As a comedian, I have tons of stand up comedy heroes — but none I really see myself in. There are plenty of doughy, mean white guys out there, but they talk about their girlfriends or their wives or their kids; they never talk about their boyfriends or their partners or their kids.

When I sat down to write this, I was ready to write about the dearth of openly gay male stand up comedians in the world. Because when the hilarious Todd Glass came out on WTF, my immediate reaction was “Yes! We got one!”

One. Like I was living in a drought of gay comedy, and Glass coming out was the first non-ANT drop of water since Charles Nelson Reilly.

It’s curious because I can name a dozen lesbian comedians off the top of my head. And there are superstars of stand up like Kathy Griffin and Margaret Cho who gay men spend big bucks supporting, but from what I knew, there were no gay guys telling jokes outside of gay bars.

Turns out: I’m wrong and I’m part of the problem.

My pal Ralph Hardesty (note: when my friends write funny, insightful things I always like to play up the fact that I know them because it makes me look smarter) has some thoughtful things to say about gay jokes, gay comics, and the challenges presented by and to them.

4 weeks ago | 2 notes | Reblog | | Comments
stand-up, comedy, culturemap, ralph hardesty, homophobia, gay jokes, etc,

Bridesmaids. →

Kat and I caught a press screening of Bridesmaids the other night, and it is pretty fucking funny. After leaving the theater, Kat said, “A lot of the time when I’m coming out of a movie, I’m trying to figure out who it was made for. This one was for me.” It’s not, as Bust points out, a romantic comedy — those aren’t usually very funny, and Bridesmaids is at least as weird and gross as The Hangover. (weird + gross = funny.)

One thing that stood out to me in the Bust review linked above, though, was a comment on what I thought was the funniest scene in the movie — the sure-to-be-famous food poisoning sequence. (Note: the clip in the link cuts off before the action really starts.)

There is a scene in particular where Lil and her bridesmaids get food poisoning that left me cringing, mostly because seeing people vomit makes me wanna vomit too. Is this an example of female comedy trying to keep up or out-gross the boys? There are critics and viewers who will argue that.

And maybe it’s just because I am a dude who thinks that gross-out stuff can be funny, but I actually thought the food poisoning scene was kind of groundbreaking. Because whatever else that scene is about, it is absolutely not about giving anybody a boner. And seeing it like that, you realize just how rare it is to see women in a movie who are decidedly not sexy even a little bit. That’s not a new comment or anything, but it’s definitely in sharp relief in Bridesmaids.

If the movie were otherwise bad, it wouldn’t be worth discussing much. But — aside from being probably 15 minutes too long — it’s really funny and satisfying. And since that — combined with the fact that no studio thought to counter-program it till The Hangover 2 opens in two weeks — means that Bridesmaids is probably gonna be a monster hit, I expect we’ll see people considering this more seriously. And that’s cool, because it’s a conversation that’s been needed for a long time. With our without the puking and pooping.

9 months ago | 1 note | Reblog | | Comments
bridesmaids, movies, gender, comedy, the hangover,

I interviewed Donald Glover for the A.V. Club. →

Also, here is a picture with him and my wife, because it makes her happy when she looks at it and she will probably see this post on her phone while she’s on the bus ride home! Hi, Kat!

Anyway: This time out, we talk about his IAMDONALD tour, the fact that he hits on Rashida Jones in his songs kinda a lot, and the six years he spent working hard to become an overnight success.

(My previous interview with Glover ran on MTV Hive earlier this month, if you’re interested.)

10 months ago | 11 notes | Reblog | | Comments
Donald Glover, av club, interviews, elsewhere, journalism, music, hip hop, comedy,