The Ambivalently Gay Viewer: "Saturday Night Live"’s Mixed Record on Gay Humor

“It’s written from a gay perspective,” says Pell, who co-wrote the parody with James Anderson. “It was completely pro-gay on every level in terms of just ‘get over it. It is what it is.’” But because the ad was so specifically gay, Pell remembers thinking, “We didn’t want to piss off the gay community.”

In 2004, shortly after the Abu Ghraib scandal broke, Tina Fey responded dryly to the pictures of naked and heaped prisoners with the comment: “It's a good thing there's no gay people in the military because otherwise weird sex stuff might happen.”

More recently, Andy Samberg responded to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s visit to New York with the faux-romantic song “Iran So Far” (“You say there’s no homosexuals in Iran . . . But you’re in New York now baby. . . So it’s time to stop hating, and start living”).

Laughing With Us, Not At Us

No doubt most gay viewers yearn for a day when being gay in sketch comedy is something more than a tired stereotype, or an insult to humiliate someone with. Since watching SNL has become a national pastime and gay people are a part of the nation, they’d also like to be in on the joke. But as Pell suggests with the notion of writing from the “inside out,” that kind of humor only comes from a genuine familiarity and comfort with the community being joked about.

“There’s a difference between pointing fingers at someone and pointing them at yourself,” notes Serrato.

Over the decades, SNL has reportedly had a number of gay cast members, but only one has been openly gay, Terry Sweeney, who left the show, along with his SNL-writer partner, after a single season in 1986. In fact, he was the first openly gay man on any network television show ever. (AfterElton.com made repeated, unsuccessful attempts to reach Sweeney.)

Of SNL’s current staff of 15 or so writers, 3 are gay, including Pell. Meanwhile, openly gay comedians have been invited to audition to join the cast, including The Big Gay Sketch Show’s Serrato who got the call last year.

“It seems like they were ready to take a chance,” Serrato says, even though he ultimately wasn’t hired. “SNL is looking for not just funny, but [cast-members who are] profound and different. And pretty girls. Always pretty girls.”

The creative staff maintains that “funny” is the sole requirement for getting a job on the show — that other considerations don’t even come into play. “It does not serve anyone to have cast members that are gay or black just because of that,” Meyers says.

Still, for whatever reason, there have been times over the years when gays are in on an SNL joke even when most of the heterosexual audience might not be.

In 1989, Kevin Nealon “reviewed” some heterosexual porn in a Weekend Update segment:

Kevin Nealon: I was interested at first...then got more interested…Then very interested…Then very interested…Then very, very interested…Then suddenly...not that interested.

But then Nealon “reviews” a gay porn movie, All About Jeff, featuring a cassette with a picture of gay porn star Jeff Stryker:

Kevin Nealon: I was horrified, disgusted... somewhat interested, interested...very interested, then suddenly embarrassed, disgusted with myself, ashamed."

Nealon’s porn reviews, which were inspired comedy, were made particularly daring by the inclusion of that gay porn movie, especially in 1989. And the photo of Stryker, an actual gay porn star, seems pretty clearly a nod to gay people, one of whom must have been consulted in the formulation of the bit.

When Ben Affleck hosted the show in 2004, he made fun of the “Bennifer” obsession in the press that year over his relationship with Jennifer Lopez, by showing off a series of T-shirts he had made with compound names.

Ben Affleck: Now, this one is for the off-chance that I get together with Marcia Gay Harden: [pulls out a fifth t-shirt that reads "Ben-Gay”] Or.. or.. or, or.. in the unlikely, but.. wonderful event -- hope, hope -- that Matt [Damon] finally comes around.

Clearly, Affleck (and the SNL writers) were aware enough of the gay male community’s then-obsession with Ben-and-Matt to poke good-natured fun at it.

More recently, when Brokeback Mountain star Jake Gyllenhaal hosted the show, he directly addressed his gay fans in his opening monologue. Granted, he took it as an opportunity to don drag and sing a song from Dreamgirls, but the bit was still very funny.

Meanwhile, over the years, the Ambiguously Gay Duo has developed an unnerving fascination with certain good-looking male cast members, first Jimmy Fallon and now Andy Samberg. The obsession made Fallon uncomfortable, but Samberg has been more than happy to play the part of the clueless “heteroflexible” guy, getting caught “wrestling” the duo in his dressing room and reluctantly admitting that he did what sounds like gay porn in an online video.

When the Ambiguously Gay Duo offer to take Samberg and cast-member Jason Sudeikis to their secret “Fortress of Privacy,” but only if they take off all their clothes, Samberg can’t get naked fast enough — both a funny visual gag, but also a rare and long overdue shot of SNL beefcake.

“As a comedian, you’re always looking for a newer, fresher take,” says Meyers. “That’s Andy’s.”