461: Posy Simmonds - Mrs Weber's Diary

by Posy Simmonds
in "The Guardian", 1985

Mrs Weber’s Diary was a weekly strip that appeared on the Women’s Page of the Guardian from the late 1970s (originally as “The Silent Three”) until the late 1980s. The Guardian’s Women’s Page disdained dieting and dresses for feminism. The strip soon turned into a commentary on modern issues and a satire of its Guardian readers: middle class post-60’s counter-culture types grown up with families, working in social services, universities or as would-be artisans. The strip encapsulated them as people for whom the personal is political. The little dramas of domestic life were further fraught by ethical and social quandaries. Simmonds’ Weber family were the archetypal “Woolly Liberals” tying themselves into knots over the right responses to racism, capitalism, education, childcare, ecology and Thatcherism during dinner party conversations. Simmonds also captured contemporary tastes in fashion, furniture and holidays. Americans might care to think of it as an infinitely better drawn equivalent of “Doonesbury”. It is a superb series wittily dissecting many aspects of 80s Britain.

An Omnibus of all the previous “Mrs Weber’s Diary” collections has just been published as “Mrs Weber’s Omnibus”. The promotional material says the book collects the entire run of strips, but it doesn’t, although at almost 500 cartoons, it’ll satisfy all but the most completist of Simmonds fans, and it does restore the colouring of the originals. (Still: Lying bastards at Jonathan Cape publishers) This strip is one of the omitted. It was reprinted in Alan Moore’s 1988 “AARGH” comic collection - “Artist’s Against Rampant Government Homophobia protesting the introduction of Clause 28. “AARGH” collected works that either attacked Clause 28 and homophobia, or else showed homosexuals in a positive light as people with real loves and feelings. As this strip predates Clause 28 by a number of years, it was selected as a positive representation.

So here we get George Weber and his unnamed friend, a cuddly, older clonish looking gay chap with moustache , jeans, checkered shirted and bomber jacket (who I don’t think I’ve even seen before or seen after this strip, but never mind). Homosexuality and camping it up – which is seen as being expressive and not merely innate – are part of a larger argument about the perception of masculinity and acceptable manly roles. The strip is actually about George’s embarrassment before the shopkeeper, an unreconstructed male chauvinist. George’s arguments for the broadening of traditional male/female responsibilities have been undermined by visible homosexual behaviour, thereby confirming George’s apparent unmanliness. If George is abashed, his friend is given a significant space in the strip to argue for his own particular brand of dignity and independence of traditional assumptions.

460: Gay Politics - Hanging to the Right

In extreme contrast to the assumption of natural affinities between homosexuals and the left-wing politics, the 1970s also saw a small but vocal body of gay fascists. These were not skinhead-fancying fetishists, but genuine fascist supporters. A faltering economy and concerns about immigration meant that there was an audience for fascist politics in Britain at the time. The leader of the National Front in the late 70s, Martin Webster, was gay, and semi-openly so. It wasn’t just rumoured – he was actually mentioned in “Gay News”, and there was the occasional photo of him at a gay pub or event with other prominent figures in the party who were also gay – whether straight members of the party knew this is another matter. (Several decades later Webster would claim that he had had an affair lasting several years with the current leader of the British National party, Nick Griffin). Furthermore, when canvassing political opinion among gay men of the time, “Gay News” would take into account the opinions of gay fascists. Whether such political leanings are really some sort of yearning for authenticity I leave to others to ponder.

By Michael Heath
“Punch”, 2 August 1978

By Michael Heath
“Private Eye”, 29 September 1978

459: Gay Politics: Dressing to the Left

Obviously the big gay political movement of the 1970s was the fight for civil rights aka Gay Lib which began at the end of 1969. Independent of the activists involved in Gay Lib, homosexuality began to appear as an issue of concern to nice liberal heterosexual folks. But as part of a political programme, homosexuality was most readily incorporated within the broad array of issues proclaimed by the post-hippie Radical Left (aka New left in America). Homosexuality was a part of political platforms which included diversity, feminism, gender equality, minority-rights and strident non-racism. Heady radical stuff, you’ll agree. Or wholly unrealistic, preposterous, pie-in-the-sky demands proposed by anti-social types who felt that government should be lavishing the public purse on irrelevant grievances if you’re of a more conservative disposition. So: a concern for homosexuality was a shortcut to portraying leftist politics as ludicrous by association.

By David Langdon
Punch, 24 September 1975

These would be protestors outside the annual Conservative Party Conference. The newspaper vendors are the opposite of moderate, but the person holding “Gay News” doesn’t appear to gay as such.

from Auberon Waugh’s Diary
“Private Eye”, 9 December 1977

There’s a certain amount of accompanying style from Waugh here, but it’s really just the well-worn conceit that a gay worker would only be a hairdresser. A brief knock at literary/political freeloaders, leftists, and homosexuals in the Waugh manner.

by David Austin
Spectator, 27 June, 1981

The Left’s obsessive concern with gender roles and issues over practical matters.

Illustration by John Johnsen
“Punch”, 17 March 1982

To accompany an article “”Spring Diary of a Social Worker”, who by the turn of the decade were seen as the local government-employed shock troops of leftist socio-political engineering. Even the socialist alternative comedian Alexei Sayle had his joke: “Help a deprived inner city child. Kill a social worker”. The homsoexuals holding the banner appear to be a curious mix of New romnatic, Gay 90s dandies, and Radcliffe Hall butch tweedy lesbians

Out of gay political groups came numerous short-lived magazines and publishing endeavours. The public might be aware of the existence of this sort of minority-interest stuff, but no specific title or approach is going to make a massive impression on general consciousness. So you can’t specifically parody a particular author or title. They fall too far below the radar. However, it is the gay-positive content in other leftist magazines that will make the general populace aware of gay issues and give a forum for gay voices, lifestyles and activities. There are lots of feminist and leftist journals, but as they solely political magazines they have a limited audience. The most famous example of such a magazine in the UK is “Time Out”. “Time Out” was a listing magazine, detailing the weekly events in London, and so its functionality meant that its readers encountered the leftist political life of London. Hence these two parodies of “Time Out” make much out of the gay oriented content of the magazine.

“Private Eye”, 5 June 1981

“Private Eye”, 28 August 1981

Readers with incredibly retentive memories will note that that in these two parodies there’s a lot of cross-over with the parodies attacking the irrelevant, wastefulness, social rebalancing by Ken Livingstone and the 1980s GLC (Greater London Council). I already covered a lot of those satirical attacks that used GLC’s support of homosexuality against it (20 different bits starting here). But here are a couple more from Michael Heath’s “The Gays” strip:

“Private Eye”, 23 October 1981

“Private Eye”, 26 February 1982

“Private Eye”, 11 March 1983

“Private Eye”, 6 May 1983

And let’s just round out with a silly sexual / political pun.

Spectator, 4 September 1982

458: Gay Television Producers

And so to add to the gay actors, gay choreographers, gay dancers, gay hair dressers, gay interior decorators, gay fashion designers, gay shop assistants, gay antique shop-owners, gay teachers, gay writers, gay civil servants, gay spies, and gay guardsmen, may I may present:

Gay TV producers

I suppose it’s just a further new modern arena in which gay men can be theatrical and temperamental. There was an early example in Victor Spinetti’s character in “A Hard Days Night” (1964).

“Private Eye” 3 January 1967

A couple of years on is this character by Barry Humphries in “The Adventures of Barry McKenzie”. Admittedly, in this instalment the presentation he’s introduced first as a gay man, and then is a TV producer later, so it’s not a smooth integration.

In most cases this appearance of a gay TV producer is not a matter of being a fully rounded character or even much of a joke. It’s really just a matter of throwing a brief of moment of comic colour into the environs of television production.

