When Harold and Kumar end up in prison, it’s not hard to guess that some sort of gag about prison rape - AE’s favorite kind of humor Harold & Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay (2008)
Next Page! What’s Neil Patrick Harris doing in a homophobic movie like that?! Plus, a controversial choice! What’s interesting is that that scene in Night Shift, a weird blend of gay stereotypes and prison rape paranoia, is exactly what most GLBT people are like … in the minds of most 1980s screenwriters. In the film, Winkler’s character ends up in prison and mutters to himself, "At this moment, I have sunk as low as I can go." Then he notices an effeminate inmate in the cell who’s cut out a page of hearts, and Winkler looks up to heaven, saying, "I was wrong!" Starring Henry Winkler, contains a classic example of 1980s gay movie humor? Significant gay characters in his long, distinguished career? And that one of his first movies, Night Shift Is the debate over The Dilemma influencedīy the fact that Howard doesn’t seem to have done any GLBT-supportive films? If so, it’s easier to give them the benefit of the doubt. Supportive of GLBT rights and do they have a track record of other Sometimes judging whether or not a gay joke is “offensive” depends, in part, on Let’s look at some examples of nasty gay humor, shall we? When was the last time you saw a humorous riff on how annoying it is when straight men freak out about menstruation? Or how stupid it is when a straight guy thinks all gay guys want to hit on him? The fact is, the vast majority of American comedy is still written by straight men for other straight men to perform – and they naturally joke about the things and issues that resonate with them (like how incredibly horrible it is to have someone think you might be gay).Īre GLBT folks overly-sensitive? Trust me, if 50% of all movie comedies included cheap shots directed at straight men, they would understandably start to get frustrated and annoyed too, especially if there were almost no actual straight characters in most of these movies.īut enough of an introduction. In the current comedy world where the idiot-slacker-loser is often now a lovable point-of-view character, that defense is ringing increasingly hollow.Īnd while we’re at it, let’s also retire the defense that even "offensive" gay jokes are okay, because certain humorists offend "everyone" – "nothing" is off-limits. Okay, okay, so maybe these are just our opinions.īut before we move on to saying exactly which gay movie jokes we find offensive (and a few we don’t!), can I just say? I think it’s time to retire the catch-all rebuttal that, “We’re not making fun of gay people – we’re making fun of homophobia and the ignorant types who would make jokes like this!” Who’s to say exactly which gay movie jokes are funny or subversive, designed to make an ironic point, and which are lazy and offensive, designed to pander to the audience’s existing homophobia? But what does that mean exactly? Humor is notoriously subjective. On the other hand, what exactly is an "offensive gay joke" anyway? No one is saying all gay jokes are offensive – just jokes that are mean-spirited or cheap or lazy. The recent brouhaha over a gay joke in the upcoming Ron Howard-directed, Vince Vaughn-starring movie The Dilemma is interesting because it’s the first time the argument against the never-ending stream of gay jokes has ever received much mainstream traction. Maybe it’s simply a question of, well, enlightenment. Maybe the debate over gay jokes isn’t a question of censorship.
It’s about the fact that these jokes are so common – in a way that jokes about other minorities such as African Americans or Jewish people or Asians or women or the disabled, simply no longer are.Īnd yet no longer making jokes about "stingy Jews" (except ironically) or casually using the n-word as an insult didn’t stop comedians from telling jokes, did it? You might even argue that getting beyond lazy stereotypes and these cheap, easy punch-lines actually made comedy better.
People don’t see what the big deal is, because they’re not seeing the big picture, which is that this isn’t about any one joke. That’s why, whenever anyone points out how common they are and says, "Hey, maybe this is contributing to a culture of prejudice," there tends to be a immediate and furious counter-response of: “Political correctness!” “It’s just a joke!” “I don’t see what the big deal is!” Gay jokes are still so common in American movie comedies that most of them barely register.