Research/Study
Greg Gutfeld’s “comedy” is just the same old hateful Fox News attacks in a different package
Written by Jane Lee & Isabella Corrao
Published
Fox News host Greg Gutfeld regularly spreads the network’s brand of hateful attacks against marginalized groups, only disguised as “comedy.” During his nearly two-decades-long career at Fox, Gutfeld has capitalized on his power and influence to belittle marginalized groups and others for cheap laughs.
Despite this history, Fox News has rewarded Gutfeld with promotions, assigning him an influential spot in the network’s prime-time lineup because “pandemic-weary audiences needed some levity,” as The New York Times described CEO Suzanne Scott’s explanation. These promotions have only validated Gutfeld, as he continues cruelly mocking Fox’s favorite targets, now with a wider audience.
Here is a list of recent examples of Gutfeld’s “jokes” that echo the pernicious bigotry Fox News is famous for:
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LGBTQ community
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Gutfeld has regularly targeted the LGBTQ community, particularly trans and gender-nonconforming people, in his jokes, usually mocking their gender expression or intentionally misgendering them. His disparaging attitude is an extension of Fox News’ campaigns attacking openly queer people and promoting the hundreds of bills endangering LGBTQ rights across the country.
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Dylan Mulvaney
- Gutfeld called trans social media influencer Dylan Mulvaney “Pee-wee her/him.” [Fox News, Gutfeld!, 4/10/23]
- Gutfeld misgendered Mulvaney and mocked her campaign with Bud Light, saying it “made the Hindenburg look like a gender reveal party.” [Fox News, Gutfeld!, 5/23/23]
- Gutfeld: “What do a group of transvestite atheists have to do with baseball anyway? You know, other than they both like rubbing pine tar on their bats? Nothing. Just like what Dylan Mulvaney had to do with beer. Nothing.” [Fox News, Gutfeld!, 6/1/23]
- Gutfeld said Mulvaney was “portraying a beer-drinking bubblehead in a bubble bath.” He continued, “Dylan didn’t just ape a woman, she played them as ditzy morons. I’m surprised she didn't heat that bubble bath by tossing in a toaster.” [Fox News, Gutfeld!, 7/28/23]
- After announcing that the International Chess Federation had banned trans women from competing in women’s events, Gutfeld suddenly attacked Mulvaney, saying, “But don't cry, Dylan Mulvaney — you'll always have beer pong. And a penis.” [Fox News, Gutfeld!, 8/18/23]
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Trans athletes
- Gutfeld mockingly suggested dolphins should be allowed to participate in swimming: “The whole thing smacks of specie-ism.” [Fox News, Gutfeld!, 1/10/22]
- Gutfeld commented on a ruling that USA Powerlifting must allow trans women athletes to compete, saying, “On the plus side, when they fill a cup for the urine test, they could do it from a distance.” [Fox News, Gutfeld!, 3/6/23]
- Gutfeld ran a segment titled “Trans Tuesday” where he explained, “Each topic has a little extra junk in the trunks.” He proceeded to mock trans female athletes, commenting repeatedly on their genitalia. [Fox News, Gutfeld!, 9/12/23]
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Transitioning
- Gutfeld said that “all kids go through phases. For one year, I was convinced I was Lassie.” [Fox News, Gutfeld!, 4/8/22]
- Gutfeld claimed doctors are “cutting up kids like a Thanksgiving turkey.” He later said, “Because as we all know, there's no better treatment for autism, depression, and unhappiness than putting your privates in a blender.” [Fox News, Gutfeld!, 2/21/23]
- Gutfeld mocked the idea of trans women getting uterus transplants, describing them as “a man’s emotional-support womb.” He added, “All of this makes Victor Frankenstein look like an amateur. Even he never tried to turn a groom into a pregnant bride.” [Fox News, Gutfeld!, 8/24/23]
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General
- Gutfeld: “Not only is ballet racist, it's transphobic too. Just look at the title The Nutcracker.” [Fox News, Gutfeld!, 7/18/22]
- Gutfeld claimed that “it’s not risky” to come out as transgender or nonbinary. He also listed supposed advantages of doing so: “You get double the movie roles and double the bathrooms.” [Fox News, Gutfeld!, 7/21/22]
- Gutfeld used a study about self-driving cars to make transphobic comments: “I'm worried about a transphobic car because if you have a gender setting, and yet you have chosen a different gender than your biology, what will the car do? And if the car says, ‘Look, I can only identify with your biology, your biological underpinnings because you haven't changed that,’ then the car is technically transgender -- I mean transphobic. And I don't want to be in a transphobic car.” [Fox News, The Five, 8/3/22]
- Gutfeld opened a segment about the Cambridge Dictionary adjusting the definition of a woman to include trans women by saying, “They're putting the ‘dick’ in dictionary.” [Fox News, Gutfeld!, 12/13/22]
- Gutfeld made a joke about what he called “the straw trans argument,” which he said was “like a straw man argument, but with boobs and a bulge.” [Fox News, Gutfeld!, 1/24/23]
- Gutfeld joked that he knows men can’t get pregnant or menstruate because he hasn’t experienced either. [Fox News, Gutfeld!, 3/6/23]
- Gutfeld said wokeness is “so bad” at Disney that “Peter Pan started identifying as Tinkerbell.” [Fox News, Gutfeld!, 3/8/23]
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Homeless people
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Homeless people are another favorite target of Gutfeld’s jokes, which are mostly limited to repetitive taunts about public defecation, depicting homeless people as good-for-nothings who ruin cities. This is nothing new for Fox News, which has scorned homeless people for years.