“Dawson and Friends”, 1977
Starts: 0.55 – 2.20

This Subsonic sketch is a parody of the ITV music programme, “Supersonic” and its presenter Mike Mansfield, here spoofed by Julian Orchard in a very floppy pink bow, with a very limp wrist and some “sweety”s and “dear”s. Manfield isn’t gay that I’m aware of, so this very broad camp portrayal is just an added extra. There’s a Lot of It About, 1982
20.58 – 21.20

“There’s a Lot of It About” was one of the later of Spike Milligan’s rather free-form sketch programmes. Some of the sketches in this series were also written by Andrew Marshall and David Renwick, but I don’t think this is one of them. Spike Milligan rarely bothers with gay jokes, so for all that this just a very brief cameo it therefore stands out (although some of the characters portrayed by Peter Sellers in “The Goon Show” have a possible gay interpretation). In this sketch, a very broad camp caricature appears for a few seconds when a parody of the TV programme “Panorama” goes off the rail and comes to a technical halt. The part is played by Keith Smith who flounces on, addresses the crew in an enormously camp voice and with tremendously fluttering hands, then flounces off again. The picture quality is a little fuzzy, but it looks as though Smith is also distinguished by wearing a pair conspicuous purple shiny earrings.

“Punch”, 18 October 1978

Off the immediate topic of TV producers, but Smith’s ludicrous caricature me reminds a lot of this equally spurious, unrealistic and related-only-to-other-comic-stereotypes throwaway illustration according a humorous piece about “The A.A. Book of Minorities”.

457: Gay Boxing 3: I'm Sorry I'll Read That Again

I'm Sorry I'll Read That Again – 19 Apr 1970
Written by Graham Garden and Bill Oddie

http://www.oldtimeradiodownloads.com/comedy/Im-Sorry-Ill-Read-That-Again/710-Harder-They-Fall-April-19-1970-show-9360.html

You can play the episode online or download a copy at the link above.
“The Harder They Fall, the More They Hurt Themselves” runs for the last 10 minutes of the programme

Prior to this sketch, Terry Southern had executed several variations on the idea of a gay boxer in the film and book versions of his “The Magic Christian”

The radio sketch programme “I'm Sorry I'll Read That Again” drew its humour from silliness, puns, running gags and characters, sarcastic topical comments, and mild sexiness. This was matched by the enthusiastic performances of its cast, which were equalled and sometimes overpowered by the responses of an overenthusiastic audience. Each show usually ended with a longer 10 minute sketch parody.

“The Harder They Fall, the More They Hurt Themselves” is a parody of boxing match has as its centrepiece John Cleese’s camp old queen of a rookie boxer, Butch aka “Sugar Puff Robinson”. This is an obvious play on the name of the famous boxer Sugar Ray Robinson, as sugar puffs are a breakfast cereal, but in English slang “puff” or “poof” or “poufffe” was a then-popular term for “homosexual”.

5 years have passed since Julian and Sandy on “Round the Horne”. Julian and Sandy employed the private slang of Polari, and the writers and cast were unsure as to what they would be able to get past the BBC censors. So even as people were laughing at those sketches, they may not necessarily have been entirely sure what they laughing at, but were just caught up in the entertaining hysteria. The gags in this episode of “I'm Sorry I'll Read That Again” aren’t intended to go over anyone’s head or appear to worry much about the censor. Cleese’s character makes numerous sly sexually appreciative comments about wrestler’s glistening bodies and his camp innuendoes (“You can call me anytime”) get strong laughs. Broad acting, broad gags, broad laughs.

Bill Oddie as boxing trainer: All I want is a raw youth I can get to work on.

Cleese: Mm, don’t we all. Oh, I say. Quiet, plebs. Hello boys. I’m butch. Sorry -“Butch”.

There’s a heavy dose of effeminacy gags about and wearing women’s clothing: “If you touch my earrings I’ll wince”

Mention of a fighter’s purse (his prize money) gets a “Goody, it’ll go with my huge handbag”

Graham Garden as the promoter: Jack will be your second

Cleese: Don’t you believe it!

In this extended sketch, Cleese takes the camping-it-up spotlight from Tim Brooke Taylor, who as noted all over this blog, was the go-to-performer for mincing about for this generation of Oxbridge comedians.

