A Look Back at Jon Stewart's Greatest Gay Moments

Taking the Cure

March 19, 2007
Diagnosis: Mystery

In part 1 of what’s introduced as a new feature on medical science, anchor Jason Jones looks at a devastating medical mystery:

“Growing up, Wayne Besen was your average all-American kid. Then one day, his life became a nightmare.” Yes, that’s right. Young Wayne had “Gay... the big G… it strikes millions of Americans each year.” He tried many cures, but “nothing worked. It appeared he would suffer from gay for the rest of his life.” But, asks Jones, could it be that there’s hope? After all, there are reports of “a cured man-hungry evangelical meth user.”

Jones opens Part 2 by informing his audience that one man might have found hope for Besen and others afflicted with gay. That man is Richard Cohen, a self-proclaimed ex-gay who says, “Homosexuality is not a disease. It’s an emotional condition that needs to be addressed.”

Jones prods at Cohen until he admits he’s not a doctor, psychiatrist, or licensed in any way (although that didn’t stop CNN from bringing him on as an expert in gay conversion therapy, or him from writing a book about it). Cohen then gives what has to be the most blisteringly funny explanation – with hand gestures – of why it is that homosexuality “doesn’t work.”

When he bumps the tips of his two index fingers together to demonstrate the futility of man on man action, Jones looks at him in the most sincere fake perplexity in the history of television, and says, haltingly, “Listen, I’m no expert, but I don’t think that’s how they do it.”

 

Boo Hiss

August 14, 2007
The Most Immature Montage Ever

Okay, this episode of Cluster**** to the White House wasn’t horrible from start to finish. It was just horrible at the start, when Stewart trashed Melissa Etheridge for asking too many personal questions of the candidates. But once he got over that, he hit his pro-gay groove again with a little round of what he called “gay marriage golf.”

First, Joe Solmonese of the Human Rights Campaign asks Hillary Clinton “What is at the heart of your opposition to same sex marriage?”

Clinton laughs and says, “Well, Joe, I prefer to think of it as being very positive about civil unions.” And because people being relegated to second class citizenship is always a real hoot, Stewart recognized her blunder with a golf shot wide of the hole.

Next up, Barack Obama, who said he was a strong supporter of strong civil unions. Another missed shot. Then John Edwards – or as Stewart called him, the new Archie Bunker – didn’t beat around the bush, just said, “I do not support same sex marriage.” He didn’t get out of the sand trap. Dennis Kucinich famously hit a hole in one, so give the man a few golf claps, even though he’ll never be President.

July 10, 2001
Gaydar

All right, let’s be honest: Stephen Colbert is gay-baiting this kid. There’s no other word for it. But this English guy invented a device that gives off a signal that, if someone else in the area is using the same device, will make the little electronic device, about the size of a garage door opener, vibrate. “You’re a dancer, makeup artist, a decorater, a wedding photographer, and… what were you working on before Gaydar?”

He answers that he was working on a doorbell for the deaf. Was it hard to do that, Colbert asks, since you’re not deaf? The inventor concedes it was. “Was Gaydar easier?” He agrees once more. Colbert wonders why that is. The kid just sits there and actually looks like he’s going to cry. It’s one thing to bait a politician about their homophobia, racism, or bad public policies, but to deride someone about their own sexual orientation, stereotype them because they have gender-suspect hobbies and careers, and then try to pass it off as sophisticated political humor? Not so much, guys.