298: Barney Miller 1975

“Barney Miller” was a sitcom set in a small NYC police office, whose chief of police was the titular character played by hal Linden. This setting reasonably allowed for many oddballs and unusual social specimens outside the normal remit of sitcoms. One of the recurring characters was a gay thief, Marty Morrison, played by Jack De Leon.
Marty first appeared in only the second episode of the series, made another appearance in the first series, and made several more appearances in later series, often with another gay character, his friend (maybe lover?) Darryl Driscoll, played by Ray Stewart.

Marty was largely intended as a relatively positive character. Including him in the second episode of a new series at this time, was one way of demonstrating some degree of commitment to realism. However, what controversy the character provoked, came from the gay community, who had qualms over the character the his portrayal. Strangely enough, I don’t. Either several years of looking at this stuff has left me inured, or else this isn’t as bad as was made out.

Strongly insistent upon the idea of a dignified gay identity, mid-70s gay groups who took an active interest in gay media images would probably be appalled by many of the comedic gays who appear on screen nowadays. Particularly, by the fact that many of them are offered by actual gay men. What offended in the 70s and 80s may not today. And I think this is the case with Marty Morrison.

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“Experience” written by Steve Gordon
30 January 1975



Marty is introduced as a secondary character in this episode, and is there mainly as more obvious comic relief to a plot about a mad bomber. A gay thief stealing purses may seem a touch clunky today, and probably struck Gay media advocates as wholly crass then. Marty as a character gets surprisingly strong lines in this episode, and gives as good as he gets. Which can only be a bonus. He speaks in a slight drawl and camply effete manner. Plenty of bitchy retorts (which works well in the normal gag manner of American sitcoms). However, since it’s easy to see how all these could have played in a much more whiny and fey way, or simply pissy manner, Marty therefore seems a stronger character. All in all, De Leon’s performance seems within hailing distance of the characterisations offered by Anthony Cotton over the last decade, or the sort of jokes which are accepted within “Ugly Betty”, particular about fashion, slightly vain, faintly ridiculing unthinking machismo, and slight sexual insinuations.

“Kleptomania is a disease not a crime. Besides. I’ve thrown away better purses than that” (with a whole sequence of gags upbraiding the tackyness of a stolen purse)
Marty upbraids the police photographer for the shoddiness of his picture-taking ability
When Marty talks to his lawyer about police brutality, a line like “Wait until I tell what they gave me for lunch” could have come from any character in that situation witho0ut necessarily seeming over-gay.
“I applied to be a cop. They turned me down. What’s wrong with a gay cop? There are gay robbers. I mean. For god sakes. They always expect me to come on like Paul Bunyan.” (then apes a butch thuggish cop)
When the woman whose purse he stole say “You’re just lucky the police got to you before my husband”, Marty replies “The same to you”.

Undeniably, there are certainly a lot of standard gay mannerisms employed. When Marty’s first shown, he’s languidly propped on the desk, supporting his head on his desk. When sat, he’s usually crosslegged, resting his hands clasped on knee. He also has a slightly limp hand, usually splayed downwards. Walks with slight sashay, elbows hovering above hip and hands, and often speaks so head slightly tilted. Speaks with animated eyebrows and shoulders. When put in the background in a police cell, he tends to pull various moues just to remind us that he’s there. And crosses his arms across his chest, sometimes clutching his shoulders in the process, for a diva-ish manner. And note in the photo how nicely he holds his hands on the prison bars.

He very mildly flirts with the store robber who’s put in his same cell, and when threatened Marty doesn’t quite crumble into shrill hysterics (unlike some of the homosexuals in crime films of the same period – although I’ll concede it’s a near call). And there is a scene where he shows envy of the police dealing with a male flasher

For all that the episode centers around the bomb plot, Marty/ Jack De Leon holds his own so that the character is not merely a simple camp comedic relief, is a bit more assertive. The character is played in such a way that the all elements cohere and so makes sense without being an obvious stereotype or mockery. Marty makes sense. Just as importantly, all the other characters on-screen accept him for what he is. There are no fag jokes at his expense.

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“The Guest” written by William Taub
27 March 1975



This is Marty’s second appearance later in the first season, so evidently the character was felt successful enough for a return visit. Again Marty is in the episode as comic relief, while the ostensible motor of the episode is the squad’s attempt to protect a Mob witness. Again Marty is unashamed of his homosexuality, nor does he doe much to deny his thefts either, though there isn’t any cack-handed attempt to relate the two. Unlike the first episode, there are a few slight swish jokes by others at Marty’s expense. The policeman who brings him for shoplifting calls him “Dr Strangelove”.
There are a few opportunities for camp insinuations. Marty pulls a face when officer comments “There are no privates on the police force”
And when the Mob witness, scared for his life, complains that Marty wasn’t frisked, Barney Miller replies ”You’re right. I didn’t have the nerve...Marty’s not gonna kill you. Take you to dinner maybe”

Marty’s own strand follows from the reason he stole luggage from a shop, which he explains in Barney’s office.

Marty: “I’m getting married”
Barney: (interested) Really? Who’s the lucky...person?
(The person Marty describes is a woman, with lots of comparisons to his mother, leading to the confession he’s only marrying for money)
When Barney says “I won’t book. But I’m going to have to hold you”, this provokes a look from Marty, with Barney replying: “Just a police expression”

When Marty is locked up in the cell with the Mob witness, much of his contribution to the episode is slightly catty things said in the background – although in reality they’re no different from the wisecracks any other character might say, but done with a camp manner.
When the Mob witness starts detailing all the reasons why he never found the right woman and was distracted by other things, Marty takes a distinct interest, echoing him almost romantically, and casting wide eyes at him. When Marty is released he tells the Mob witness, “I really enjoyed our...brief encounter”. Marty is at the door about to leave when he turns back and ask “Are you a Scorpio?” When the Mob witness replies, yes, Marty moans” “Oh God I knew it” and leaves semi-anguished. Later in the episode, the police station receives a phone call, which evidently a hysterical tearful Marty phoning after Mr Schuster.

The Marty performance holds together again. But the way it’s been written this time indulge several other gay stereotypes - a certain mother-obsession, and also unmanly over emotionalism. Since Marty is marrying an unseen woman for money, but the falls for the Mob witness, it makes gay affections seem rather unreliable (but then this is a 23 minute comedy so realism is asking a bit much).

