Rocky Horror Sweet Transvestite lyrics

Image Credit: FoxLast night’s Rocky Horror Glee Show had a lot going for it: Abs, some awesome cameos from Barry Bostwick and Meat Loaf, and the idea of dressing as a peanut allergy for Halloween. But it also had some weird cleaning up going on, with some lyrics getting scrubbed of their original content. You’d have to be a pretty big Rocky Horror fan to notice, but uh, I am. And I did.

“Sweet Transvestite”
Amber Riley crushed this song, and I actually didn’t mind a woman as Frank-N-Furter. (Isn’t Rocky Horror all about flouting gender norms? Of course it is.) But “a sweet transvestite from sensational Transylvania”? Come on, Fox. You can’t sing the word “transsexual”? (Fox declined to comment for this story.)

“Touch-a Touch-a Touch-a Touch Me”
This was totes my favorite number of the night, and not just because of Emma’s unbelievably cute Mary Janes (and Matthew Morrison being just ridiculously hot). When will these adorable creatures just figure things out?! But the lyric changes here made me both cringe and laugh. There’s “no use getting into heavy sweating // it only leads to trouble and bad fretting”? Oh lordy. That’s heavy petting and seat-wetting for those of you keeping score at home. (Bad fretting? Bad fretting? That’s up there with “monkey-fighting snakes on this Monday-to-Friday plane.”)

Some of the other edits made a little more ready-for-prime-time sense: “Then if anything shows” was swapped in for “then if anything grows, ” and “you need a friendly hand” got changed to “I want a friendly man.” Save that kind of talk for cable, I guess.

Glee has tweaked arrangements before – Total Eclipse is the one that stands out in my memory, but that can’t be the only one. I don’t actually expect people to sing about handy jays on network TV, but on a show about not censoring who you are, I was surprised that just saying the word “transsexual” wasn’t kosher.

Did you notice the changes, PopWatchers? Did they bother you?

Read more:
‘Glee’ recap: ‘Rocky Horror’ and Roll