Here’s the Bit That the Internet Is Calling the First Funny Trans Joke From A Cis Comic

So many comedians today have made it their crusade to convince everyone to define gender by what’s in their pants, but Eva Evans is slightly different — to her, it’s what’s in your wallet that counts.

Anyone who has watched a Netflix stand-up special in the last five years understands that there is no single social issue that is more hot-button in the comedy world than the treatment of the transgender community. Superstars like Dave Chappelle and Ricky Gervais regularly shape entire shows around the trans jokes that they’re “not allowed to say” as they cash nine-figure paychecks, and the few transgender or nonbinary comics who do manage to achieve mainstream success are forced to constantly confront the comments of their peers on their right to self-expression and self-determination.

Then, there’s Evans, a Brooklyn-based cisgendered comic who recently went mega-viral on Twitter, TikTok and Instagram for a stand-up routine centered around her unwitting date with a trans man that ended in disaster — financial disaster, that is.

Shortly after the popular stand-up platform Don’t Tell Comedy posted the above clip, users flocked to the post to proclaim Evans’ story about a disappointing date with a broke dude to be the gold standard for making jokes about marginalized communities that don’t turn those communities themselves into a joke. “Living proof that you can joke about marginalized groups without being hateful & without punching down,” one commenter wrote of the act.

“Yes, you can crack jokes about LGBTQ+ and this is how you do it,” one Twitter user who posted the clip to millions of views wrote of Evans’ routine. Many comedy fans on Twitter found them empathizing far too strongly with Evans’ proclamation that she is “too poor to have a phobia,” and others likened her comedic timing to that of some of the greatest stand-ups in the game — including comparisons to comics like Chappelle, ironically.

Many transgender men (many of them broke) applauded Evans’ ability to joke about them without being incurious or hateful like so many other comics who punched down with their own punchlines. Ultimately, everyone deserves the opportunity to be the target of a killer joke, especially if it helps them forget about the joke that is their credit score.