Against ‘The Dilemma’ Trailer And Comedy’s Gay-Joke Default Button

The new Vince Vaughn/Kevin James move The Dilemma is causing controversy already — and it won’t even hit theaters for months. A hotly debated line has just been cut from the trailer (though it will remain in the film itself). The teaser opens on Vince addressing room full of suits as he declares: “Ladies and gentlemen, electric cars are gay. Not homosexual gay, but ‘my-parents-are-chaperoning-the-dance gay.’”

So what’s the joke there? That electric cars are wimpy? That it’s lame for parents to be overprotective? No, the joke is that “gay” is funny.

In a recent interview with Anderson Cooper, Eminem was grilled about his use of the word “faggot.” Eminem has long claimed that “faggot” is just a word, and that he uses it in a way that’s detached from its original meaning: homosexual. But it isn’t just words like “gay” and “fag” that are problematic, it’s the rampant assumption that being gay is inherently comedic. The notion that a straight person acting gay is a punchline.

The gay joke as default humor is endemic to even the highest and most subversive arenas of comedy. Looking at NBC’s (mostly) stellar Thursday night lineup, we see Michael Scott’s mancrush on Ryan, folks constantly assuming Liz Lemon’s a lesbian, dudes admiring Jeff Winger’s body. All followed by laughter; the only reason these jokes are considered jokes at all is because gay is “funny.” Last year, the Internet exploded over a photo of Jason Bateman and Dustin Hoffman fake-kissing on the Jumbotron during a Lakers game. Why was this so hilarious to everyone who saw the photo? Would it have been funny if Jason had kissed, say, Jessica Alba? Probably not. (A Betty White smooch would have caused some belly laughs, but that’s a horse of a different color.) It was funny because it was like waving a giant flag printed with the word “LOLGAY.”

SNL relies on the gay-crutch all the time — Just last week, Jane Lynch appeared in Kristen Wiig’s rather grating Suze Orman sketch, playing a closeted lesbian with obvious Sapphic tendencies. The character likes cats, plays softball, has short hair. These aren’t jokes, they’re stereotypes. There’s nothing saying a sketch about a closeted lesbian (or a closeted hockey fan or closeted stamp collector) can’t be funny – but not by taking the cheap way out, that way that simply presents “lesbian” and expects laughter in return.

So why does a writer put the word “gay” in a movie script with the assumption that it will be seen as comedy? Because of the genre’s tradition of presenting the very idea of homosexuality – especially when enacted by non-homosexuals – as the ultimate go-to punchline. When all else fails, there’s always LOLGAY.