Cleese’s comment “I’m as rugged as the next man” elicits a quick fey fairy cameo from Tim as The Next Man, and then a quick spat as to who saw all the men first.

Tim BRooke Taylor now admits, “The one thing I do regret is the large number of gay jokes. At the time it was liberal to be able to do ‘poofter’ jokes at last – ‘Round the Horne’ did them brilliantly. But it went on too long and I remember thinking, ‘if I do this in a ‘whoops’ voice it will get a laugh.’ I’m happy to say I gave that route up eventually.” – “The Clue Bible” by Jem Roberts.

456: Gay American Football 3 - Hudson and Landry: Bruiser LaRue

from “Hudson and Landry – Losing Their Heads”, 1971
written and performed by Bob Hudson and Ron Landry

Hudson is probably Bruiser La Rue and Landry the interviewer.

Hudson and Landry were 2 DJs who became a double-act on Californian radio in the early 1970s. Drive-time radio is a particular phenomenon, and the two were in their late 30s/, early 40s, so their attitudes as shown in other sketches are a little hard to reduce simplistically. California at that time was a strange hybrid of the enormously trendy because of Hollywood and San Francisco, but otherwise it was an enormously conservative, even reactionary, state as proven by its electing Ronald Reagan as governor. The enormously enthusiastic reception of this sketch is coloured further when you take into account that it was recorded at the Pomona National Golf Club – which isn’t quite the typical audience, although I may be making unwarranted assumptions about people who play golf.

So Bruiser LaRue as a name? Is it just the effetness of “LaRue” played off against the manly “Bruiser”, or do I detect a homophony with the oh-so clichéd gay name of “Bruce”? Make your own mind up. It starts off as a traditional sports parody, with the rat-a-tat mannerisms of the sports interviewer. This sets up a contrast for the appearance of Bruiser with his slightly histrionic, and lilting and emphatic tones – which are not normal for American men. Bruiser is a big dumb lisping sissy. This sketch gets its mileages from subverting the interview with this character, finding plenty of opportunities for gay jokes prompted by sports terminology. There’s no innuendo, but the performance is camp, lip-smacking, and the actual lines are less than subtle hinting as to what Bruiser is about. And indeed other such slightly off-colour jokes as the Beaver gag. Everybody gets the joke about Bruiser from the beginning.

A couple of interesting, roughly contemporary equivalents of this performances are Alan Sues on Laugh-in, and Jonathan Winters a few years earlier in the 60s – although in each case suggestions of actual homosexuality were more covert.

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INTERVIEWER: Hi, sports fans. Weklcome to Ace Grobny talks with the superstars. Tonight’s guest is the incredible fallback of the Stubenville Studs, Brusier la Rue.

BRUISER: Hhhiiii!! Oh I love your cufflinks!

INTERVIEWER: Bruiser, you were sensational last night.

BRUISER: Oh Ace, that’s So sweet of you to say that

INTERVIEWER: You rushed 253 yards, caught four touchdown passes and picked up three fumbles

BRUISER: And a sailor

INTERVIEWER: Bruiser, what do you enjoy most about football?

BRUISER: Piling on, Ace. Oh I love it. Bodies here, bodies there, bodies, bodies everywhere. Ohhh.

INTERVIEWER: Bruiser, football’sdangerous. Can you think of one game that was actually fun?

BRUISER: Ohhh, I’ll never forget it. We were playing an exhibition game in Argentina. It was against the Gay Caballeros.

INTERVIEWER: The Gay Caballeros?

BRUISER: That’s Right!

INTERVIEWER: Did you score?

BRUISER: Oh great big silly you! Did I score? I ran myself ragged. Ole!

INTERVIEWER: Bruiser, how about running down your career for us. How did it all begin?

BRUISER: Well, Ace, I started out playing kick-the-can in my mother’s high heels. And then of course we went into grade school football. Which was touch football.

INTERVIEWER: Touch?

BRUISER: Which I Dearly loved. Ohhh, if I knew then what I knew now.

