Watch and discuss: Ross tackles the Super Bowl on "The Tonight Show"

I really enjoyed this clip. I think the humor is very ironic: Ross is being his totally out self--a flame that can be seen from space--some guys are like that, you know?; but he's using it to point up how differently straight men react to him, to, in a way, humorously bring out supportive or not so supportive reactions.

On the one hand, Darnell Dockett demonstrated some distinct horror at Ross. But Scott Paxson, for example, is not only totally cool with Ross, he's a fan, and doesn't seem to mind that a guy would find him hot. In a bit that's not in the clip above, Deion Sanders joshes with Ross that he reminds him of his cousin Junebug, demonstrating a familiarity with flaming gay men.

Plus, it was very funny.

I don't think the show would use Ross to get a homophobic remark from someone.

i wouldn't 't see the humor in that one bit. i'm trying to word this correctly in my mind, but i'll try and say it here....making homophobic remarks/jokes in general are bad enough....but to purposefully  give a gay man an assignment to hopefully have someone tell them to their face a homophobic remark? i mean, not only is that insulting, but damn vicious. besides the haters, i don't know how anyone could laugh at that.

 

 

I like Ross. He seems like a nice guy with a big heart, and he is genuinely funny. It's his over-the-top flamboyancy that gives me pause. Whenever I see him on The Tonight Show the first thing that pops into my head is that unenlightened viewers will think Ross represents the typical gay man. That's not something I'm comfortable with. 

Add to that, the homophobic responses from most of the football players (not that I was surprised by it). It seemed obvious why Ross was sent there. Pink football? Really?! The end result, even with all the laughs, left me with a bad taste in my mouth.

I generally dislike the Ross The Intern segments.  It seems like pretty offensive gay-baiting to me.  I do think Jay Leno sends Ross out to see what kind of homophobic reactions they can capture for the TV audiences amusement.

All that being said, I was pleasantly surprised at the overwhelming good-natured even friendly responses he got from most of the players.  There was one or two homophobic reactions, but there was enough good stuff from the guys that I found myself happy to have seen the segment.

of Ross in general - but this clip, you know, it wasn't that bad.  I guess I'd always wondered if Ross was for real, or was just acting this over-the-top.  I hadn't seen enough of him to know.  That's what I get for watching Jon Stewart and Rachel Maddow instead of Leno.

This clip isn't that bad to me, honestly.  It's comedy, which always has a hit-or-miss element to it.  And honestly, more segments hit than missed.  Only the one guy with the pink football segment was really negative.  And some of the guys was absolutely tickled to play along.  I wanna date the one who joked about having sent fan mail.  He was adorable. 

Generally, I am wary of ultra-flamboyant ambassadors of the community.  But they are one of us, so I shouldn't discriminate.

I don't see anything wrong with the segment.  If anything, Ross' flaming ways just shined a bright light into an environment that is generally viewed as ultra-homophobic.  The fact that some players played along is good news.

I thought it was funny.  I laughed a lot.

 

I get really mixed feelings from something like this.  I feel sending him was straightbaiting in a sense, because as others have said, the producers were counting on the squee factor that Ross would produce in what is a famously homophobic sport. But Ross comes off as genuine and unaffected, and when the few players respond to him as a person, it's kind of sweet. Still, as programming targeted to straight audiences it strikes me as the equivalent of shoe polish and shuffle, more laughs as those zany homos....

Nous Sommes Tous Sauvages.

I agree that the only reason Ross is sent out to do these is to make the people he interacts with uncomfortable. On one hand it brings peoples prejudices out in the open and disengages them with humor. On the other hand it can be offensive at times. One thing I did notice is how cool the Steelers seem to be overall with Ross. Even when they were visibly uncomfortable they still did not come across as hatefull. The few Arizona players on the other hand seemed to be much more uncomfortable with Ross. I wonder if the reason why more Arizona players were not shown as much is because they came across more homophobic. The one player was a complete jerk from Arizona.

Sure they're sending Ross in to see if he can get a rise out of these guys. But Ross doesn't push it. He's just being himself, and it's very obvious that he's in on the joke.

I especially loved it when he said "He called me thin!!"

You know, Ross is too funny. I've said before how I adore queer men, so I know I'm prejudiced.

Ross's humor isn't dangerous, perhaps self defeating and often gay-defeating if you will. But the dudes who hold him up in the air at the end make the dude who is too uptight to catch a pink foot ball ("don't even throw that up here") look like a complete ass. In that one segment, the self effacing Ross, is able to point out what's wrong with the sport. What needs to change. He tells it with a joke. And we are all in on the joke. Some of these players are self absorbed ass holes who have never grown up past high school. He challenges them to prove other wise. Some rise to the challenge others are too full of themselves.

I say, hats off to Ross the intern! I loves him and his Care Bear inner-thigh tattoo. "what's wrong with your voice?" That cracked me up. "I was born this way?" I might have added, "what's wrong with your up tight attitude, dude? You weren't born with that!"

For me, this makes up for Leno being such a jack ass.

Ross is really a nice guy, and you gotta love him. He makes lots of homophobes feel empathy for feminine men. Yes, he is playing a character and that character happens to be "himself". But he's brilliant at it. I think his humor is closer to Phyllis Diller, who made fun of herself as a housewife. She was subversive because maybe she deprecated all housewives, but everybody seemed to learn to empathize with housewives because of it -because they were able to see the woman who wore that mask. It didn't hurt that she was funny. Ross is like that.

He is the kind of man that homophobes will beat up on a dark street. But he gives these jocks a chance to redeem themselves; as much as Ross represents all feminine men, these jocks represent what's wrong with the people who beat them. The spotlight is glaring. It seems to shine the same on the boys who adore Ross as it does on the ones who show their ugly nature.