The Oni Press comic Scott Pilgrim's Precious Little Life is closer to making it onto the big screen with the news that Michael Cera is in negotiations for the title role. While it'll be interesting to see how this romantic action-comedy's manga and video game influences are adapted to the big screen, I'll definitely be watching to see how they handle Scott's relationship with his gay roommate Wallace Wells.

In the comic, Scott and Wallace share a small apartment with space for only one bed, and the two are incredibly comfortable with the situation. In fact, both joke about the situation, trading sexual innuendos without any tension. Scott doesn't worry if sleeping in the same bed as a gay man threatens his heterosexuality and Wallace doesn't pine for his heterosexual bed mate.

Wallace is Scott's snarky voice of maturity, frequently calling Scott out on his emotional wishy-washiness. Wallace isn't perfect, though, and he isn't a sexless fairy godfather who is there to make Scott a better heterosexual. In the first Scott Pilgrim volume, he steals away the friend Scott's sister brings to a club, charming the guy with the way he hilariously heckles the band from their balcony seat.

The casting of Cera brings to mind his breakout role in Superbad, where the subtly-gay Seth (played by Jonah Hill, who certainly hasn't shied away from gay roles) seemed to have romantic feelings for Cera's character, Evan, a quality which Superbad played without turning to homophobic humor.

Cera's not the only person attached to Scott Pilgrim who has handled gay-ish themes comfortably. Edgar Wright is set to direct the film. Wright, who co-wrote and directed Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz, gave us wonderfully touching "bromances" that didn't need to stoop to gay-baiting humor to affirm the guys' heterosexuality.

It's been great to see depictions of straight men who aren't threatened by an affectionate and intimate friendship, but Scott Pilgrim could take things further by depicting a "bromance" between a straight and gay guy with no underlying sexual tension. I don't want to overplay the prominence of Wallace (who is definitely a supporting character) but he could make Scott Pilgrim's Little Life one for gay filmgoers to keep an eye on.

The folks at Saturday Night Live one-upped both Jimmy Kimmel and As the World Turns this week by running a digital short that featured Superbad actor Jonah Hill making out with Andy Samberg's dad (or, at least, an actor playing Andy Samberg's dad). Considering the central bromance of Superbad and Hill's hilarious deleted Brokeback Mountain monologue in Knocked Up, we shouldn't really be surprised to see him dip his bucket in this particular well. No, that's not a euphemism.

In this edition of "Chewing the Fat", Brent and I ruminate over what is happening with gay teens in the popular culture. There seems to be a bit of a "moment" going on as they are popping up in various incarnations of late. Brent and I discuss the great — Luke and Noah on As The World Turns, Calvin on Greek. The barely there — possibly Ryan in High School Musical 2. And the "What you talkin' 'bout Willis — Seth in Superbad.

Watch the vlog after the jump!

It seems that comedy's current white-steeded knight, Judd Apatow, can't make a film without people splitting into teams and debating whether he's a homophobe or the second coming of Phil Donahue (who, granted, is still alive and probably not ready for a second coming anytime soon).

Some people found The 40-Year-Old Virgin homophobic because of the much-quoted "You know why you're gay?" discussion between Paul Rudd and Seth Rogan. Others thought it was refreshingly lighthearted in the way that straight men were joking about gayness clearly without harboring any discomfort with or underlying hatred for it.

Likewise, some people found Knocked Up's gay-playing group of buddies to be insulting and found the film's use of "faggot" to be utterly unacceptable, while others (myself included) thought that the word, while of course horrible and never welcome, was clearly not being endorsed in the context in which it was used, and that the friends' obvious comfort with one another and their own sexualities was refreshing.

Enter Superbad, the next critical and box office darling to come out of this comedy camp, and its murky allusions to homosexuality, which have led to an intriguing variety of responses.

A writer for Seattle's The Stranger notes: "the most effective aspect of the movie, for me at least, is how it digs into the romance of straight-guy friendships." He then points out how shocked he was to see Time critic Richard Corliss' jaw-droppinlgy boneheaded review, which has the audacity to actually gay-bait producer Apatow and writer Seth Rogen: "Why don’t Apatow and Rogen just do the honorable thing and tell the world they’re gay? It would save them a lot of time wasted pretending their movies are about young men growing up and finding the right young woman."

Ah, I see: He didn't like their movie, so they must be gay.

I don't read Time, because ... well, as a friend once said, "Time is for people who don't have much of it left." But I headed over and was appalled at the bile that Corliss is allowed to spew in his reviews. Calling Will Ferrell gay for making Blades of Glory? Actually, calling "Homo!" on any man who has made a movie that challenges the head-butting and towel-snapping school of male bonding by admitting that genuine affection absolutely does exist between straight men? Here's a choice passage:

"Maybe Will Ferrell and Adam Sandler should come out of the closet too. In Ferrell's movies, male merging beats female interest to a pulp, and his latest, Blades of Glory, allows him several opportunities to stick his face in Jon Heder's crotch. Sandler's summer hit, I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry, took guy-guy friendship to its logical conclusion: two firefighters get married."

Actually, the marriage wasn't the conclusion, it was the setup. The conclusion was that friendship is more important than prejudice and that love conquers all ... but apparently sissified sentiments like these went over Corliss' determinedly heterosexual head.

The critic is of course quick to point out in a paragraph likely inserted after the review was written that he is a "liberal New Yorker" and a "card-carrying homophiliac" (which means he either loves gay or ... bleeds gay?) and that of course his gay-baiting of these filmmakers and abject horror at any suggestion of gayness in buddy comedies TOTALLY don't come from a place of squeamishness about male intimacy. Because that wouldn't be "liberal New Yorker" of him, and he'd never get a decent haircut in this city again.

Our own review of Superbad ruminates on the gay-seemingness of the straight relationship of the movie, and there does seem to be evidence that the filmmakers at least wanted to undermine straight buddy movie conventions. (Many viewers see the gay subtext, many don't.) But Corliss' gay witch hunt, launched against these characters and then men who create them, is preposterous: Just because he apparently can't imagine a world where straight men show affection for one another doesn't mean that the rest of the country (judging by the success of these comedies) might not be ready to live in it.

• The trailer for the upcoming teen comedy Superbad looks pretty funny, and it has a very sweet moment about two minutes in between the lead guys (note that Jonah Hill also delivered the hilarious deleted Brokeback monologue in Knocked Up). We have seen the future of comedy, and it's gay-baiting-free.
• This truly bizarre mashup of a Fosse-choreographed Gwen Verdon dance number from the 60s and a hip-hop song is absolutely hypnotic (t/y Popcandy for the tip)