Frankly I’m disappointed that so many of my fellow gaywads are offended by this “electric cars are so gay” joke. *massive eyeroll* Seriously–you can’t find something more relevant to get worked up about? Why are we so goddamned sensitive about such minor stuff? This “gay=lame” joke has been around for 20 years, it’s dumb and douchey but we should be able to handle it. I know that every homo in the world has the hots for Anderson Cooper (*another eyeroll*), but come on. Get over yourselves and start being outraged by things that actually deserve the attention, people!
The latest film to find itself on the wrong side of the funny fault line is “The Dilemma,” the upcoming Ron Howard movie that took a big PR hit late last week after CNN anchor Anderson Cooper complained about its trailers use of the word “gay” in a joke.
The trailer, which Universal pulled from theaters on Friday, opened with Vince Vaughn making a presentation about electric cars in which he says: “Electric cars are gay. I mean, not homosexual, but my-parents-are-chaperoning-the-dance gay.”
Cooper, who had been hosting a weeklong CNN series about bullying against gays and a series of suicides by gay teens, appeared on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show,” where he said that he was “shocked” to see the trailer in a movie theater. Although the joke probably falls into the category of mildly amusing and not so horribly offensive, Cooper said he was disturbed that “they thought that it was OK to put that in a preview for the movie to get people to go and see it.”
“The Dilemmas” gay gag hardly broke new ground. Gay jokes are lobbed back and forth all the time on TV and in comedy clubs. And Ive always been a stout defender of the rights of artists to speak their minds without censorship or cultural restraints.