Brad Paisley & Carrie Underwood Open CMAs With Transphobic Caitlyn Jenner “Joke”

Brad Paisley and Carrie Underwood have long been awkward CMA hosts. With their inexplicable Star Wars themed intro — and bringing William Shatner onstage — Brad and Carrie set a WTF tone for the evening that only continued during the monologue. “Bruce Jenner is a babe now,” they said. Uh, guys: Her show is called My Name is Cait. Is it so hard to get that right? Country music still sells big, but remains somewhat out of the progressive mainstream. Transphobic jokes might play well in certain conservative markets, but they aren’t the way to win younger fans. The pair also joked about Josh Duggar and his scandals. Duggar has had a year marred by scandal — and is fair game for jokes, of course. But is it okay to joke about his molestation of five underage girls as a teenager? That’s sort of like hopping onstage at the Oscars and cracking wise about Woody Allen. Kind of dark, especially for an awards show.