Clearly the commercial was joking that high phone bills are more traumatic than other stupid things teenagers do—like driving through the garage.

But the joke cuts both ways. T-Mobile wouldn’t have joked around with something truly “serious”—imagine the kid had been caught smoking dope rather than apply lipstick. And they didn’t have to put the kid in a dress for the final scene where personally, I took Catherine Zeta-Jones “nice dress” as more of a social acknowledgement kind of comment—the sort of thing one woman might say to another when meeting for the first time.

I’m sure some folks will interpret as a put-down, but I suspect others will notice (consciously or not) that she just takes in stride. Of course, the general public will probably assume the kid is a drag queen in training, rather than a cross-dresser, but you can’t have everything….