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“The Discovery” written by Chris Hayward
30 October 1975



http://www.stevecap.com/alternatechannels_net/us/ongoing/Barney_Miller.htm explains some of the background to this episode. The gay audience had not been pleased by Marty and their complaints were forwarded by the Gay Media Task Force. So to placate gay viewers, not only does this episode have a specifically gay theme, harassment of homosexuals, but it also introduces a non-stereotypical gay police officer. The harassment at first looks as thought it may originate in the police, with gays be shaken down for money. Barney is offended by this and is determined to find out what’s happening. Set against this, one of the officers, Wojo, makes his discomfort about homosexual evident with various small jokes. Wojo, a slightly dumb but usually well-meaning character, was often used in the series to point up the sort of low-grade, institutional bigotry many people employ. Significantly, after the perpetrators have been found, and Wojo has been incidentally reprimanded, he manages to reach some sort of accommodation with the idea of homosexuality. And so in the course of the episode, in the low-key manner available to a sitcom, Wojo demonstrates the police prejudice against homosexuals. The episode is not just about showing the two gay men as slightly more than comic relief (although the querulous cowardice on Darryl’s part doesn’t help), but also finding opportunities for Wojo’s education.
Also this episode introduces another recurring gay character, Darryl Driscoll, played by Ray Stewart. Both men are here in a non-criminal capacity to argue against injustice. Although as casual wear for two off-duty homosexuals go, these two are dressed oddly.

(Darryl and Marty appear quarrelling at doorway to the squad room)
D: I don’t like it her
M: Don’t be silly
(Marty swans in. When Wojo looks at him, Darryl gives him haughty look, and walks to Marty)
D: This is enemy territory

M (To Barney Miller) We have a problem
W: (dryly) no kidding
M (sotto to D) He was the one I was telling you about. Can we speak to you captain (so W hears) Privately
Goes into office (makes moue as goes past B)
W: if you need any help in there (to other guys) Those guys make me nervous

M: Darryl was arrested by a detective from this precinct
B: What charge
D: Being Unique
M: He was coming out of the Velvet Den when he was busted. He had to buy his way out for 50 dollars
D: I told you he’d be angry. We’ll never be seen again (turns away to shield his head in his hand). He gave me a choice. Either pay through the nose or bleed through it...he was ugly
B: Tall ugly or short ugly
M: When you’re ugly what’s the difference?
D: He was a bit shorter than me
B: 5’11?
D: No. 6’3. I was wearing my platforms
(All three go back in office to ensure that it was not one of B’s officers. M waves D with fingers to follow. B introduces W)
D: I haven’t had the pleasure (extends long limp hand which B doesn’t take, so folds his hand below his waist)
(When B sits D to look through records, M pats D’s shoulder approvingly
D: I hope this doesn’t take too long. I have a lecture at noon – I’m having lunch with my mother (weary look from M)
(A potential suicide has been brought in. He is divorced. He is questioned about personal life.)
Suicide: Of course I live alone. What do you think I am? (loud enough for M and D to hear and then turn to each other pulling offended faces)
(When the suicide suddenly runs off causing a disturbance – M puts hand to cheek in shock)
W: The guys some fruitcake (to M and D) no offence (Both give slightly haughty offended glares at him)
W: (sotto to Barney, confused) How do guys get like that
(shot of both pouring over records like happy old maids)
B: Who knows? Could be a small psychological phenomenon kicked off by anything
W: (chewing gum) Diet?
B: Possibly
W: I try and keep a good eye on my starches
B: (beat) You worried
W: (trying to laugh it off) Me? No........(abashed) Well, every once in a while I wonder (B gives him look) Don’t you?
B: No
W: I guess that’s one of the things I admire about you
(Later there is a conversation between M and the suicide now in jail, heavily suggesting M has tried suicide)
Suicide: We all have different problem
M (clasping and fingering cell bars) I wanted to be John Wayne until I was 17. (M’s fingers splayed near his throat) And then one day I didn’t anymore. I wanted to die. Then I heard Doris Day singing Que Sera Sera. And I though she’s right. There’s nothing wrong with me.
Suicide: I’m a perfectly normal man
M: (slightly huffy) Well if you want to settle for that, it’s perfectly alright by me
W: I have sheets here of guys who have a record of beating up the...er..opposite sex
B: Are you referring to women?
W: No, I’m referring to those guys
B: (calmly) They’re not the opposite sex
W: Well they are so for me...aren’t they?
Other cop: No to me. I don’t care (walks off)
B: (firmly) They preferred to be called “gay”
W: I know. But .. I just have trouble saying it

(Policeman brings in another man. D jumps up)
D: O my God! That’s the man! (goes behind M as a shield) I told you he was ugly
M: (aghast) You were being kind!
D: Oh yes that’s him (goes close, then puts arm in front of face to suggest how hideous man is)
(Sergeant explains how man accosted him outside of gay bar. B laughs about how anyone could think a NY cop was gay)
Sergeant says pointedly “Que sera sera”.
Sergeant , man, M and D go off.
M – I told you they were human (refers to cops, or because one might be gay??)

In tag scene, W is finally able to use the word “gay”

297: Sanford and Son 1972

Sanford and Son - The Piano Movers
14 April 1972
Writer: Aaron Ruben (adaptation of “The Piano” by Galton and Simpson)

Redd Foxx ... Fred G. Sanford
Demond Wilson ... Lamont Sanford
Lester Fletcher ... Man
Rick Hurst ... Police Officer


Part 1


Part 2


Part 3

“Sanford and Son” was the American adaptation of the classic English sitcom “Steptoe and Son”. It was produced by many of the same team behind the “All in the Family”. The big alteration was the change to a black working class setting. The show also became more of a vehicle for the raucous playing-to-the-gallery comedy style of stand-up comedian Redd Fox as the father Fred Sanford. Many of the episodes in the first season were based upon episodes from the English series. This episode borrows heavily from the 1962 episode “The Piano”. In that episode the man wanting to get rid of the piano is more of a posh silly arse. The change we’re concerned about in this version is that the character has been altered to allow for a lot of gay innuendo. Nothing is confirmed that he actually is gay, but there are enough suggestions to make for a whole load of hand-waggling gestures between Sanford and Son. It draws upon none of the intricate plotting, scene-setting or jokes of the gay themed episode of “Steptoe and Son” aired in 1970. However, as in “Any Old Iron”, it does rely upon the idea that a refined man with aesthetic tastes can, in Harold Steptoe’s words, only be a bit of “a poof”, or “fruity” for Americans. So the class element in homosexuality is played heavily here. The audience and the Sanfords are presented with a slightly older man, fastidious and fussy, velvet-jacketed and wearing a neckerchief. He’s also not a physically imposing man, shorter than the two Sanfords. Happily, this isn’t a mincing portrayal. He demonstrates a refined concern for his collected antiques. He starts off not quite touching on prissy, with a crisp, insistent diction, but not quite queeny. Although when provoked the man adopts more of a bitchy tone as in the “Now I have a whole new way of life which I prefer”, and becomes more imperiously prissy as he becomes more pissed off by Fred Sanford’s behaviour (as if to confirm and provoke Fred even more). So any homosexuality is not quite obvious but these elements are chosen to conform pre-existing prejudices, hence Fred Sanford’s:

“I think he’s a fruit”.
“$100 to Dwayne Hudson.. I bet I know who Dwayne is”
“Got any kids? I didn’t think so”
When the man is in on phone “Oh hello, DARLING”, then speaks French, Fred Sanford’s mimicking him reminds me of Max Bialystock in “The Producers” mocking Carmen Ghia’s mannerisms.
Just as “All in the Family”, there are jokes about flying (i.e feet noit touching the ground), which must have been a feature of the time, I suppose.

