Dante Puleio's mama may not dance, but let's hope his step-mama does

What's gayer than a dance competition? A dance competition where the men are made to compete with their mothers as partners.

Yes, this is the concept of Your Mama Don't Dance, a new Lifetime show premiering this Friday. Five guys (and their mothers) and five girls (and their fathers) are enlisted to compete, with the twist being that the young hoofers are initially unaware that they will be paired with their parental units as dance companions. So it's basically like every wedding I ever attended where my mom dragged me onto the dance floor because I didn't have a date ... only these guys can do more than the Chicken Dance. 

The show's website has intro interviews with all twenty contestants, and we've confirmed with the network that three of the fancy-footed fellas are out: Dante Puleio (who is dancing with his stepmother and refers to his dad as "Tony Soprano"), Jonathan Silva (a 19-year-old who will be dancing with his hairdresser mom) and Silvano Merendi (who, as one of the parents, is dancing with his daughter, Celia).

All jokes aside, is this any gayer than any other dance competition reality show? No. But the difference is that the network isn't pussyfooting around or trying to bury the sexuality of the contestants. Go Lifetime!

Lifetime President Susanne Daniels told Variety that although it's all step-ball-change on the surface, Dance is "really about the adult parent/child relationship, and how complex that is. It’s going to be an emotional show. I want people to cry." Susanne Daniels, you are a cruel, wonderful woman.

Oh, and the host is none other than 90210 vet Ian Ziering. Thoughts? Because I am so watching this.

Jonathan Silva and his mom

Silvano Merendi and daughter Celia

I was curled in front of my TV, laptop on my knee, contemplating how lucky I am to have a job where I am paid to watch Project Runway and tell people what I think about it. Life, I thought, is very good.

I was floating on a little riff of the show's trademark workroom banter between two of the show's out gay contestants, Chris March and Ricky Lazade. Chris had a joke:

"What would you call the Flintstones if they were gay?"

Ricky didn't know.

"Fags," Chris replied, laughing.

Now, I did laugh. I get the joke. I even get that it's not anti-gay, and not simply because it was a joke between two gay men. I mean, the whole premise of it is that if you're gay, that's all homophobes will see. It doesn't matter if you're a college professor, auto mechanic, ballroom dance instructor, or paleolithic cartoon character: You're just a fag.

So I'm not casting any aspersions on my beloved Chris or Ricky. I love you both, you know that, guys, right?

No, I'm wondering about Bravo. And this isn't your usual rhetorical, fake-concern, I-already-know-the-answer type wondering, either. It's genuine, and it's this: Would Bravo have aired a similar exchange between two African-American designers joking about the word "n****r"?

I don't watch much reality TV, and I never watch the kind where the focus is the backstage drama and backstabbing. Perhaps Bravo not only would air such an exchange, but already has. Those wiser in the ways of reality television can probably answer that question, and I hope one of you does.

But it did give me a tiny pause, in the moment before I laughed, and again after. Just a little question in my brain, wondering what Bravo was thinking when they edited this episode, and made the decision to include this joke, and that word.

Check out the whole recap here!