Fox’s LA to Vegas: Strip-Club Parties Are For Toddlers

The new “comedy” plumbs the depths of sleazy behavior. Back during the World Series, Fox began running ads for its upcoming “comedy,” LA to Vegas. From the commercials, the program promised to be a sex-themed program centering on an airline pilot who spouts inanities thinking he’s an expert on everything, boasts and about his sexual prowess, harasses stewardesses and female passengers, and in general acts like Will Ferrell’s character in the movie Anchorman. He even sports a 1970’s style mustache. (What is it about Will Ferrell and 1970s mustaches?) At that time, the PTC warned audiences about the upcoming show’s alleged “humor.” Given the current environment of #metoo and condemnation of sexual harassment in Hollywood, we also noted how clueless Fox looks by making a show with such themes. But now that it’s actually arrived, LA to Vegas has proven to be even more distasteful than was feared – as was shown in the Tuesday, January 16^th episode (9:00 p.m. ET/PT). In the episode, divorced UCLA professor Colin (who flies to Las Vegas every weekend to visit his three year-old son) must organize a party for his son’s birthday. Fortunately, his fellow LA-to-Vegas commuters, bookie Artem and stripper Nichole, come up with a great plan: have the party for toddlers at Nichole’s strip club! In the course of the party, children are shown sliding down the stripper poles, playing with condom balloon animals, and petting the man dressed like a dog – held on a leash by a dominatrix. A little girl walks around holding a condom balloon animal, but complains, “My giraffe is slippery.” Eventually, Colin’s son tells his father that he and a stripper are “going to the sparkling cider room,” presumably for the toddler to receive a lap dance. Nichole summarizes the scene: “It's really nice to have customers on our laps for a change.” The other part of the episode focused on gay flight attendant Bernard, who asks stewardess Ronnie “which one of us is more sexually harassable,” and repeately demands the pilot “grab his ass.” Thus, in a comedy airing at only 8 p.m. in half the country, Fox is telling children that parties at strip clubs are great fun, and – in spite of the revelations daily coming out of Hollywood – that being sexually harassed in the workplace is hilarious (and that gay men, in particular, enjoy it).