It’s worth noting the enormous laugh from the audience each time the man puts his hand on Fred’s shoulder. Then the enormous laugh as Fred slightly camps it up lounging on the sofa, waving his long cigarette, primping his head, making a few effete phrases, which Fred assumes mocks the man’s lifestyle.

So the gay innuendoes are a strange choice of fillip to adorn the episode, since the English episode was half an hour long and fairly dense. There’s some room for disavowal here about the character being actually gay, but all the jokes and mild gibes made by Fred are based on homosexuality. And there’s no possibility of any ironic intentions for Fred’s conviction is never proven woefully mistaken. The jokes and mockery are comparatively mild, and there’s nothing to suggest vehement disgust or horror at being around homosexuals. If it’s homophobic, it’s because we no longer entertain the attitude that homosexuals are automatically laughable. You’ll notice that the man’s possible homosexuality effortlessly grants Fred a natural superiority over this rich, sophisticated white man.

There is another episode in a later series of “Sanford and Son” revolving around mistaken homosexual identity.

296: The Mary Tyler Moore Show 1973

“The Mary Tyler Moore Show”
My Brother’s Keeper - January 13, 1973
Writers: Jenna McMahon, Dick Clair

Cloris Leachman: Phyllis Lindstrom
Valerie Harper: Rhoda Morgenstern
Robert Moore: Ben Sutherland

Phyllis's beloved brother Ben, a composer for commercials, comes to town for a visit from New York. The dominating Phyllis, proud of her brother, desperately wants to set him up with Mary. The two have a pleasant meal together, but when Mary’s friend Rhoda drops by, Ben hits it off with her, inviting her to a concert. He begins spending more time with Rhoda to Phyllis's dismay and intense disapproval. Rhoda evens says they are going to get married. Mary holds a party to which everyone is invited. It is a disaster. Phyllis is sat in corner away from everybody and begins sobbing violently at the prospect of being related by marriage to her antagonist Rhoda. Everyone rapidly leaves. Rhoda goes up to Phyllis and tells her that she and Ben are not getting married, that it was a joke.

Rhoda: Ben and I aren’t getting married. He’s not my type.

Phyllis:(getting up, outraged) What do you mean? Not your type! He’s attractive! He’s successful! He’s single!

Rhoda:(interjecting) He’s gay!

Incredible display of Phyllis stunned. Stares at Rhoda. Rhoda nods in confirmation. Phyllis is now abashed, then hugs Rhoda joyfully.
(ecstatically) I’m so relieved.

END OF PART TWO
EPILOGUE.
Phyllis and Ben at piano. There is no mention of his homosexuality, only a gag at Phyllis’s ignorance of music.

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As the summary makes clear, the only suggestion of homosexuality and a gay character is right at the end of the episode. There is nothing in Robert Moore’s performance to suggest he’s gay. He’s not played as excessively manly, merely as a friendly, attractive proposition for the female characters. If in retrospect the audience sees anything “gay” in Ben’s portrayal then it may stem from the fact that Robert Moore was gay. Moore had been involved in the original New York production of “The Boys in the Band”. Apparently the role of Ben was never conceived as gay. When this episode was recorded it was felt that the conclusion wasn’t working. According to James L. Brooks, the show’s producer: "It was rewrite night, and we were looking for an end to the show. Bob was gay and we said, `What if we just use that?'" That it can all be a last minute afterthought suggests that homosexuality was now a fact of modern life that audience would accept. The audience has been kept in ignorance as much as Phyllis, and it is hoped will accept as well as she does. It’s certainly not given an opportunity to really think of what this means, in itself or for the characters. It’s a way of pricking Phyllis’s self-conceit. Being gay is the biggest logical shock the writers can think of to top the episode. Why wouldn’t a man be interested in an attractive woman? Though it’s a solution which had been offered as a gag in Rock Hudson films over a decade earlier. And this deferred romantic interest gambit is a technique which will become a mainstay of gay-themed sitcom episodes in the 1970s, and even in the cartoon strip “Doonesbury”.
Possibly because “The Mary Tyler Moore Show” was a much less abrasive, audience friendly show, more people seem to remember this episode as featuring the first gay character on an American sitcom, than the episode of “All in the family” which preced it by almost two years. And indeed, it may mean more than it was on such an appealing show, and without any hint of controversy or liberal argument, that Ben’s homosexuality was made an inoffensive joke.
And of course, I hardly need mention that we never see beloved gay brother Ben ever again.

295: All in the Family 1971

Here we have what is possibly the first American sitcom to discuss homosexuality and also feature a homosexual character. (The English already got there with Steptoe and Son at least a year before America. Yay for us!) It’s worth noting that this groundbreaker was a Norman Lear sitcom. Norman Lear’s sitcoms were all about pressing social issues, and advancing an agenda of liberal acceptance and positive politics. In this case the sitcom team use the bigoted Archie Bunker (as first established in the sitcom “Till Death Us Do Part”. Yay for England again!) as a stalking horse to accentuate the stupidity of know-nothing, right-wing prejudice. Although making this the fifth epiode of only the first seies was a relatively bold move. Many of the sitcoms in America during the 1970s which happen to feature an episode with homosexual content are from the Norman Lear production factory.
You’ll notice that the word gay is never used at all in this episode. However when Archie employs his tirade of slang terms about homosexuals it’s then immediately followed by Archie’s ridiculous views on the race so as to make homophobia as ridiculous by association as racism.
For all Archie’s bluster, when we finally see Roger it’s faily obvious that Roger is not gay. Although he does use words like super, fabulous, etc, there is a not a hint of lisping, effeminacy, or swooping, soaring tremulous diction. He is a perfectly plain and normal person. The depiction and anxiety about Roger DOES tie into fear of a less-heterosexual generation. Being cultured aroused suspicions of being unmanly and therefore homosexual (See comments by President Richard Nixon below). “La-di-da! Is one way of putting it. “Goddam hippy faggot get your hair cut” might be another. So Archie’s homosexual obsession over Roger is expressive more of a particular generation and cultural gap, rather than of any consequence of Gay Lib. The unisex anxiety schtick is made explicit in the Jerry scene
Mike’s outrage seems based more on Archie is slurring his friend as gay, than actually defending gay rights.
Archie’s kicking up his heel gesture is the same one featured on the posters for the gay film “Staircase”,
Steve is the all American he-man. With a deep, rich, booming, slow performance. Indeed, Philip Carey had been a professional football player. In fact, quite a few homosexual sitcom episodes rely upon the idea that the one-off homosexual is some all-American he-man hero so as to upset effeminate stereotypes. Of course, this episode also establishes another fine homosexual episode tradition - we never see him ever again.
The arm wrestling adds a certain dramatic counterpoint and also confirmation S’s manly qualities.
And given, the final tag-scene, it could almost be argued that the larger import of the episode is that Archie is incapable of parsing the new sexual signifiers with his old-fashioned, uniformed standards, and therefore his excitation about homosexuals means that he is the one least capable of knowing when he sees one


