Bonus video! The best (& worst) Brokeback Mountain jokes
Hello, here's a rare Monday-afternoon bonus video! Usually I post these on Sundays, but because we've had a lot of folks joining from my new Brokeback Mountain video, I didn't want to keep you in suspense for a week with this one: The best (and mostly worst) Brokeback Mountain jokes from the early 2000s.
I've got some clips to share from SNL, of course; but also from Jay Leno, Family Guy, and some resourceful YouTubers who jumped on the then-popular trend of reëditing movie trailers.
Plus, I have a few "lost media" requests for clips that must exist out there somewhere but I wasn't able to track down: A Brokeback/Kong mashup from The Soup, and Nathan Lane on Letterman doing a Brokeback musical. If you have leads on any of those, please let me know and I'll share them in future bonus videos!
And speaking of future bonus videos, I'll have a new one this weekend about the changes that the film made to the original short story -- including a change that Annie Proulx absolutely HATED. (Until she saw it on the big screen, and realized they were right.)
Thanks again for making all these videos possible, and welcome aboard to all the new members!
Backup link to the bonus video in case it doesn't play here: https://youtu.be/kBo5vD-94bc
Comments (19)
I would like to go up to Jay Leno, put my arm around him and share that I am a fellow Buggati fan, someone who cared for a loved one dying of Lewy Body Dementia, and ask him, as he cared for his wife, to picture himself in the 80's or 90's and caring for his partner...except that partner is a man dying of AIDS. Many hospitals will not acknowledge his love. Many people will ridicule the relationship. Families will push him away from the man he needs to care for....Maybe then the jokes that ridicule a Gay relationship will feel hollow and be worthy of repudiating.
totally agree woth your theory on this kind of laughter
Thanks Matt for the alternative link. Suddenly I can't watch patreon videos. I missed the jokes ( I worked to early in the morning for Late Night TV) and it looks like that was a good thing..
Regarding the Letterman clip, you could submit a request on the official Letterman YouTube channel for the Brokeback musical.
You can tell I‘m 2010s fandom brained, because that Top Gun Edit didn’t even register as a joke with me at all. Not even a bad taste one, or one that was clearly attempted but doesn’t land. Noooooo, that‘s just s regular ship edit as far as I‘m concerned.
I was coming here to say the same thing! The Back to the Future parody trailer was obviously meant as a joke, because it's deliberately switching genres in a whiplash fashion to create humor (like the Mary Poppins horror trailer or the comedy trailer for The Shining that was also big at the time). But the Top Gun one, whether or not it was produced by fans in a fannish context, feels much more like the trailers that I remember many fans were making at the time, completely in earnest. The music and structure of the original Brokeback Mountain trailer just gave fans a convenient shorthand to make a video argument for the queer subtext of their favorite movies and TV shows. (I might have tried my hand at a Newsies version myself, back in 2005.)
Thanks! I always remember Jake's hysterical drag tribute to his gay BBM fans on SNL, where he performed "And I'm telling you" from Dreamgirls. The two gay cowboys in the audience just added to the fun. And, really Jake is pretty good!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iuqr22c990s
Hi, New member after 20th anniversary Brokenack on you tube episode. You shared pix at the end and commented on Ranch owners in Wyoming. Three people standing together I recognize person on left ( big handsome ) my mind is a blank a search says it’s Rupaul and husband of many years. No amount of makeup can take the desert sun damage off the man’s face. Sorry I don’t buy it. Please inform thanks
You are the first person to ask if that's RuPaul! Yes, it's him and his husband Georges -- no idea who the person in the middle is, alas.
There were a lot of the “gross!” kind of jokes like the Family Guy one, but I remember most of them being “mostly harmless.” An offensive joke is one thing, but the ones like the prospectors was just “meh” but not mean. It felt like progress at the time.
You forgot one of the best Brokeback Jokes/Parodies which was the one from Scary Movie 4 (2006). It's actually strangely sweet in a completely messed up way (Which is par the course for most of the scary movie franchise). Although the gerbil might have been a step too far. And the Car Battery. And what exactly was Anthony Anderson doing with that vasaline? The black cod line at the end though? Chef's Kiss. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T7-XIq2MWV8
It's so funny that people have routinely accused SNL of being "progressive" or "leftist" or now, "woke". And all you have to do look any of their old jokes to see how that really isn't the case.
When could anyone accuse Jay Leno of actually being funny? Never!
I must begrudgingly admit that the recent story about him falling down a hill is kind of funny
What you’ve described is exactly what happened to my dad with this movie. He was a typical boomer and loved to make gay jokes. He found all of these broke back jokes to be absolutely hilarious. BUT it made him interested to see the movie so he watched it with my mom and sister and I when we rented it. He was moved, he actually cried, and literally commented on how “normal” the love story was. He was a flawed man in that way but this movie started him on a journey towards acceptance of a larger world.
Oh that's wonderful. Harvey Fierstein says "visibility at any cost" in The Celluloid Closet, and he's right!!!
I love a bonus video on Monday!
Take that, Garfield!