Gay people--fodder for late night television almost every night.
Tune into one of the network shows after the 11pm news and many nights, you'll hear a real 'boner' about something queer. I'm sure it's 'funny' to the live studio audiences able to laugh on cue when they see a big sign held up by someone on the crew. That's the job of the audience and is outlined by the producers before the show even starts.
Laughing at queer people is easy. With an audience that is at least 90% not gay, it almost guarantees a laugh for a comedian who depends upon getting those giggles for their paycheck. The subject is queer people, and hell, with all the stereotypes people believe about them out there, what's not to laugh at?
Without regular laughs, no comedian stays employed for long.
Brokeback Mountain was practically a staple for late night comedians and others on cable. Hell, sometimes it was fodder for 'jokes' right here. The funniest thing about Brokeback that I've noticed is so many people have said they have no interest in seeing it, while laughing uncomfortably. I think renting it from the local video clerk holds no similar taboos seeing as each copy at my local video place is rented out each night I go looking for it. I wonder how many renting it think it's really a comedy thanks to all the late night jokes about it they probably have seen.
Jay Leno some nights survives on gay jokes, much of them horrible and trite. If you were to substitute an ethnic group--any ethnic group---in place of gay in his jokes, you'd probably be uncomfortable and want to change the channel. He likely wouldn't last long blasting into your living room after the news. It's a show I don't watch unless I'm too lazy to find the remote.
I can't stand it, just like I can't stand the majority of late night television. I don't watch teevee to be the butt of someone's jokes any more than I would read the latest missives from James Dobson to learn about how evil I am.
Despite a good portion of his audience not laughing at him, he says the same tired jokes night after night, because someone somewhere thinks jokes and parody of gay people is funny.
Another comedien and author has finally tried to reach Jay to give him a helpful hint that his queer jokes are not really funny. Quite often, they hurt. Most are stupid parodies of the way straight people think gay people act when few, if any, do. They are tired, and they are old, and mean.
Jeff Whitty, the playwright and author of Avenue Q, the hit broadway musical decided to speak up. If you've never seen Avenue Q, please do--it's outrageously funny and like Leno, depends upon people laughing at jokes about queer people. The difference is that Avenue Q is really funny and not dependent upon tired stereotypes.
I am annoyed by Jay Leno and decided to write him a letter.
April 20th, 2006
Dear Mr. Leno,
My name is Jeff Whitty. I live in New York City. I'm a playwright and the author of "Avenue Q", which is a musical currently running on Broadway.
I've been watching your show a bit, and I'd like to make an observation:
When you think of gay people, it's funny. They're funny folks. They wear leather. They like Judy Garland. They like disco music. They're sort of like Stepin Fetchit as channeled by Richard Simmons.
Gay people, to you, are great material.
Mr. Leno, let me share with you my view of gay people:
When I think of gay people, I think of the gay news anchor who took a tire iron to the head several times when he was vacationing in St. Maarten's. I think of my friend who was visiting Hamburger Mary's, a gay restaurant in Las Vegas, when a bigot threw a smoke bomb filled with toxic chemicals into the restaurant, leaving the staff and gay clientele coughing, puking, and running in terror. I think of visiting my gay friends at their house in the country, sitting outside for dinner, and hearing, within hundreds of feet of where we sat, taunting voices yelling "Faggots." I think of hugging my boyfriend goodbye for the day on 8th Avenue in Manhattan, and being mocked and taunted by passing high school students.
When I think of gay people, I think of suicide. I think of a countless list of people who took their own lives because the world was so toxically hostile to them. Because of the deathly climate of the closet, we will never be able to count them. You think gay people are great material. I think of a silent holocaust that continues to this day. I think of a silent holocaust that is perpetuated by people like you, who seek to minimize us and make fun of us and who I suspect really, fundamentally wish we would just go away.
When I think of gay people, I think of a brave group that has made tremendous contributions to society, in arts, letters, science, philosophy, and politics. I think of some of the most hilarious people I know. I think of a group that has served as a cultural guardian for an ungrateful and ignorant America.
I think of a group of people who have undergone a brave act of inventing themselves. Every single out-of-the-closet gay person has had to say, "I am not part of mainstream society." Mr. Leno, that takes bigger balls than stepping out in front of TV-watching America every night. I daresay I suspect it takes bigger balls to come out of the closet than any thing you have ever done in your life.
I know you know gay people, Mr. Leno. Are they just jokes to you, to be snickered at behind their backs? Despite the angry tenor of my letter, I suspect you're a better man than that. I don't bother writing letters to the "God Hates Fags" people, or Donald Wildmon, or the Pope. But I think you can do better. I know it's "The Tonight Show," not a White House press conference, but you reach a lot of people.
I caught your show when you had a tired mockery of "Brokeback Mountain," involving something about a horse done up in what you consider a "gay" way. Man, that's dated. I turned the television off and felt pretty fucking depressed. And now I understand your gay-baiting jokes have continued.
Mr. Leno, I have a sense of humor. It's my livelihood. And being gay has many hilarious aspects to it -- none of which, I suspect, you understand. I'm tired of people like you. When I think of gay people, I think of centuries of suffering. I think of really, really good people who've been gravely mistreated for a long time now.
You've got to cut it out, Jay.
Sincerely,
Jeff Whitty
New York, NY