Part 1


Part 2


Part 3


And just to round off, here’s an unexpected piece of social and cultural criticism. It’s Richard Nixon the TV critic. Although since he seems to think at least two of the characters were gay, he wasn’t paying all the attention he might. Besides thinking Mike may be bisexual. And isn’t good that Nixon thinks: “I do not think that you glorify on public television homosexuality. The reason you don’t, anymore than you glorify whores. We all know we have weaknesses. But, goddamn it, what do you think that does to 11 and 12 year old boys? We constantly had to clean up the staffs to keep the Goddamned fags out of it. It outrages me because i don now want to see this county go that way. You know what happened to the Greeks! Homosexuality destroyed them. Sure, Aristotle was a homo. We all know that so was Socrates. You know what happened to the Romans? The last six Roman emperors were fags. Nero had a public wedding to a boy. You know what happened to the popes? They (had sex with) the nuns, that's been goin' on for years, centuries. But the Catholic Church went to hell, three or four centuries ago. It was homosexual, and it had to be cleaned out. Now that's what's happened to Britain, it happened earlier to France. Let's look at the strong societies. The Russians. Goddamn, they root 'em out. They don't let 'em around at all. I don't know what they do with them. Look at this country. You think the Russians allow dope? Homosexuality, dope, immorality are the enemies of strong societies. That's why the communists and left-wingers are pushing the stuff. They're trying to destroy us. I know Moynihan will disagree with this, (Atty. Gen. John) Mitchell will, and Garment will. But, goddamn, we have to stand up to this. When I think of television, makes this respectable. There’s a big programme of that, we should respect them and all that, they’re letting these people like the Gay liberation crowd and the Gay May Day and all the rest. You know what’;s happened to san Francisco? "But it's not just down in the ratty part of town. The upper class in San Francisco is that way. The Bohemian Grove which I attend from time to time. It is the most faggy goddamned thing you could ever imagine, with that San Francisco crowd.It’s just terrible, I mean, I don't even want to shake hands with anybody from San Francisco. Decorators. They got to do something. But we don't have to glorify it. You know one of the reasons fashions have made women look so terrible is because the goddamned designers hate women. Now that’s the truth. You watch. Some of those fellows they have the flat-chested thing with horrible looking styles they run. That was really the designers taking it out on the women. Now they're trying to get some more sexy things coming on again."
Why as monologues go, it’s even better than the stuff that Archie Bunker offers up.


“All in the Family”
“Judging Books by Covers” by Burt Styler and Norman Lear
9 February 1971

Archie: Carroll O’Connor
Edith: Jean Stapleton
Gloria: Sally Struthers
Mike: Rob Reiner

Roger: Tony Geary
Steve: Philip Carey
Kelcy: Bob Hastings
Jerry: Linn Patrick

SCENE 1

Mike, Gloria and Edith are getting things ready for a party. Archie is outraged at the fanciness of the food, and wants to know what special person is coming when he never gets food like this)

A: But that don’t answer the question. Who’s the big cheese you’re having here for lunch.

G: (admits softly) Roger

A; Roger da fairy?!

M: (trying to steer Archie away) Alright…

A: Did you hear that, Edith? Do you know who they’re bringing around here for lunch? Roger! Sweee-tee-pie Roger!

M; Alright, Arch, will ya cut it out, huhn?

E: (placatory) It’s their friend, Archie.

A: Listen, Edith, we run a decent home HERE. And we don’t need any, any strange little birdies flying in an’ out of here

G: Dad, stop that! Roger is not a strange little birdy

A: His pal, Roger, is as queer as a four dollar bill, and he knows it

G: That’s not only cruel Daddy, that is an outright lie!

M: Do you know something, Archie – just because a guy is sensitive and, and he’s an intellectual and he wears glasses, you make him out a queer.

A: I never said a guy who wears glasses is a queer. . . A guy who wears glasses is a four-eyes, a guy who’s a fag is a queer!

(laughter and applause from audience)

G: (to E) Make him stop talking like that

(E hurries away from argument, tidying up room)

A: Go ahead Edith, now answer the girl. Now you’ve seen Roger sashaying around here with his la-de-da talk – he’s a pansy!

E: (flatly) I don’t know

A: Whaddayamean you don’t know

E: (bewildered) I’m not an expert on flowers

M: Look Arch, you might as well face it – you’re all alone in this. We all know Roger, and we all know he‘s straight. And even if he wasn’t. And I said “if”, what difference would that make? Do you know, that in many countries, England for instance, there is a law that says whatever two consenting adults do in private is their own business.

A: Listen! This aint England! We threw England outta here a long time ago! We don’t want no more part of England! And for your information, England is a FAG country!

(Loud laughter from audience. Mike is surprised by Archie’s comment)

M: What!

A: Certainly! (stands up) Aint they still picking handkerchiefs outta they sleeves, huhn? (mimes to audience laughter] Aint they still standing around leaning on them skinny umbrellas, like this here? (rests his hand on his hip in teapot handle style) I know. The whole society is based on a kind of a fagdom.

(loud laughter. Mike gets up almost outraged and spluttering)

M; You, you…. You know, you’re right Archie. You’re right. The British are a bunch of pansies. Pansies, fairies and sissies! And the Japanese are a race of midgets. The Irish are boozers, the Mexicans are bandits,

A: And you Polacks are meatheads.

(audience laughter again, since “Meatheads is A’s pet slur for M. A sits back down. Doorbell rings. Gloria gets up to answer door)

G: That’s Roger. Now Daddy, please be good.

A: If I can’t be good I’ll be careful

(G opens door, Roger comes in. Is dressed slightly loudly, but is enthusiastic and well-spoken in manner. G embraces him, and M warmly shakes his hand)

R: Gloria! Hey Mike!

M: How was the trip?

R: Fabulous! Mike, it was the most super trip. In fact, it was an absolutely stunning, exhausting, incredible experience!

A: (out of the side of his mouth)Oh when is he gonna land?

G: Pardon me, Roger. You know my mother –

R: Ah yes, Mrs Bunker, so nice to see you again. Really, a pleasure (when Edith shakes R’s hand, he covers her hand with his other hand. Rather puzzled, E then covers his other hand with her other hand)

G: And my father, Mr Bunker.

