In case you thought Josh was kidding on Episode 36 – SUN SHINES AGAIN when it comes to gender neutral pronouns being a thing, the University of Tennessee in Knoxville is nudging the campus into using ze, xe, hir, hirs and zirs. That’s right, a real college is asking students and faculty to refer to others by words that I had to type multiple times because autocorrect thought I was just mashing keys.

It’s probably a good idea to familiarize yourself now, because as this stuff spreads and takes root in colleges, it’ll only be a matter of time before those students graduate and begin teaching grade school, middle school and high school. That’s when the real fun begins.

“Dad, can HummingBird come hang out after school?”
“Is this ‘HummingBird’ person a he or a she?”
“Xe’s a xe, Dad. Gah, you don’t get anything, do you?”

Perhaps one day, your child will come home having learned about Pat. “Dad, did you ever watch that show?” you’ll be asked.  How will you defend yourself to your kids when they want to know why you laughed at cruel mocking of the gender neutral?

Easy. Nobody really thought that the character was that funny.

“What, gender neutral people can’t be funny?”