"Saturday Night Live" Goes Really, Really Gay - And It's Not Bad At All

I guess 300 was the gayest movie to ever hit the theaters.

After being pretty much totally heterosexual for their 35th season, Saturday Night Live finally brought out the gay in a fairly big way Saturday night. They trained their satirical eye on Don't Ask, Don't Tell, and chose to hit it with everything they've got. This show is always hit-or-miss on their gay humor, so how'd they fare?

First up, we've got the gay, military edition of "Two Guys from New Jersey" sketch that they've been milking for a while. As guest on Weekend Update, they can neither confirm or deny they're gay, because of the policy.

They can, however, make a series of innuendo laden military references in disturbingly intense New Jersey accents. I could be wrong, but I didn't find it terribly funny or effective. And while I'm no expert on New Jersey, I really feel that residents of the state might have a case for defamation.

Political usefulness: C-

Gay friendliness: B+

Humor: D-

Overall: C-

The second skit, making excellent use of Gerard Butler and his incredibly homoerotic movie 300, fared better, with Butler playing King Leonidas again. The rest of the cast, with their plastic abs, plays a cross between his soldiers, and the frustrated White House Press Corps.

They repeatedly ask him when he's going to fulfill his promise to repeal Sparta's Don't Ask, Don't Tell. He responds with the current administration's favorite lines about it being wartime, the economy, etc.

They have just slotted King Leonidas into the President Obama role - except by the end, Leonidas does the right thing and issues an Executive Order (err, decree) ending Don't Ask, Don't tell, only to discover his entire army is gay.

As satire, it's remarkably effective, and actually pretty funny, with almost every major Obama criticism from the right wing tossed in for a jab or two.

Political usefulness: B

Gay friendliness: A

Humor: B

Overall: B+

What did you think?

Ed Kennedy's blog

Submitted by

Ed Kennedy

on Mon, 2009-10-19 08:06.

TAGS ::

Both sketches were hilarious

Submitted by

Kitty (1667 points) (382 posts)

on Mon, 2009-10-19 09:38.

I still frequently watch SNL (I haven't missed an episode this season), even though everyone constantly complains about how bad it is. This season started out with an overall funny drought, to put it nicely Ed. Ryan Reynolds wasn't as funny as he should have been, Megan Fox barely got any laughs out of me, and I almost fell asleep watching Drew Barrymore. I was really about to give up on the idea of this season being funny at all, but then THE BUTLER came along. The opening of "The Rock Obama" was great! I'm obviously so in love with the man that as soon as I saw those first tatoos, I knew they were doing that sketch! It was funny! Butler's monologue was awkward, but still funny, and he sailed through the rest of the night with ease and kept me in stitches the whole time.

I throughly enjoyed both sketches. When I watched it last night, I honestly thought the New Jersey sketch was slightly funnier than the 300 one, but looking back, I can see the audience thought it was very much the other way around. Either way, they were both hilarious, and I just think its so horribbly (spell check) adorable the way the Guys from New Jersey kept looking at each other!! I thought for sure they were going to start making out.

On a side note to anyone who saw the show: You put JAMES FRANCO in a sketch and you don't give him ONE line or anything to do at all but sit there?!! That was definitely a missed opportunity right there! If the rest of the show hadn't been so good, I would be really upset, but this does still agitate me! REALLY?!?

Kitty

My milkshake brings all the boys to the yard, and they're like it's better than yours. ~Kelis

no votes

see individual ratings

The 300

Submitted by

deegeezee (872 points) (181 posts)

on Mon, 2009-10-19 09:39.

sketch was fine; but i don't think i so much as giggled the rest of the episode. Knew it was going to be awful as soon as i saw the "The Rock Obama" opener. yikes.

Can they just have Kristen Wiig play all the characters through split-screen? She's the only funny one.

no votes

see individual ratings

gerard butler

Submitted by

michael (197 points) (40 posts)

on Mon, 2009-10-19 11:41.

isnt gerard butler bi?

no votes

see individual ratings

Never addressed it

Submitted by

Ed Kennedy (6324 points) (1177 posts)

on Mon, 2009-10-19 12:01.

He's never addressed it to my knowledge but the story that made the rounds over the summer stating that he was bi was fake. It was supposed to be from an old, archived Moviefone article from before he was famous, and they came out and said it was a fake article. I don't think he ever bothered addressing it himself.

no votes

see individual ratings