So You Think Two Men Can't Dance? Six scenes to prove Nigel wrong...

The recent controversy over So You Think You Can Dance's audition by a same-sex pair and the homophobic treatment they received by both the show and judge Nigel Lythgoe got us thinking of the rare earlier times pop culture has given us scenes of two guys dancing together. (Yes, Lythgoe has apologized since his coarseness aired, but why pass up a chance to revisit some fancy footwork?)

So enjoy these six two-man dances that managed to sidestep the homophobic knee-jerk reactions seen on SYTYCD, and also proved that two guys dancing can be fun, touching, and downright sexy.

Police Academy's Blue Oyster Bar tango
1984

Many of us may remember the gay bar from the Police Academy movies as being a bad gay punchline, but rewatching the scene where two of the bad cops are sent there as a prank and wind up being tangoed by the local leather daddies is actually much more level-handed than you might think. The trapped straight guys actually seem oddly invigorated by being led in the dance, and one even pulls off an impressive full-body dip!

Dancing with the Stars does the "Mango"
April 2, 2008

In one of the campiest episodes of the ballroom dancing reality show (I repeat, the campiest episode of a ballroom dancing reality show) Kyle Minogue performed and, with his usual dance partner unavailable, Steve Guttenberg danced the tango with Jonathan Roberts. The women in the audience seemed to go wild at the sight, making it the most-watched moment of hoyay in the show's history.

Chuck vs. the Tango
February 8, 2007

While tracking an assassin named "La Cuidad", Chuck had to blend in at an art aution and gala where he expected that he would need to perform the tango to be able to blend in. Captain Awesome offered to share some of the moves he learned in Buenos Aires, though he didn't teach Chuck how to lead ... good thing La Cuidad knew how to switch roles when she ended up dancing with him.

Moulin Rouge!
2001

There was a strong gay sensibility to Baz Luhrmann's jukebox musical (even if the movie didn't have any major gay characters) and it also gave us two instances of men dancing together.

When Christian (Ewan McGregor) first visited the Moulin Rouge, a flood of images conveys the sensory overload that he initially feels, one of those images being a couple of heavily-tattooed men dancing together. Later on, the movie offered its campiest number when Harold Zidler distracted The Duke with a performance of "Like a Virgin" and a dance number featuring a chorus line and Zilder wearing a table cloth as a wedding veil.

Beautiful Thing
1996

Sometimes two guys dancing together is totally gay ... and incredibly sweet and tender, like in the moving coming-of-age film Beautiful Thing. The movie's final moment has Jamie and Ste slow dancing together for all their neighbors to see as Cass Elliot sings "Dream a Little Dream of Me", an emotionally powerful ending. The sight of Jamie and Ste dancing together was such an iconic image it was used as the cover for some versions of the soundtrack and home video packaging.

Ray's Male Heterosexual Dance Hall
1987

In this Oscar-winning short film, a laid-off executive learns that the hot new place to network is Ray's Male Heterosexual Dance Hall, where powerful businessmen slow dance to old tunes, discussing deals as the classic music plays. This short has plenty of familiar faces including David Rache, Sam McMurray and Fred Willard, and the fact that it plays the situation without a sneer is the key to its success.

That's just a handful — any favorite man-dances we missed?