R: Mr Bunker (extends hand)

A: How are ya? And one hand is enough

[Family sits down to look at Roger’s snapshots]

A: Er, tell us about Europe, there, Roger. What kinda sports action they got over there this time of the year. I mean, they must have things like skiing there and bobsledding. Bobsledding! There’s a manly sport. (looks pointedly at Roger) You do any bobsledding over there?

R: Oh no, sir, there isn’t too much of that over there in London, I’m afraid. That’s where I spent most of my time.

A: London, huh? London, England?

R: Yes

A: (dismissively to Mike) Your witness

(family are looking at snapshots of flowers)

E: What beautiful flowers!

R: Aren’t the colours vibrant. And they smelt heavenly!

A: (to himself) He’s off the ground again

R: Oh this was a most enchanting young person

A: (pointedly) Boy or girl?

R: A Boy

A: (to himself, slightly despairing) Why did I ask?

[Archie gets up and snatches the picture]

A: I wanna take a look at this enchanting young person

[Mike gets up and comes after Archie, drawing him to the other side of the room away from Edith, Gloria and Roger]

M: Gee, Arch, aren’t you going to be late meeting Steve and the guys at the tavern

A: Oh, I thought I’d hang around and hear some more about the enchanting things he done over there. For instance, did he hunt?

M: You know Roger doesn’t hunt. I don’t’ believe in it either

A: Yeah, well sometimes I got my doubts about you too, Buster Brown. Alright Edith, I’m going over to Kelcy’s Bar to say hello to my friend Steve, and say hello to some of the boys. Nice seeing you too Rog.

R: My pleasure, Mr Bunker

A: (Kicks up his right heel slightly) Whoop-dee!

SCENE 2

[At the bar. Kelsey behind the bar as bartender. Steve, Archie and several other patrons are at the bar discussing politics. Steve is a well-built bachelor, played professional football for two seasons, now owns a camera shop. Archie looks up to him as an embodiment of the ideal of old-fashioned masculinity, envious of his bachelordom, his rough tough sports career, and his fitness. Archie and Steve move across to a table in the corner of the bar. Mike and Roger come into get a pitcher of beer]

A: Get a load of this, my son-in-law and his pal, Tinkerbelle

[Roger approaches Steve to talk about camera technicalities, then returns to Mike at the bar)

K: Er Mike, can I speak to yer fer a … (to Roger) Would you excuse us please?

R: Oh sure

K: Thanks.( K and M move to far end of bar, K leans intoward M) Eh, this, er, kid you come in wid, is he straight?

M: Oh no, not you too. Of course he is, why?

K: Well, the way him and Steve there was so buddy-buddy. I though maybe he was a little . . (makes flowery gesture with hand and pulls fleeting prim face)

M; What?

K: Oh now, don’t get me wrong. I don’t mind Steve. His camera store is just down the street here and he only comes in for a drink every once in a while on his way home. Besides. He don’t… camp it up, yer know (again waves hand, but grimaces). Aaand, he don’t bring in none of his friends (flutters fingers of hand)

M: Kelsey? Are you trying to tell me that Steve is …

K: (Deliberatively) I just wouldn’t want MY place… to become no, er . . . (purses lips and slightly waggles head) hangout…knowwhatimean? Hunh!

[while Archie and Steve are in conversation at the table the camera zooms in on Mike staring slightly open-mouthed at the pair. End of part 1]

SCENE 3

[Archie comes home to watch a fight on TV, as Roger is about to leave Mike is eager to get R to leave before Archie says anything]

A: (calls Mike over) Why don’t you just open up a window, we’ll all watch him just fly out

(Roger leaves)

A: What’s the matter you sore-head. Just because I called the turn on your friend Roger-belle?

M: Listen Archie, you make one more crack about my friend Roger…

A: Or what?

M: Nevermind. But I could tell you something that could shock you pretty good

[a party game, in which due to build only women are able to lift a chair. Archie becomes more frustrated.]

A: It’s a dumb gag. Where did ya get it?

M: Roger showed it to us.

A: Oh! Roger showed it to ya!

G: Yeah, he brought it back from England.

A: Oh I bet he can do it!

M: Let’s not start any of that again, huh.

A: You told me that a man can’t do it, so if a man can’t do it then I would imagine your friend Roger-belle can

M; Roger-belle, huh, Rogerbelle! You wanna know who could lift that chair, Archie? I mean not only could he that chair, but he could prance and flit all over this room with it? Your friend Steve!

G: Michael!

A: My friend Steve!

M: That’s right, that’s right Archie! And I wasn’t going to say it. But it’s true

E: (sitting in shock) That..big..football player..is .. a .flow-er?

A: You are sick! You know that! You need help! (long speech about the permissive society) But when they goes besmearin’, when they goes besmearin’ the name of a great linebacker, a second shirt All-American, a man, and I mean a Real MAN… then you might as well shut the doors of this country and hang out a sign, “Closed! Owner gone nuts!”!!

SCENE 4

{cuts to Kelsey’s bar, where the patrons, including Steve, are all enthusiastically watching the fight on the Tv. Archie nervously comes in and hovers near Steve who is shouting at the fight. When the fight finishes most of the other patrons leave]

A; Where you goin guys?

Patrons: The old lady’s waiting for me.

A: (to Steve) Boy! That was some fight there, huhn?

S: Say, you know something, Arch? (fakes several punches at A) I love those competitions!

A: (dodges punches) Hey! Take it easy! Hey, the law says them mitts of yours are lethal weapons.

S: Are you nuts, Arch, I was ball player, not a fighter

(A and S sit down at table)

A: Aw, what’s the difference! I mean look at the size of you. Buy, the strength. Hey! Do me a favour – let me try you onec with the arms (Puts his arm on table ready for arm-wrestling)

S: (waves him way) Aw, have another beer.

A; Come on, come (arm still ready)

S: Forget it

A: One time

S: Are you serious

A: Certainly

(S grasps A’s hand)

A: Alright, go

(Struggle of barely a second, then S pulls A’s arm down with a cry of victory)

A: (pulled across table) Aw, geez! Oh, be-uwdiful! Aw, gee boy, what an arm! Aw, when I think of what that dopey son-in-law of mine said… (cups face in hand despairing at Mike)

S: Mike still bugging ya?

A; Aw, I tell ya, it aint only him, it’s his whole generation (suddenly turns to the bar) Hey Kelcy! Bring us a couple of beers over here, will ya. I mean they got no regard, they got no respect for the old institutions.

S: What institutions, Archie?

A; Well you know, like, spots, sportsmanship there, guts, guns, the things that separate the sexes, you know what I mean.

S: yeah, I think I know what you mean.

(beers brought across, and Archie cradles his beer, as he become a bit more anxious about broaching the matter)

A: Let me ask you something. How long you know this, er, this kid Roger there? That was in with Mike?

