339: Fairy Tales 4 - Ed McLachlan

by Ed McLachlan
in “Private Eye” 14 January 1972

308: Gay Frankenstein 1

Any homosexual subtexts in the Frankenstein story have been made quite explicit already in the “Rocky Horror Show” (stage show 1973, film in 1975).

I've been making a man
With blond hair and a tan
And he's good for relieving my tension
(Sweet Transvestite)

WILL: I'm intimidated, okay? It's like I've-- I've created a guy that's too hot for me to date. It's the same reason Dr. Frankenstein didn't date his monster.
GRACE: What? Dr. Frankenstein wasn't a homo.
WILL: Oh, really? He sewed together a bunch of guys to create the perfect man? Wrapped him in linen. Give him a flat head, so you can set a drink on it. Dr. Frank was a 'mo, my friend. [CHUCKLING] He was a 'mo.

- Will & Grace 20 February 2003 (an episode I only happened to watch because it featured Dan Futterman. Mmmm, Dan Futterman)

Of course we have to discount the two above, because they are jokes intended for a gay audience from gay writers, which isn’t what this never-ending farrago is all about. Incidentally, the idea that Dr Frankenstein might be the gay one in the story is the interpretation less usually employed by humorists, unless they’re gay. The more typical gay gag plays off the idea of the experiment going wrong. That rather than creating the perfect new human life, the good doctor accidentally creates a homosexual. And so it’s a revelation of what the cartoonist thinks constitutes a funny gay stereotype.


From “Help” July 1965
Not terribly enlightened this one. But they’ve certainly gone to town, trying to cram as much in as possible. Hand on his hip, kicked-up heel, a limp wrist holding a flower, a handkerchief draped in his pocket, hair done in a wave, and more than a hint of make-up on the eyelids and cheeks. Every sissy cliché known to man. Frankenstein’s monster overlaid by every remembered stereotype of the Widean aesthete.
No idea who Jim Jones is. This was from a section in “Help” giving new cartoonists a try-out. I suspect that this was probably passed because it met Terry Gilliam’s expectations. Harvey Kurtzman was the main editor of “Help” but gay stereotypes are absent from all the magazines he’d edited up to this date, he doesn’t seem tos how any interest in gay stereotypes in his own cartoons until a few years later.


by Edward McLachlan
in “Private Eye” 25 February 1972

I like McLachlan’s cartoons in general. Silly thingsa b out giant hedgehods, and a particularly suburban style of surrealism. Even if I hadn't got the original issue, "Hello Sweetie" would unmistakeably date this cartoon to some time in the earlier '70s. When McLachlan draws a homosexual, there’s usually a hint of lipstick/pursed lip and slightly effeminate eyes. (Examples 1 and 2)

A few humorists play off the idea, that in creating the perfect man, the doctor takes every aspect of the human form into account, and so we have a few cartoons obsessed by a particular aspect of the monster’s anatomy.
Looks size-queeny to you, looks gay to me. Of course, that both these specimens originate in the pages of “Playboy” may have other implications.


by Howard Shoemaker
in “Playboy” May 1977


by Sam Harris
in “Playboy” October 1980

147: Keith Hampson 3 - Edward McLachlan

in "Punch" 23 May 1984

For reasons I can’t be going into, Michael Heseltine had the nickname of “Tarzan”. This therefore means that McLachlan can have his effeminate civil servant identify himself (rather assertively by the looks of it) with a girl’s name. This is, of course, a comedy homosexual, and not an accurate representation of Mr Hampson. Indeed, all the cartoons talk around the incident, but there are no actual direct references to Keith Hampson in all of the bits and pieces produced at the time. It’s all rather allusive gossip. Although it all builds on that “civil service is absolutely infested with ‘em” ethos. Note as always the lipstick and the eye-shadow. Ho hum.

127: Puns 1

We’re seen cartoonist literalise some phrase for comic effect, i.e “Roaring Poof”
A similar technique is, when some word of longstanding use acquires a new trendy or slangy meaning, to illustrate old phrases in this new light. So humorists and comics exhume quotes and sayings featuring the word “gay” but now give it an obvious homosexual twist or flourish. What follow all date from the 70s, when the public and the humorists who serve it had distinct ideas as to what distinguished this newly emergent and proud socio-sexual demographic. Who knows, 30-40 or so years ago this may have seemed strikingly novel, although today it seems rather laboured. Even as a boy in the early ‘80s, Larry Grayson’s catchphrase of “What a gay day!” seemed to be more of a Pavlov’s bell rung for the more lumpen propulace than anything actually entertaining.

from “Photopoetry” in “Mad” June 1972

- Edward McLachlan in “Private Eye” 13 July 1973

The Gay Gordons is a Scottish highland dance, alluding to the Gordon Highlanders regiment. So here it’s male couples with effeminate eyelashes, making pursed lipsticked pouts at each other, turning vigorous highland dancing into something more intimate and sissified. “Oh God! Not again!” could be a reaction to homosexuality, or that these Gay Gordons appear again and again. If you like, and given McLachlan’s style of humour, there could even be a suggestion that they’re all gay and they’re all called Gordon.

- Nick Baker in “Private Eye” 24 January 1975

Since “South Park”, a gay dog probably now means to most people an actual homosexual dog. But it did used to have the meaning of being “a dashing young blade about town”. Here, in the ‘70s, when Mr Humphries is the foremost gay representation, we get a beribboned and lipsticked dog with over-styled hair, sauntering on its hindquarters so it can hold one paw on its hip and the other outstretched rather limply, whilst swinging a handbag.

And if only to prove that this appropriation of the “Gay Dog” phrase is not just a one-off, here’s a little bit of dialogue from the original broadcast of “The Goodies” 1971 episode “Kitten Kong”, excised from the 1972 Montreaux Award-winning version. The Goodies have become pet sitters (transcript from http://www.goodiesruleok.com/articles.php?id=16 )

As Graeme opens the door to take the kitten out for his exercise, there is a loud barking and he slams the door shut again.
"What's that?" he gibbers, "What's that monster on the landing?"
"That's a Great Dane," says Tim.
"It's as big as a horse!" protests Graeme, adding "I'm not going out there - it looks fierce."
"Well it isn't," Tim assures him, "In fact that's its problem. It's not terribly butch."
"Isn't it?" asks Graeme.
"No," confirms Tim, "As a matter of fact it's ..."; he whispers in Graeme's ear.
"It's not is it?" asks an amazed Graeme.
"As a row of pink tents," assures Tim.
"You mean a Great Dane that's ..." says Graeme
Tim completes the sentence, "A bit of a gay dog!"
"Will you get off ..." says Graeme.

- “Kitten Kong”, 12 November 1971