The Ambiguously Gay Duo came to life last night on SNL—as did anti-bi bigotry:
It’s sad that the same writers and performers who can tackle the difficult subject of male homosexuality with such sensitivity and tact stumble so badly when the subject of male bisexuality comes up. I’m going to write them a letter.
Maybe work has fried my brain, but I honestly cannot tell whether you’re being sarcastic or not.
@1 Me neither.
I hope sarcastic.. since it’s, you know, SNL.
Better jump aside when you stick it in the box, cuz it’s coming right back atcha.
Heh. And eh.
Without watching the clip, I think Dan is commenting on the many letters he’s received over the years accusing him of bi-phobia, or some prejudice against bi folk.
I’m going to write a letter, too. It’ll say that it’s great to see something funny on SNL, for a refreshing change.
Oh, and I’m also going to demand to know if Lorne Michaels believes in marriage equality for polygamists.
Uh huh, that sounds exactly like something you might have said to Stephen Colbert.
Gawd, first Goldy, now this. Will somebody please fix the Slog’s sarcasm detectors already??
Some of the scenes — the most slapstick ones — made me smirk but overall it’s the humour that’s ambiguous. To me anyway. The “no such thing as bisexual” joke isn’t funny (to me) because it’s just a weird thing to say. For it to be funny, there’d have to be something else working with it–maybe something about the character who says that that makes it funny coming from him.
Comedy needs internal logic. There’s not enough of that here. This whole thing seems underdeveloped, though promising. Or maybe I’m just not the audience.
Or maybe Dan’s being sarcastic and I’m too thick to spot it.
ohh god, my BF’s comp broke, so we were watching TV for the first time in ages. I knew SNL wasn’t as good as back in the day, but yeesh. It was basically live action mad-lib.
SNL goes through its peaks and valleys, but the valleys tend to be low and vast.
@10 I love everything Robert Smigel.
This made me literally lol. It is very hard to make me actually laugh when I’m alone on my computer and this did it for me.
The guy who does these used to have a whole 30 minute show called TV Funhouse on Comedy Central that made me laugh so hard tears ran down my cheeks. It was, of course, canceled immediately.
Story of my life. I see something that is everything I think comedy should be and everybody talks about how unfunny it is.
If it were up to me, Robert Smigel would have his own network to run.
I laughed until I cried.
“tackle the difficult subject of male homosexuality with such sensitivity and tact”…
yeah, I think Dan, maybe, maybe, might be sarcastic…
Danny has been relentlessly burnishing his image among the bi folk.
It started after the poll showed there were more bis than homos….
@ 16 – Haha, fair enough. I guess I don’t watch enough SNL.
So, basically, you’re arguing that you aren’t being insensitive towards a group because SNL is being even more so? I really do love you most the time, Dan, but your unexamined privilege is vast.
Tom Hanks.
Think about it.
Fuck, how awesome. Nobody does “if you don’t get it, you’ll regret it” better than this guy. Say what you will about Lorne Michaels, without him we might never have known Andy Kaufman and Bob Smigel.
dija know that the voices for ace and gary used to be Stephen Colbert and Steve Carell? Pretty good,
you really are a shitbag Dan.
Damn, this setup is tired. Don’t jokes get mandatory retirement before the age of 15?
I guess they felt like trotting the old act out one more time in order to do the “live action” segment, as a parody of the lame super-hero movies coming out this year.
The only joke that got a laugh out of me was the reaction to “let’s survey the gay hookers”.
Jon Hamm!
@19 Apparently the Red Skull in Captain America, as well as being a Nazi, is also a homophobe. I think we could expect more from Captain America.
RIP HOMO tag. What’s LGBTQITSLFA? queer intersex two-spirit… X X ally? Did I miss something?
Bleh… that was a waste of about six and a half minutes of my life. The other 21 seconds were kinda funny though.
Ha. Haha.Ha.
Was one of those people Stephen Colbert?
Hilarious.
Not only did Stephen Colbert and Steve Carell voice the cartoon characters in the past, they voiced them in this episode (until they became enfleshed). Stephen Colbert then played the villain with a brain above his head and Steve Carell played the bigheaded villain. Pay attention, people!
Is Colbert ever going to do his promised IGB video?
@ 5 I was thinking that exact thought.
@ 23 I’m starting to think that.
I’m about finished reading anything written by Dan.
Um…Dan…if you noticed, it was the villains who said it.
Are you siding with the villains?
The more important question raised from this episode: “What’s Andy Dick, then?”
I think Dan’s point was that the entire Ace/Gary thing is just immature (but funny) gay jokes. The one bi joke is no less mature than anything else in it. So bis shouldn’t flip out like a bunch of uptight vegans every time Dan makes a joke at their expense. Or something like that.
The segment is funny not because of the obvious gay jokes, but because so many characters spend the entire episode obsessing over whether the heroes are actually gay.
I’ve never understood why ‘straight’ people seem so preoccupied by homosexuality. Must be some sort of fetish.
I don’t think the bi joke will really be funny until it is better accepted to be obviously untrue. Maybe it is in the writer’s circles, which gives me some hope.
Cool story, bro.
@36: ding, ding, ding, ding!
@16 I don’t know why that didn’t nullify the question, either.
I saw this when it aired, and I cracked up at the part where all the villains object to checking the client lists of male prostitutes in the area. Not one of my favorite SNL skits, but it has its moments.
@37 To me, it’s not just that they are obsessing, it’s that they are obsessing despite how unambiguous Ace and Gary are.
They are so obviously gay, the gay stuff is so over the top, but nobody wants to make that call, no evidence is convincing enough. There’s always room for doubt.
A lot of us are like that. I know I am. You must notice that tendency in a lot of straight people. I have no idea why. Unless a guy identifies as gay or I have video of him sucking cock…