with those who know more about trans issues and agree the line and the character are transphobic. The comparison to black face rubs me wrong as a black man but when I really think about it, it’s the best comparison that fits. I will never understand this mentality that there is no such thing as a line when it comes to comedy. Trans people are literally being murdered. A non-discrimination ordinance got repealed because bigots were able to successfully fool people into thinking trans people are child predators or sexual deviants. I just don’t see how anyone could look at this and think it’s fine. It bothers me even more when gay and lesbian people, particularly those of color, feed into this anti-pc bullshit.
Ronald Wei
All is more so androgynous. And Zoolander is supposed to be an idiot.
Gee Rosato
Shut up its a comedy
Kangol
The movie looks awful, Owen Wilson should just quit making movies, and that fright-inducing Cumberbatch character does appear to be transphobic and just lazily conceived. But it’s in keeping with almost everything else in the trailer.
Having said all that, Will Ferrell’s presence makes me want to see this film, or at least his scenes. The clip where he throws the latte on his assistant, played by the queen from The Comeback, made me laugh out loud. More Will Ferrell, and less–much, much less–preening, whining Owen Wilson!
dr35
The movie will be as campy and awful as the first. Who cares? Honestly …. “Some people” need to get a life
Gothrykke
There are times and movies to boycott. This is not one for this little peek. It’s a fucking joke and a particularly shit one at that. Boycotts should be about more than a couple jokes. Save it for the whole theme of the movie.
Boycotting because it is a Wilson/Stiller movie, oh hell yeah!
Ben Massey
I don’t know if it’s offensive, because I’m not trans, so I don’t feel like that’s my call. Either way it’s definitely a lame joke. ð???
Chloe Turner
Everything in this movie is over the top
inbama
The Cumberbatch character doesn’t look Transgender but Gender Queer to me.
Did the petitioner just call it “transphobic” because GLAAD hasn’t thought up a catchy name yet for Gender Queer Phobia?
Michael Lucewicz
Here we go again
UltimateSin
I will probably watch this movie two or three times just to see Justin Bieber get killed off.
alphacentauri
@Themaaster1: Exactly people get way too offended over, well everything these days.
Pyxy Dyxon
AS a transgendered person I think it sounds hilarious. I will see it and gay people can be the cruelest when it comes to transgendered. people are too sensitive what bullshit
sportsguy1983
Apparently some people have no sense of humor.
tham
“By hiring a cis actor to play a non-binary individual in a clearly negative way, they film endorses harmful and dangerous perceptions of the queer community at large.”
Ugh, nobody told me that math was going to be involved…
I remember back in the day, all we did was get drunk and suck dick. Now there’s math…plural identities, gender Pho (all the rage in the San Fransisco restaurant scene), LGTBQINE14A69…
Hey millenniums, I find you intellectually hot, but you’re coming off a little too strong. A little more young, dumb and full of cum wouldn’t hurt.
enfilmigult
Who can say. The basic joke is that the two main characters are idiots, but that joke doesn’t play that way in the trailer. Most likely it does in the movie, and the ads are just pitching to the lowest common denominator. I just can’t believe people are interested in seeing ‘Zoolander 2,’ ha ha.
Captain Obvious
Stopped reading at “Blackface”. Clearly this person has no idea what “blackface” was, what the purpose was, and how much damage it did. There is no modern day comparison to blackface and there never will be… especially for white people. Many seats are now open to the left.
Chris
@Carl Szulczynski: I thought Cher after a face lift gone bad.
Glücklich
Still frightening a day later. Queerty ought to replace the homepage image with a trigger warning.
Benedict Cumberbatch is already off to an odd-looking start anyway but this just reminds me of that creature in “Pan’s Labyrinth.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OSICJJq86ic
stranded
@Cam: Right? Come on, an internet outrage means less than nothing. Go boycott the film at it’s premiere or local theater then i’ll give these activists a bit of respect.
Stefano
I thought that Queerty’s “journalists” told us that boycott is stupide!??!??
Wooly
Just go see the movie. We truly live in such a stupid society.
kafal
oh shit another people who got offended again anad again, i’m getting annoyed by this SJW pc bullshit thing. just shut the fuck up and enjoy your life instead of easily offended,
Avery Alvarez
Words don’t have meaning anymore. Everything is ràcist, sexist, hòmophobic, trànsphobic, etc….and nothing is.
You guys have heard the story “the boy who cried wolf”?
Well, these “activists” have cried wolf way too long, and soon, no one will come to save them if a real wolf comes by to gobble them whole.
BitOBear
Dear Internet Idiots: Did you not see “Zoolander”? The entire thing was about stupid stereotypes and how stupid the world would be if all that stuff was true. Why the Fark are you upset that “Zoolander 2” is not expected to treat the “trans” character with kit gloves?
None of the other cows are sacred, why should that one be any different?
It’s also a stab at James Bond and “his women”.
Plus, hello…? Villain… Was Mugatu any less over the top?
BitOBear
@BitOBear: (Self-reply) It would only be trans “phobic” if it were treated differently. In a movie that respects _nothing_, being the untouchable minority would be a high insult.