“Hello Gaymerica! Did you know that you were gay? Because you are. You’re certainly a whole lot gayer than you were [on Tuesday].”
Stephen Colbert shared these welcomed words of satire a day after Federal Court Judge Walker declared Proposition 8 (California’s gay marriage ban) unconstitutional.
Colbert reaches new levels of hilarity in this segment as he mocks the reactions of homophobic conservatives to the coming of “Arma-gay-ddon,” declaring “who knows what tastefully-arranged destruction awaits us.”
| The Colbert Report | Mon – Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c | |||
| How to Ruin Same-Sex Marriages | ||||
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Colbert’s wit is undeniable, but it is his subtle yet spot on attacks on conservative “values” that makes him such an important voice for the Left.
For instance, take the quote below:
Its as if the judge is saying there’s no such thing as gay marriage. There’s only marriage. And gay people have the same right to it as anyone else. Which frankly, makes the whole idea of getting married…kinda gay.
In a 10-second joke, he takes on two of the most destructive homophobic attributes of mainstream culture:
- the belief that marriage somehow means something different when entered into by same sex couples
- the use of the word “gay” (or the phrase “that’s so gay”) as a derogatory slur.
Laughing about these issues won’t make them go away, and we need to continue all kinds of other types of activism to fight homophobia and transphobia. But, laughing at a “proxy” for conservative cluelessness is a brilliant way to expose the idiocy of, say, believing that allowing gays to marry will have any type of negative effect on marriages between heterosexual couples, without directly attacking the real people who hold these beliefs. This, ideally, will allow other more productive channels of communication to remain open.
Plus, sometimes we just need a good laugh to take the edge off of a society that so often makes no sense at all – especially on a Friday!