- Gutfeld joked about Gov. Gavin Newsom stepping “in human feces on his way out of the French Laundry.” He said: “Newsom decided to tackle California's homeless problem after he stepped in human feces on his way out of the French Laundry. Too bad the French Laundry wasn't a real laundry, am I right?” [Fox News, Gutfeld!, 4/20/22]
- Gutfeld mocked San Francisco’s plans to build tamper-proof trash cans. “San Francisco is considering filling the city with $20,000 trash cans designed to keep homeless from rummaging through them,” he said. “If successful, they'll try to build a trash can big enough to hold a Walgreens.” [Fox News, Gutfeld!, 8/19/22]
- Gutfeld joked about “brownouts” in San Francisco and “on the sidewalk.” “So people are stealing city water and power as they please,” he said. “Soon there will be brownouts in the city and on the sidewalk.” [Fox News, Gutfeld!, 10/26/22]
- Fox contributor Charlie Hurt declared that homeless people “should be rounded up and put someplace where you can go to the bathroom not on the sidewalk.” Gutfeld responded, “A big, giant bathroom.” [Fox News, Gutfeld!, 1/16/23]
- Gutfeld called San Francisco “the bidet by the bay.” [Fox News, Gutfeld!, 3/23/23]
- Gutfeld said Oregon wants to protect homeless people who “poop” on doorsteps. He said: “Oregon's newly proposed Right to Rest Act aims to decriminalize camping in public places. The bill wants to give legal protections to the homeless population, while telling law-abiding citizens, ‘Meet the new neighbor who just pooped on your doorstep.’” [Fox News, Gutfeld!, 4/28/23]
- Gutfeld made a parody of a San Francisco public relations campaign, with the spoof claiming that the city was covered in excrement and needles. [Fox News, Gutfeld!, 6/1/23]
- Gutfeld joked, “The homeless problem is so bad in Cali, they're going to change its motto from the Golden State to the Golden Shower State.” [Fox News, Gutfeld!, 6/6/23]
- In a segment criticizing San Francisco for targeting Elon Musk over his installation of a sign on the roof of X’s headquarters without a permit, Gutfeld repeatedly mocked homeless people defecating in public. “Officials say replacing or installing a giant one on top requires a permit. Ironically, something that doesn't require a permit? Taking a dump on the sidewalk. No wonder they're doing it.” [Fox News, Gutfeld!, 7/31/23]
- After Charlie Hurt remarked he “would rather see an animal go to the bathroom” than live in New York, Gutfeld responded, “Yeah, well, you can do that on 8th.” [Fox News, Gutfeld!, 8/11/23]
- Gutfeld joked that in the fall the city smells like “pumpkin spice urine.” “Now is the time of year where leaves start to fall on the homeless people,” he said. “And along with the smells of skunk weed and rotting drug addicts, the sidewalks have added seasonably appropriate pumpkin spice urine.” [Fox News, Gutfeld!, 9/18/23]
- In a segment complaining about New York City removing statues, Gutfeld said, “The real question is where are the homeless going to urinate?” [Fox News, Gutfeld!, 9/19/23]
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Addicts
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Even though Gutfeld has said he believes drugs should be legalized, he doesn't pass up opportunities to mock those addicted to them. In dehumanizing terms, Gutfeld has blamed drug addicts for ruining cities across the country. Fox figures regularly malign addicts and mock harm reduction efforts in their coverage.