S: Ohh, a couple of years. Ever since he started coming in the shop.

A: A couple of years. Now, you’re a man of the world. And you must know that this kid is a kind of la-di-da (waggles hand back and forth). Right?

S: is that what mike thinks of Roger?

A: Aw, forget about what mike thinks, I can’t even tell you what he thinks. Hey put ehm glasses over her, I want to go at you once more.

S: You’re nuts.

A: Come, lemme get even. One more time. Come one, get it up there. Alright, go!

(S. clears beers from table. A and S now have hands clasped on table)

S: What does Mike think, Arch?

A: Aw, Mike, geez! Well, for one thing, he thinks that friend of his, Roger, is straight. And for another thing. Aw, Steve, you’re gonna want to bust him wide open when I tell you this, I don’t know eher he gets these brainstorms. But he thinks that you’re … I can’t even say it, this, Steve

S: (looking directly at A, slight smile on face) He’s right, Arch

A: (looking at S in bewilderment) Hunh?

(enormous laughter from audience filling the dramatic pause between the two characters)

S: He’s right (then pulls A’s hand to table, winning match again and as punctuation to the conversation)

A: Oh you mean he’s right about his friend, Roger there

S: (matter of fact) About everything

A: (pause) Aw, come on? I mean, if you wanna joke about it alright, but come on, get off it, huh, guy?

S: Arch… (puts beers back on table) How long you known me? Ten, twelve years? In all that time, did I ever mention a woman?

A: (pause) What difference does that make? You’re a bachelor.

S: So?

(nervous laughter from audience)

A; Yeah, but bachelors, they’re always acting kinda private.

S: (leans back) Exactly

(drawn out pause)

A: Aw, come on Steve, I mean I aint the brightest guy in the world. Well you wanna put me on, put me on, but don’t sit there and tell me you - I mean look at you. Come on will you, ya big clown, get outta here!

S: (getting up) Have it your own way, Arch. The truth’s in the eye of the beholder anyway. I’ll see you later, pal. (gives Archie a strong deliberate manly punch to the shoulder which rocks Archie almost off his feet)

(Steve leaves the bar, and long pause as Arch rights himself thinking things over, then -)

A: Well, if that’s the punch of a fruit…. (thinks over what he just said, as face slightly falls in way dismay, then - ) Naahh! (makes gesture to dismiss everything that’s just happened and leaves bar)

TAG SCENE

Back at the house, Gloria and Mike are showing the chair trick to a friend, Jerry. Jerry has back to the camera, is wearing a baseball jacket, and has non-descript hair. Jerry lifts the chair just as Archie comes in through the door.

A: (slightly outraged) I thought you said a guy couldn’t do that! Now I’m never gonna trust youse two again.

G; (giggling slightly) Daddy, I’d like you to meet my friend jerry Woodner

A: Yeah, how are ya?

(Jerry turns around to reveal that Jerry is a woman with a unisex haircut)

J: How do you do Mr Bunker

(lengthy pause, audience laughs as A looks on non-plussed)

A: (nonchalantly to cover his embarrassment) Pleased to meet ya. (walks to his seat, and says to himself) Nowadays you can’t bet on nuthin.

END OF EPISODE

294: Jonathan Winters 1962-1965

Jonathan Winters was a stand-up comedian whose career began in the early 1960s. Like Bob Newhart and Lenny Bruce much of his act consisted of in-character monologues, routines and sketches. Lenny Bruce was the high-end of controversy, and his act could sometimes be somewhere between a revivalist meeting and an encounter group session. Newhart’s routines were very carefully worked-out monologues. Winters didn’t touch directly on social and political matters, and his act was more free-form and exuberantly silly than Newhart’s. Even as Lenny Bruce was in decline, suffering concerted oppression from the law, Jonathan Winters was becoming a regular guest enlivening early and mid-60s talk shows. As he flipped from character to character on stage, improvising and following his fancy, it was obvious Winters was getting a lot of boyish fun out of own pretending, and so he sets an obvious model for Robin Williams, establishing a livewire format and manner which would make Williams warehouse-loads of cash. Indeed, Williams brought on Winters to play his son in the later seasons of “Mork and Mindy”.
Winters had a lot of stock characters and mannerisms which he could draw upon, some of which would go on to popular success, such as playing an eccentric old lady in drag. In the early ‘60s Winters had a number of pieces of schtick which centred on playing a fey camp gay character. Most of the specimens I can find date from about 1962-1964. This means he may have had a bit of reputation for dealing in this sort of humour and may possibly explain a little why he was one of the actors in the ultra-camp film of “The Loved One” (1965).

Given the era, Winters camp portrayals usually edge beyond merely sissy, but then he’s confronted by the problem of how much further he can actually go, of what he is allowed to say. There’s always the need to take his audience’s attitudes into account, and also the mores and censorship of whichever media or venue he happens to be playing in. So these gay gags become a practical matter of balancing the performance within the larger joke of the piece, and also configuring them both so that Winters won’t fall foul of somebody’s offended sensibilities. And at the time, there was probably enough novelty and daring just in Winter’s performance, without having to go much further than that. Whereas by the ‘90s just putting on a gay manner was nowhere near good enough for a decent joke for informed audiences (for unenlightened audiences is maybe another matter).



from the Jack Paar Program (circa-1962-1965)

Here, in character with Tv talk show host Jack Paar, Winters is a playful, delightfully naughty faun – a bouncy, exuberant sissy. So some of the joke is that Winters is playing a faun, and some of the joke that this mythological creature is a bit camp. And on top of that, in the interview there’s a strong amount of “Is he/isn’t he/” flirting between Paar and Winters resulting in Winter’s “They know in the forest!” So it’s not merely a camp performance, but also slightly deniably, should complaints come down from executives, that it was all within the context of Winter’s faun joke. So funny to play gay, but a little ambivalent, and not outrightly homosexual


“Moby Dick and Captain Arnold” from “Jonathan Winters' Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World” (1963)
Listen to it at: http://www.archive.org/details/jonathan_winters_1193

This is a camp take on “Moby Dick”, the epitome of obsession in the rugged nautical world. Its notable though Winters doesn’t make any attempt at jokes about what sailors get up to when the lights go out. Arnold is just described “as a bit of a strange fellow”

This is the longest performance I’ve got of Winters so it gives me a little more latitude to describe his performance. For a start besides being queeny, it’s slightly lispy, because Americans more than the British tend to think that homosexuals lisp. It’s not spectacularly effeminate, but there is an overall unmanly and simpering tone to his performance. Part of the unmanliness is a tendency to triviality, to lavishly deploy the epithet "silly". He employs a slightly drawn out pronunciation - vowels are dipthonged. The triviality results in a tendency to try to keep everything on his level, but when crossed (the gruff sailor calling him a “sissy”) he becomes slightly petulant. Again it’s a largely unsexualised performance. Statements like "You're so strong" and "hold me" could be come-ons, but they could just as easily be the sort of sissy pleas that Bob Hope used to make in scary situations.


