Delicious LiveJournal Links for 3-21-2009

[anuran]

• Gareth McLean: Rowan Atkinson is wrong to defend gay comedy-characters
  (tags: queer comment)
• Here is the full list of 200 words which the Local Government Association says should not be used by councils
  Corporate speak checklist. Time to make up some bingo cards in time for the next department meeting.
  (tags: words news)

Comments

[henriksdal.livejournal.com]

I think the difference is that straight male characters are portrayed as well-rounded, full featured characters while camp stereotypes, are, well, camp and that's about it. The joke doesn't seemed to have changed since the 1950s yet characters where the joke is about race have changed vastly.

Al Murray's camp nazi is bizarre; would there be hell on if it was a big-nosed jewish saying oi oi? Actually, that'd probably be funnier..

[laserboy.livejournal.com]

It's interesting but the thing about Mr Humphries in "Are you Being Served?" was that the character wasn't gay (the actor has talked about this). He existed to challenge other people's assumptions and I think that's important and frequently ignored.

When I was a kid I absolutely loved 'gay' characters like him and Kenneth Williams. Not because they were gay or straight, but because they were friendly and funny and appealed to children.

In any event gay comedy tv characters are a world away from something like Radio's "Julian and Sandy" and the rip-off on Radio Scotland. Now -that- garbage is f*cking homophobic.