Parents' Guide to Ace Ventura: Pet Detective

Diverse Representations

Rampant transphobia, plus misogyny, fat jokes, and homophobia, are all played for humor. A trans woman, who's played by a cisgender woman, is villainized in the plot. She's subjected to public humiliation to "prove" she's trans—stripped to her underwear to try to display her genitals. People react with disgust, throwing up, grimacing, and calling her a man—and a character who's kissed her cleans his teeth, takes a shower, and burns his clothes. The trans character is also described as having escaped from a "mental hospital" after suffering "paranoid, delusional psychosis." Another character pretends to have a mental illness in order to investigate the hospital and behaves stereotypically, looking unkempt, wearing a tutu, slurring their speech, and telling delusional stories. Women are often sexualized and end up in romantic entanglements with Ace. One woman is introduced with the camera slowly panning up from her ankles and up her legs; another is shown with her cleavage up close, billed as "Sexy Woman" in the credits. A slim female character is called "ugly," "fatty," and "saddlebags" as a joke. A gay joke involves a man thinking another is looking at his genitals at a urinal and smiling suggestively, then walking after him in a stereotypically effeminate way. Most characters are White, but one Black police officer, Emilio (African American actor Tone Loc), is portrayed positively as a good person who's also good at his job.