Comments on: Painful Irony

By: Bill Mulligan

Bill Mulligan — Sat, 29 Jul 2006 10:24:44 +0000

Yeah? Well, I’ll not only beat you both in the not rich or famous race but, since I’m probably older than both of you, I’ll be dead first too! Ha ha ha! Booyah! In your faces!

By: Thom

Thom — Fri, 28 Jul 2006 11:17:12 +0000

Well, hey…we can race to the not rich or famous finish line.
I’ll be sticking around.

By: Bill Myers

Bill Myers — Thu, 27 Jul 2006 23:33:05 +0000

Bill Mulligan is on thin ice. Every time he posts here he is in violation of the restraining order.
Actually, Mulligan is a good friend and a smart guy, and it’s great to have him participating in my blog. But yeah, it’s been getting lonely here. I think the main reason my blog hasn’t seen a lot of participation is that until now I haven’t given people much reason to participate. I was letting weeks or even months go by between posts. Going forward, I intend to add a new post every other day, in hopes that that will generate more comments from people like you.

And because you paid me and Mulligan such a nice compliment, you are now my favorite poster here. I hope you’ll make yourself a regular.

Oh, and if you haven’t already (he said self-servingly), check out my Web site at http://www.billmyerscreations.com. I’m writing and drawing a comic-book called The Victory Streak and you can watch as I build it from the ground up. And when I become rich and famous, you can tell everyone, “I knew him back when…”

Just don’t hold your breath for me to become rich or famous. You’ll pass out and could hurt yourself as you fall to the ground.

By: Thom

Thom — Thu, 27 Jul 2006 11:08:14 +0000

That is a fair point. If at least one of the guys involved had been gay, it would put another spin on it.

BTW, I just wanted to note, I get a chuckle that the blog is primarily discussion with yourself and Bill Mulligan-as you guys are two of my favorite posters on Peter David’s blog.

By: Bill Myers

Bill Myers — Thu, 27 Jul 2006 04:36:47 +0000

I take your point about the popularity of the character of Jack on Will and Grace. I wonder, though, if it’s possible that homosexuals have simply internalized a negative stereotype?

Being a heterosexual, though, I suppose you could argue that I’m being overly paternalistic towards homosexuals by asking that question.

Odd, I’m generally very much against anything that smacks of political correctness. And yet here I am expressing a very PC point-of-view.

By: Bill Myers

Bill Myers — Thu, 27 Jul 2006 04:32:53 +0000

Thom, you make a good point. Although I think there’s a difference between black performers lampooning black stereotypes and heterosexuals mocking homosexuals. I think most black people would be outraged if two white guys in blackface had done the Homeboy Shopping Network sketch.

By: Thom

Thom — Wed, 26 Jul 2006 11:04:42 +0000

The one difference for Men of Film was that In Living Color mocked everybody via stereotype. They had the Homeboy Shopping Network which was two black guys hocking stolen goods. So I am not sure the Wayans family (who have made a career out of black stereotypes) would be all that offended by the lampooning. Murphy is a different issue, but the Wayans, in general work in the realm of parody and satire-where stereotypes are used for a different effect than in other formats where they are cheap shorthand.

By: Bill Mulligan

Bill Mulligan — Tue, 27 Jun 2006 04:11:42 +0000

True enough, and Murphy DID catch some hell for his comedy routines in his stand up act as they pertained to gays…but there is one aspect of all this that somewhat mitigates the offensiveness. If you ever watch any PRO-gay stuff, sometimes even movies that are made BY gays, you see some of the very same characterizations. Will &b Gace was mostly embraced by Gay groups even though the Jack character made Liberace seem like a macho man.

And I’ve known a few–a few–gay men who fit the stereotype, though none of my own gay friends are what you would call flamboyant. You CAN be a raging queen and still be accepted by the gay community, while anyone with a Steppinfetchet persona would not find similar favor with Blacks.

Tricky stuff. It’s hard to write gay characters in fiction because you are bound to offend SOME goddamedbody no matter what you do. (of course, you can just make the charcater like everyone else and not harp on the fact that they are gay–most heterosexuals I hang out with don’t bring up their sexuality at every opportunity, while your typical Hollywood gay has to make it obvious withing 3 seconds of their introduction )The gay best friend of the female lead has become such an overused cliche.

But I guess it’s better than before, when movie gays were all child molesters and objects of pity.