"Fairies Can Fly" aka “The Cop and the Fairy” from “The Underground Tapes” a 2007 collection of bits which were too risque or controversial to be released in the early 1960s when they recorded.
The sketch is only a minute long so you can listen to the first half at http://www.voeveo.com/audio/fulltrack/66574

Officer: Where’s the fire, where’s the fire?
Driver: In your eyes, officer! In your eyes!
Officer: (slight pause – declarative) you’re a fairy, aren’t ya?
Driver: Do you see any wings (giggle) I think that’s an asinine remark on your part – You great big man-neanderthal person, you. Yeahss, just a hood with a badge, that’s the only difference.
Officer: What did you call me?
Driver: A hood, a hood! You ought to have one right over your ss-kull! Jayssuss!
Officer: I don’t want you cursing. I happen to be patrolman O’Brien
Driver: (slightly sarcastic) Oh tell us, oh leader, where is your motor-sssickle? Do you have the multi-coloured fox-tails and the devil on the front? What’ll a Harley do? Open it up on a sssnowy day, mmm, and then we’ll see.
(mimics crashing noise)
Officer: Oh, you damn fool! You ran right into me!
Driver: Yeah, yeah! Fairies can fly, can’t they.
Officer: Alright lock him up. Joe. Fag, put him down in number 3-6-7-12. I don’t want to fool with him. Get in the back seat with those devils and they tear your clothes off

This plays a slightly more flirtatious and defensively queeny camp type against a bluff ignorant cop. A touch of gay panic at the end, although how could one be afraid of such is a sissy is probably part of the joke. The “where’s the fire?” – “In your eyes” would be repeated in an episode of “Laugh-In” with Alan Sues.

293: Terry Gilliam - Quick Henry, the Flit!

By Terry Gilliam
In “Fang” 1962 (the humour magazine of Occidental College, California)
reprinted in "Help", February 1963

“The National Lampoon 1964 High School Yearbook” was written in 1974 at a remove of some 10 years, and was attempting to remember all the jokes of that period, while also layering everything with a retrospective irony.
This cartoon is a contemporary instance of someone having the same idea for a joke. Gilliam uses the most famous version of the insect spray slogan, “Quick, Henry, the flit!”. Attending university in the early 1960s means Gilliam would have been the right age to remember “flit” used as a slang term for a homosexual or effeminate boy.

In the National Lampoon Yearbook the “Flit” joke is used as an insinuation about the "artistic" Forrest Swisher. Here the joke is in the reveal of panel 6. Not merely a sissy, but an out and out homo. One hand is limp and the other clutches a flower, bouffant styled hair, tight trousers (which in another cartoon of the same period Gilliam calls “fag pants”, as did many other people), unmanly crossed leg stance, heavily lidded eyes, and pursed (possibly lipsticked) mouth. The jumper and shirt combination probably meant something at the time too, I suspect (UPDATE: A lengthy piece on homosexuals in "Life" 26 June, 1964, goes on and on about how tight trousers and sweaters are the urban homosexual uniform). Such a homosexual caricature being unexpected (a) in the context of the insect ad, (b) in such a grotty little hovel and (c) in general.

I feel slight discomfort about reprinting something from university days, to give it a pass as sophomore work. This cartoon has been reprinted several times, not just in Monty Python retrospectives, but also in a 1971 collection, “A Century of College Humor”, before Gilliam was famous. Gilliam was aiming at putting out a nearly profession humour magazine in “Fang”, and was trying to establish connections with Harvey Kurtzman as his mentor. So it’s not merely a throwaway item. And it does reflect the attitudes of the time. Gilliam admits to being a very conformist frat-boy type in his early university days. The attitude expressed in this cartoon also possibly explains a few faggy jokes in later issues of Harvey Kurtzman’s “Help!” when Gilliam was assistant editing, as Kurtzman had not shown any interest in jokes in that area previously.

292: Artistic Boys

from “The National Lampoon 1964 High School Yearbook” (1974)
by Doug Kenney and P.J. O’Rourke

National Lampoon’s Yearbook is a pitch perfect parody of High School Yearbooks, the way they capture the low grade awfulness of High School life, and also a plunge into early 1960s nostalgia.
As part of the preparation for the project, every National Lampoon member brought in their school yearbook. The editors discovered that every high school featured the same characters, and so one of the reasons why the Yearbook is so impressive is because it is a gallery of American high school archetypes.
Forrest Swisher is one of those archetypes. Besides the jock, the greaser, the make-out artist, the preppy, the class clown, the maths nerd, and so on, we also get the “artistic” one. So there are the obvious interests in theatrical pursuits and speech, and the school arts and literary magazine. Given the period, an attraction to hip artistic outsiders is expressed in the tail-end of the beatnik movement and the emergent Bob Dylan.
And from various hints, it’s obvious that “artistic” is sometimes also a polite way of deferring saying “queer”. “Crosses legs in class” is a certain type of refined or effeminate behaviour. Each of the profiles ends with a slightly sarcastic tagline, and “Quick ma the flit!” is a coded gay slam.
“Quick ma, the flit” was a long-running slogan for a series of insect killer spray ads. “Flit” was 40s/50s slang for a sissy or effeminate boy - it’s in “Catcher in the Rye”. So what could be seen as a silly nonsensical statement, is more of a mean in-joke.
Is Swisher gay? There’s nothing in the yearbook to go much further, and realistically there wouldn’t be. But it nicely encapsulates the belief that boys with artistic inclinations also have other inclinations. Besides, the boy’s bloody surname is Swisher. How obvious do you want it?
The writers returned to the 1964 graduating class on several occasions. In a 1976 reunion, they didn’t quite know what to do with him, and had Swisher as a local theatre director, married to the liberal Jewish university graduate. A 2003 update, now has Swisher as a Catholic priest who takes a lot of interest in young boys groups (there’s a long standing tradition in “National Lampoon” of sexually suspect priests).

