Ask the Flying Monkey! (March 18, 2009)

Q: I do not know if you get any Canadian programing but I had a question regarding one of the MTV Canada's hosts, Dan Levy. He hosts the after-show for The Hills and The City.  Is he gay? — Ryan, Edmonton, Alberta

Dan Levy

Image credit: William Ciccocioppo

A: Dan did not respond to my questions either. The Flying Monkey is starting to feel seriously rejected. But did you know that Dan is the son of American Pie's Eugene Levy?

Q: I just finished watching the marvelous Summer Heights High, and AfterElton.com is right: cult classic in the making! I'm very curious about Chris Lilley. Does he bat for our team? And where did he get the character of Mr. G? — Jim, Beaverton, OR

A: Chris plays three characters in this mockumentary about an Australian high school: Ja’mie King, a "mean girl" who once went to a private school, a Pacific Islander bully named Jonah, and Mr. G, a narcissistic drama teacher.

Chris Lilley (center) with signature characters "Ja'mie" and "Mr. G"

Where did the Mr. G character come from? When the show aired Down Under in 2007, Lilley was accused of “stealing” the character from a 2000 Australian show called Sit Down, Shut Up — but such accusations seem to me to be pretty silly in the world of exaggerated comedy. Is Seth MacFarlane’s Family Guy just a poorly done rip-off of The Simpsons? Oh, wait, maybe it is.

Anyway, Lilley says he’d been performing the character of Mr. G in stand-up routines for years, but didn’t really perfect it until he spent time in Australian high schools and met some actual drama teachers.

As for Lilley, he is straight. 

Q: Do you agree that all these gay couples we see on soap operas tend to get boring after they are steady and open to the world? Both As the World Turns and Forbidden Love don't seem to know what to do with their characters now that they’re stable, open couples. Do you think that all the soap gay couples are bound to end up like this? — Adriskrayzee, Cd. Juarez, Mexico

As the World Turns' Noah and Luke

A: The Monkey agrees it can be a challenge to find drama in any “stable” couple, gay or otherwise — after all, as Aristotle said, conflict is drama. But I think part of the problem comes from defining gay characters by their sexuality, and assuming that all drama must arise from that. I thought the Luke/Brian storyline was an embarrassing disaster, in part because it seemed to have arisen directly from Luke’s sexuality (and I have a similarly bad feeling about the "housing discrimination" plot-line). Meanwhile, I thought the “murder mystery” idea was a great one, just poorly executed.

And at the risk of offending ATWT’s many loyal fans, I’m not sure the scripts were any better before Luke and Noah came out and got together. 

Next page! Future plans for Christian & Olli. Plus conjoined twins kissing.