Richard Simmons' Tired Gay Minstrel Act Must End

America’s first original theatrical form was the minstrel show. Performed by white actors in blackface, these shows were whole evenings of vile racist stereotypes. The minstrel show arose in the early 1830s and ran until the early 1900s, when the form moved from live stages to radio shows like Amos ‘n’ Andy, and continued in a thriving underground tradition in high schools and fraternities well into the 60s.

Minstrel shows were enormously popular with white audiences, who had their every racist belief confirmed and validated, and who were able to openly express their deep-seated hostility to and hatred of African Americans in concert with the rest of their communities. They played a big role in reinforcing and preserving prevailing racist attitudes.

Fortunately, the minstrel show is mostly dead and buried. But a new form of the “minstrel” show, one that lampoons not blacks, but gays, is alive and well and living on national television in the form of exercise guru Richard Simmons.

In February, Richard Simmons appeared in a Bridgestone Tire ad during the Super Bowl where the driver of a car at night first serves to avoid hitting a deer, then Alice Cooper. But then he sees a prancing Richard Simmons, and the driver of the car guns it in order to drive him down, only swerving away at the last second.

AfterElton.com’s Michael Jensen thought the ad played upon “effemiphobia” — hatred of people who effeminate — and was creepy in its seeming advocacy of violence toward Simmons, even in a joking way. Many readers disagreed with him, with some pointing out that Simmons went out of his way to be annoying and was a willing participant in his own humiliation. But much of the feedback AfterElton.com received also seemed to include a similar deep-seated hatred of Simmons — as if he was worthy of being reviled or even harmed because of the annoying way he acts.

It wasn’t the first time Simmons let himself be portrayed as so annoying that he must be an object of violence. He did the same thing in a 2001 Canadian ad for Simmons Mattresses.

And, of course, there are his many appearances on The Late Show With David Letterman, where even though Letterman openly scorned and humiliated him, Simmons returned again and again. (When Letterman sprayed Simmons with a fire extinguisher, even the dignity-free Simmons reportedly had had enough and stopped appearing on the show, at least for a while.)

Last night, Simmons appeared on an anniversary edition of Jimmy Kimmel Live! in a parody video with the host, who has sometimes crossed the line with his “gay” humor. The clip reflected yet more of Simmons' tired minstrel schtick. At one point in the skit Simmons forces Kimmel to shower while he watches, and then he inspects Kimmel's manhood for "cleanliness." Finally he transforms Kimmel into a clone of himself via magic wand.

Simmons, who declined to be interviewed with this article, has said before that he is not gay, and AfterElton.com takes him at his word. But that’s not the point; the purveyors of the minstrel tradition were not usually members of the minority they ridiculed.

The fact is, with his flamboyant mannerisms and trademark sparkly clothes and short-shorts, most people simply assume Simmons is gay.

And at times, Simmons has played up the misunderstanding, flirting brazenly with men in a sketch on Whose Line is it Anyway: