Ask the Flying Monkey! (June 29, 2009)

Have a question about gay male entertainment? Ask the Monkey! (Please include your city and state and/or country.)

Q: I`m a huge fan of Futurama. I looked up Billy West, who does the voice of Fry and others on the show, and found out he had been in two animated gay series, Rick & Steve the Happiest Gay Couple in All the World and Queer Duck. He’s straight, right? Is there anything else gay about him and his career? – Terry, Sydney, Australia

A: West is indeed the go-to guy for animated voices, with an impressive resume that includes everything from the movie Space Jam (1996) (where he proved to be one of very few people who can effectively imitate the classic voices of Mel Blanc) to, yes, Bi-Polar Bear on Queer Duck (2006).

The voice of Futurama’s Fry is the closest to his “real” voice. And on Rick & Steve, he doesn’t do any of the voices of the main characters – just one-episode supporting characters such as Ryan Peefest, Anderson Pooper, Franz Nerdlinger, Log Cabin Tom, and Asspounder.

Billy West with two of the many characters he voices

One gay voice you missed: Stimpy on The Ren and Stimpy Show (assuming Ren and Stimpy are actually gay, which everyone does). West eventually took over the role of Ren too, when John Kricfalusi, the show’s creator and the original actor for that voice, was fired for missing deadlines.

But West didn’t return to do voices on Kricfalusi’s 2003 Spike TV show Ren & Stimpy “Adult Party Cartoon,” which was more explicitly gay.

“That was one big long stupid gay joke that no one got,” West told TVSquad.com. “Gay people like good gay jokes. I like good gay jokes because I like funny. But it better be frickin' funny, or you're dead.”

As far as I know, he’s straight, but he never got back to me with a response.

Q: Me again. Take a look at these Aussie M&M ads.