Bonus video! The "Men on Film" Kerfuffle of the '90s
I do love a good kerfuffle, and this week's bonus video is all about the decidedly mixed reaction that gay audiences had to Damon Wayans and David Alan Grier in the deeply controversial "Men On" segments on the show In Living Color. The two comedians (both straight) played super-femme, barely-coded sissies, and a GLAAD survey showed that gay audiences were perfectly split, 50/50, on whether they were funny or offensive. Why not both?
Also in this bonus video: A quick rundown of a few other flamboyant gay Black heroes, and also the line from the movie version of Rent that bugs me every time I hear it.
BTW if the embed isn't working, try this link:
https://youtu.be/g_R4gcRay_A
And don't forget to join us for a livestream and the public launch of the new video today at 11am pacific! https://youtu.be/z5PWOMt58ec
And thank you again for making videos like these possible!
Matt
Comments (8)
I'm reminded of a video rantasmo did about this stereotype for a gay guy. What was funny was he acknowledged it was playing into a trope, but then said "yeah but, we all know a guy like Hollywood Montrose, and he's awesome and we love him, soooo...." xD To a point, stereotypes do have some truth to them. The problem is they are usually a single aspect of someone, distilled down until that is the only defining trait about them.
Yeah in the end characters like Hollywood and the Men On guys may feel a bit reductive in the absence of other gay characters. (I would have liked Mannequin even more if we met Albert and saw that he was, I dunno, a math teacher or a carpenter or something distinct from his partner. Maybe that can go in the eventual musical reboot!)
I remember watching the "Men on" skits back in the day, and how much (at the time) I loved them. I still laugh at them to this day (because my bread and butter, in comedy, is dirty jokes/innuendos) but I can understand why some in the community (and GLAAD) were so pissed off. Looking back at them now, I still find them funny but I also find myself conflicted when I think about what kind of terrible stereotypes they were perpetuating. It's one of those "damned if you, damned if you don't" scenarios for me. I want to like them, but I also know they are problematic.
I do think the skits are un-malicious, and I really enjoy them. (That "isn't he a tight end" "he was" joke is SO FUNNY.) But! Since there were so few gay characters on TV, I can see it being ~problematic~ that that might've been reinforcing a negative stereotype, like that's the only kind of gay person there is. It's why I like Scott Thompson's stuff so much more -- sometimes he's Buddy Cole, other times he's a leather daddy.
There was the time where Blaine Edwards got hit in the head , become straight, then loved all the movies with women. 😆
Yes I found that clip and honestly I found it DISTRESSING
I seem to recall a David Alan Grier interview where he stated that his portrayal of Antoine, while obviously exaggerated, was based on the many gay men he knew when he was a theater actor. One course correction the Men On skits made: in one of the later skits Antoine gushes over Truth or Dare, declaring his deep love for Madonna. Much more on target! They never quite let go of the "hated it" thing, though.
As I recall (I might be wrong about this; I couldn't find a source) they based the characters on gays they met backstage earlier in their comedy careers. That certainly seems plausible, at least!