As Jim Carrey makes his way through the Sonic 2 press tour, the actor announced that he is seriously considering a retirement from acting.

Retirement from acting is one of those things that has to come at some point in an actor’s career. Unlike Bruce Willis, Carrey has the opportunity to retire at a time of his own choosing. But still, I cannot get over the fact that it took him until 2019 to make any public comments about his character in Ace Ventura: Pet Detective. Funny enough, I didn’t know that the actor made any comments about it until this week when I did a search on Google. Somehow, Carrey’s comments did not make it into the major trade outlets I read. This really speaks to how under-the-radar his comments were during the 2019 TCA tour. Comments like this should have been covered by more outlets!

According to Cheat Sheet, Ventura reevaluated the transphobic jokes during a panel promoting season 2 of Kidding on Showtime. To be fair, the actor only uses homophobic during his comments but let’s be clear as day about it: what happens in the movie is transphobic. If you’ve seen Disclosure on Netflix, you’ve seen the seen in question and why it’s so offensive.

“It would probably be much different today,” Carrey said. “That was an honest completely homophobic reaction from that character. It was basically making fun of homophobia. It’s ridiculous. I’ve got a plunger on my face because I kissed a dude. It’s ridiculous.”

For what it’s worth, the actor said he would not do the Lois Einhorn jokes today. In the film, Miami Dolphins placekicker Ray Finkle becomes Lt. Lois Einhorn (Sean Young). What we refer to as gender-affirming surgery today is referred to as a sex change in the movie. Finkle becomes Einhorn as a way of hiding from the law. When you look at rhetoric from conservatives, their arguments basically date back to films like Ace Ventura.

If you ask me, it doesn’t matter that Ace Ventura finds transphobia to be offensive. The actions by his character are also no different from other films in response to transphobia. Two years earlier in 1992, it was The Crying Game depicting transgender women as murderers. Much like the 1992 film, Ventura becomes violently ill upon realizing he kissed a transgender woman. However, Ace Ventura just takes it way too far. I mean, a plunger to the face, really?!? Is this the message that you want to send to people about those of us who are transgender?!? No wonder that conservatives are trying to legislate us out of existence! They look at a film like this and think we are going to be criminals in the bathroom!

While comedian/podcaster Joe Rogan allows transphobic people onto his show without a problem, he’s previously called out the film’s transphobia. Rogan’s comments came during a conversation with Bari Weiss, who has openly amplified and defended transphobic writers. Interestingly enough, the conversation between Rogan and Weiss took place months before TCA’s Summer 2019 press tour. The Disclosure premiere came during Sundance in January 2020 before a June release on Netflix.

Ace Ventura: Pet Detective will forever be a stain on Jim Carrey’s legacy. It’s just a shame that this is what when for comedy back in the 1990s.

Paramount will release Sonic the Hedgehog 2 on April 8, 2022.

Please subscribe to Solzy at the Movies on Substack.