INTERVIEWER: Yes, yes…

BRUISER: And then we moved onto junior high. Junior varsity, which was really a blast, because we had all the cheers and everything. .

INTERVIEWER: Ah, yes, the cheers. Can you remember some of those old high school cheers,Bruiser?

BRUISER: Ohhh, you bet, Ace. I’ll be happy to do a couple for ya. “California oranges / Texas cactus / We play East High / Just for practice.” And remember this one: “Ree ree ree / Hit ‘em on the knee / Rass rass rass / (pause) Hit ‘em on the other knee.”

INTERVIEWER: You’ve got to be a football hero to get along with the beautiful girls!

BRUISER: (pause, then slightly offended) Well, different strokes for different folks.

INTERVIEWER: Well, out of all the games you’ve played, Bruiser, vcan you come with what you consider your greatest play?

BRUISER: Ohhh, I certainly can. All of us are prima donnas, Ace. And I remember my one play that I think was just fantastic. I’ll never forget, we were playing against the Bradford Beavers.

INTERVIEWER: The Bradford Beavers?

BRUISER: And I took a hand-off from my quarterback, Sid Tommedge. I went racing around left-hand. And all at once this huge Beaver was staring me right in the face.

INTERVIEWER: A Bradford Beaver?

BRUISER: Yes, ugly! Uggh! And I stopped and I said “Hhhiii! . . . Excuse me, are you a Libra?” Big silly dummy was trying to think it over, and I just scooted around him and tippy-toed in for a touchdown.

INTERVIEWER: Another great moment in sports!

455: Gay American Football 2 - Phil Interlandi

by Phil Interlandi
in "Playboy", October 1975

Well, yes. Doesn't it just.

454: Gay American Football 1 - Berke Breathed

“The Academic Waltz”
By Berke Breathed
in “Daily Texan” 1979

“The Academic Waltz” was the first cartoon strip by Berke Breathed. It was drawn during his later years as a student at the University of Texas at Austin. “The Daily Texan” was the University’s newspaper. Breathed created characters and a style of humour which would transfer to his syndicated strip “Bloom County” in 1980.

This strip plays off the platitudes about sports players being good roles models who run about thanking god for their victories and display the all-American values we want our children emulating. Rather than any sissy innuendoes, Breathed goes for the gusto with his punchline about sex. Whether anything more should be made of the fact that the football player is sat with his legs crossed, I leave to your discretion.

453: The Fan’s Journal by Jean Genet

National Lampoon, May 1984
“The Fan’s Journal by Jean Genet” By Will Jacobs and Gerard Jones

A comic trick is to describe sports in the manner of something completely inapposite, such as football matches described in the language of a theatrical review – although that’s no longer so odd as the sports columns have been infiltrated by overly-educated humanities graduates who want to make some their high culture rub off on popular entertainment. Lookee me, lookeme, look at how cultivated my appreciation is. Match reports which come freighted with associations and similes more appropriate to a high church ceremony. In such a vein, here we get a parody of literary ne’er-do-well Jean Genet giving a baseball report. His usual orchids growing in a sewer metaphors are a unnatural occurrence on the baseball diamond. So in Genet’s florid scandalising poetic style of the bad streets, we get all his usual tricks (pun intended) such as Negroes, faggots, and sailor . Few sports reports will ever make so much of arseholes, semen, recreational drugs and homosexual attraction.

452: Miles Kington: Gay football Teams

From a longer column which is just an extended opportunity to knock out puns on football team names and congregate silly incongruities. The tiny excerpt below is the obligatory gay bit. It’s beneath my dignity to have to point out what the joke teams below are about, other than noting that Queens of the South are a real football team.

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Miles Kington
The Times, 4 October 1984
"How Europe Put the Boot In"

In the European Fruit Cup, Sporting Nancy went out to Gay Boys of Vienna, the Finnish side Dynamo Conditioner beat All-Male Disco of Frankfurt and Queens of the South went out with Macho Madrid and haven’t been seen since.