291: The Magic Christian (1969)

“The Magic Christian” (1969)
written by Terry Southern, and John Cleese and Graham Chapman

Adapted from Southern’s short episodic novel of the same name, the film is a series of sketches, in which multi-millionaire Guy Grand (Peter Sellers) employs his money to make people indulge in shocking stunts. So the jokes are two-fold:
1) to demonstrate what indignities people will suffer when offered wads of cash, from minor bribes to a scene of city bankers diving into a vat of ordure sprinkled with pound notes
2) to indulge in stunts which disturb conventional sensibilities - some are intended to be subversive, some are just freak-outs

Vito Russo in his book “The Celluloid Closet” absolutely LOATHED this film: “'fag' jokes fly in a viciously homophobic film".
Somewhere I have a “Spitting Image” parody of late Mel Brooks with the tagline “Totally obsessed with Nazis”. It’s not really stretching a point to say the same about Terry Southern and homosexuals. I mean, really, really, really, really, really obsessed. Well, you understand the emphasis. I suppose he should be given some sort of acknowledgement in managing so many ways for homosexuals to be creepy for comedic gross-out purposes. Maybe, homosexuals really were just that odd and perverse to mainstream audiences at the time, and this film reflects that. (To offset this, there is a very affectionate tribute in Southern’s collection “Now Dig This” to his friend the gay poet Frank O’Hara, capturing his camp, sexually mischievous manner. Although that it SHOULD be the camp, impertinent, sexually mischievous side of O’Hara that Southern fixates on and enjoys...?)


0.00 – 3.22
Laurence Harvey as “Hamlet”
Here’s an instance of satirical humour overtaken by the events of the day. The joke is the unexpected metamorphosis of a performance of Hamlet’s soliloquy into a burlesque strip. Whether it’s actually gay or not is up for debate. When a man performs a woman’s role, it can’t help but look camp. Besides, there’s the fact that he’s offering his body as an object for desire, topped by the chap with the binoculars trying to get a good look at the end.
By the time this was released to the public, cavorting nudity on the stage was very much the thing of the day, with such ultra-hip atrocities of embarrassment as “Hair”, “Oh Calcutta” and “Dionysus 69”. Exploration of homosexuality in Elizabethan/Jacobean theatre also raised its head on the contemporary stage. There had been an all-male 1967 production of “As You Like It”. There had also been an explicitly homosexual 1969 production of Marlowe’s “Edward II”, with Ian McKellen as the lead, and also featuring Peter Bourne (now better known as Betty Bourne of Bloolips). This touring production of “Edward II” aroused a lot of tight-lipped scrutiny from the local moral forces wherever it was staged because of male kissing and unabashed affection. An issue of the early gay lifestyle magazine “Jeremy” had a big feature on the production and interviews with the cast, though no one was questioned or felt up to declaring a personal sexual interest. It also prompted the “Sunday Times” to identify McKellen as one of the actors to watch out for, with a photo-feature of McKellen clad in nothing but some tight leather trousers and sprawling in a chair. Which must have raised a few eyebrows over the breakfast table. (Oh, and I see a BBC recording has been released on DVD earlier this year,) But nothing in this sketch plays off the idea of gay actors, it a subversion of Shakespeare.
So given all this, the overwhelming impression made by this sketch, and indeed by most of the bits and pieces in “The Magic Christian,” is not one of major cultural subversion and criticism, but of a camp, self-congratulatory sense of “How naughty we are!”. As the various outrages are played out, it’s sometime hard to distinguish between the filmmakers portrayal of the onscreen audiences and their attitude to the real one watching the film. There’s a constant sense of being nudged in the ribs, and the impression they want that you should just throw up your hands and cry, “Scandalous! Simply Scandalous!”



0.00 – 1.38
Nosher Powell as the ginger boxer
There’s about 3 previous minutes of verisimilitudinous boxing bout scene-setting before this bit, but I’m sure we’ll all prefer going straight to the real action, shan’t we. In this scene, Southern updates his earlier attempt in the book version of “The Magic Christian”. Then, it was just one boxer pretending to fey and effeminate. Here the ante is upped to actual gay kissing. Nosher Powell has a very fey voice dubbed, and does that limp-wrist gesture. And we don’t get to see the kiss, though the direction is slightly more stylised to point up that fact. As in the book, it all ends in an rioting audience when their taste for violence is subverted. Which is apparently the same conclusion as in “Bruno”.



4.42
The discomfort of a stuffy ex-army type suddenly made the focus of homo-erotic attentions. A formal heightening of the oddness of such devotion to the body beautiful by these muscle men, with a little race-discomfort just to add to the mix. As before with the Hamlet sketch, there’s an obvious homosexual, fluttering his tip at the entertainment, and resting his head in a primping manner, just to highlight the faggotry of it all.


7.45
Leonard Frey as Lawrence Faggot (pronounced Fag-Oh, French-style, so a joke that probably slips past most of the audience. Because simply calling a gay character “faggot” - oh, ho, ho, ho - no we’re much more hip than that) revisits his performance from “The Boys in the Band”. Solicitously and disarmingly oleaginous with a few up-market camp insinuations, in an outrageously over-styled suit. All of which must have been even more of an in-joke, as the film version of “Boys in the Band” wasn’t released until the year after this.


2.00-4..5
Two body-builders dancing together. Which is mostly the boxing gag revisited, but in the context of the elite society of the other dancers.
And the all-out oddness of Yul Brynner in drag, overdubbed with a female voice singing “Mad About the Boy” to Roman Polanski. And then the final reveal and reversion to Brynner’s gravelly voice. Intercutting between the two, these is something of an intense perversity to this.

290: Gorey Goes Gay 5

“Happy Endings” by Edward Gorey in “National Lampoon” March 1973

The “National Lampoon” issue for March 1973 had the theme of “Sweetness and Light”. This was partly playing against type as the magazine that prided itself on its propensity to shock and offend with scabrous satire or sheer bad taste. Gorey was an occasional contributor to “National Lampoon”, and so offered several pages of “Happy Endings”. Part of the joke being that Gorey’s work are renowned for their endings which are either morbid or indecipherable in a “L’Avventura” manner. So each of the panels is the conclusion to some unknown story, but now an Edward Gorey-style happy ending. Curiously, Gorey’s “Happy Endings” has never been collected.


This is sort of sweet I suppose. Although there I have an underlying suspicion that part of the joke is that the public would think that the idea of marriage between two men in the early 1970s was a silly thing.


This is surprisingly un-Gorey-like. It’s explicit for a start. You don’t expect Gorey to offer a take on “Midnight Cowboy” and male hustlers. And you really don’t expect Edward Gorey to use phrases like “biggest basket”. And that this should be a happy ending is unusual. But then Gorey’s works rarely encompass the contemporary. The chap on the left has overly beringed, fluttery hands, and is also shouldering a man-purse. What the hell the object is in front of the young hustler I don’t know though.

289: Gorey Goes Gay 4

from “The Gilded Bat” by Edward Gorey, 1966

A Goreyesque tale of one girl’s career in the world of a ballet, a take on “The Red Shoes”. Here’s one of the scenes of social success. Nothing gay here, surely. Except, except... For all the pleasantly turned out young men making up the scene, none of them seem to be paying much attention to the ballerina in her finery. Gorey was a good enough artist that he could make it evident as to where his figure were looking, and nobody’s eye’s are on the ballerina here. Those of you who know anything about the ballet impresario Diaghilev might have an explanation as to what may be going on in this picture of sophisticated socialising.