- Gutfeld called a proposed law in Oregon that sought to protect homeless people from harassment in public spaces “right redistribution.” “It's right redistribution,” Gutfeld said. “So your right to walk your street safely is gone, but they can shoot up on your lawn.” [Fox News, The Five, 4/27/23]
- Gutfeld joked about enjoying hazy skies caused by Canadian wildfires because they obscured “junkies shooting up” and “homeless defecating” in the streets. “It's really hard to see what's going on on the street and, when you live in New York, that's a good thing,” Gutfeld said. “You got your junkies shooting up, you got the homeless defecating, you got Kilmeade just hitchhiking. All of that is obscured by that surreal magnificent haze.” [Fox News, The Five, 6/7/23]
- Gutfeld: “Oakland is overrun by so-called ‘drug tourists’ now, who have turned an entire neighborhood into an open-air drug market, affectionately called ‘fentanyl island’ … it's like Fantasy Island if your fantasy is to OD on a pile of garbage and feces.” [Fox News, Gutfeld!, 8/9/23]
- In a segment about an apparent “guided walking tour of SF's decayed, drug-infested downtown,” Gutfeld joked: “The best part, everyone who buys a ticket gets a used hypodermic needle absolutely free. You just have to remove it from your foot. But you'll get $10 off your next hepatitis vaccine.” [Fox News, Gutfeld!, 8/16/23]
- Gutfeld proposed rounding up homeless people and placing them on government property outside cities and said, “I volunteer as mayor. I will be mayor of opium town.” [Fox News, The Five, 9/15/23]
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Teachers
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Gutfeld frequently trains his jokes on teachers, portraying them as “selfish and lazy.” Even though teachers across the country have become targets of harassment from right-wing governors and activists who accuse them of indoctrinating students — with some educators even receiving death threats — Gutfeld has continued to use them as a political punching bag. Many of his colleagues at Fox have done the same.
- Gutfeld: “Teachers hate teaching, and they hate their students, and they hate the students' parents.” [Fox News, The Five, 4/12/21]
- Gutfeld on the American education system: “If this isn’t a cult, I’m Charles Manson.” “It is a cult, one that guarantees your kids turning on each other and then you,” Gutfeld said. “We used to let puberty do that.” [Fox News, Gutfeld!, 4/23/21]
- In response to a New York Post article that reported the American Federation of Teachers influenced Center for Disease Control’s guidelines on school reopenings during the coronavirus pandemic, Gutfeld joked that the union’s actual goal was to ensure teachers never had to teach again: “Translation: ‘We are never teaching again. Screw your stupid kids. Let's get drunk.’” [Fox News, Gutfeld!, 5/3/21]
- Gutfeld made light of Attorney General Merrick Garland’s comments that the Justice Department would look into a “disturbing spike” in violent threats against teachers: “That’s right, a mom yelling at school board members at a public meeting is the same as her donning an explosive vest and blowing up a school. Demanding quality schools is now like crashing a plane into the Pentagon.” [Fox News, Gutfeld!, 10/5/21]
- Gutfeld reacted to news that a group of teachers in Portland, Oregon, proposed a four-day school week by saying: “We’re seeing teachers create a three-day weekend so they can start drinking on Thursday afternoon at Friday's happy hour.” [Fox News, The Five, 12/1/21]
- Gutfeld on teachers unions: “Our educational system is just like the Washington Generals in that we pay them to lose.” He added, “The only thing worse is that they’re teaching our children to lose.” [Fox News, The Five, 1/5/22]
- Gutfeld called teachers “the KKK with summers off.” [Fox News, The Five, 7/7/22]
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Migrants
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Gutfeld often uses migrants as punchlines for his jokes. He portrays them as “cheap labor” for the wealthy liberal elite and regularly touts the number of migrants who enter the U.S. via the southern border to fearmonger about the danger they supposedly represent. (Unsurprisingly, Gutfeld does not mention that those living in the U.S. without legal permission commit crimes at lower rates and are less likely to be imprisoned than U.S.-born citizens.) Gutfeld isn’t the only Fox figure who regularly demonizes migrants.
- Gutfeld mocked former Biden Press Secretary Jen Psaki for saying migrants weren’t “intending to stay” in the United States for long, chiding, “I’m sure they’ll head back home once their non-existent visas expire.” “Not intending to stay? Isn’t that the whole point of crossing the border illegally?” Gutfeld asked. “Yeah, I'm sure they'll head back home once their non-existent visas expire, like 22 million other temporary illegal immigrants. Or maybe they just wanted to live under the bridge in 100-degree weather for a quick vacation.” [Fox News, Gutfeld!, 9/21/21]
- In response to a segment on The View regarding migrants, Gutfeld said, “Save your outrage, you gargantuan gas bags. You are just worried about losing the cheap labor that trims your hedges and your bikini area.” [Fox News, Gutfeld!, 9/15/22]
- Gutfeld on the unauthorized migrants Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis sent to Martha’s Vineyard in 2022: “Think about all the time saved, the cheap labor will be right there on location, ready to set up the tables for Obama's next superspreading birthday party.” [Fox News, Gutfeld!, 9/15/22]
- Gutfeld joked that “all 245,000” of the migrants encountered by the Department of Homeland Security in the Rio Grande Valley sector in 2023 “came out of one Nissan Altima.” [Fox News, Gutfeld!, 10/5/23]
- Gutfeld on suspected terrorists supposedly crossing the southern border: “At this point we’re saying, ‘You’re a drug mule for a Mexican cartel? What a relief.’” [Fox News, Gutfeld!, 10/16/23]