Paging Vince Vaughn: If you worked at 'The Office,' you could tell all the gay jokes you want

There's just no making sense of what causes controversy and what doesn't in today's hyper-caffeinated media culture. As you may recall, Universal Pictures and filmmaker Ron Howard were recently embroiled in a huge flap over a joke Vince Vaughn made in the trailer for "The Dilemma," in which Vaughn, addressing a boardroom full of salespeople, referred to an electric car as "gay." After CNN's Anderson Cooper publicly complained about the joke, Universal was pilloried as being insensitive by gay activist groups such as GLAAD and pulled the trailer from theaters. 

However, as Fox News.com's Holly McKay reports, the Oct. 14 episode of NBC's "The Office" has a scene that's crammed with a host of similar jokes. In the episode, Michael (played by Steve Carell) discovers that he has contracted herpes. He orders Oscar (Oscar Nunez), an openly gay character on the show, into his office. Since they had "once sucked face as part of an office presentation to destroy the stigma about gay kissing," Michael believes he may have contracted a sexually transmitted disease from the act. Joined by Dwight (Rainn Wilson) they confront Oscar:  

Dwight: "I'm going to need a list of every man you've ever had sex with; I'm talking train stations, men's rooms."

Michael: "Flower shops, fireworks celebrations."

Dwight: "Fence with a hole in it...The woods behind the liquor store, the swamp behind the old folks' home."

Michael: "Electric car dealerships."

Wow! Holy Stereotypes, Batman! Apparently, every comedy writer in America thinks electric cars are, well, gay. There is oh-so-much to deconstruct here, since I'm sure that many "Office" fans would say that the humor is clearly intended to make fun of Oscar's clueless bosses, especially Michael, who is often hopelessly inappropriate when it comes to Oscar's homosexuality. But you could argue that the joke isn't entirely on Michael and Dwight, since Oscar doesn't get an opportunity to ridicule his boss' lame usage of stereotyping about gay sexual promiscuity.

And of course, the larger issue still looms: Why did everyone pile on "The Dilemma" and give "The Office" a free pass? McKay says that when she tried to contact Cooper, he declined to comment. Ditto for GLAAD. McKay did talk to TheFrisky.com editor in chief Amelia McDonell-Parry, who, while having criticized "The Dilemma's" gay joke, took a different view of the gay humor on "The Office." She argued that Carell's character was the real butt of the joke. She added: "Couple that with the fact that all of the so-called 'gay jokes' on 'The Office' are far better written than the one cheap shot, [whose] sole message is that 'gay equals lame,' in 'The Dilemma' and you have a clear-cut case of not the same at all."

Well, maybe it's a clear-cut case for her. But I'd argue that it's a pretty steep slippery slope to start arguing that one gay joke is OK and another one isn't just because you think that one is better written than the other. Wouldn't that mean that Tina Fey can tell a gay joke, but Adam Sandler can't? I mean, that's more about what's cool than what's right, which is hardly any kind of ethical judgment call. It just goes to show -- when it comes to humor, you had better be sure that a joke is out of bounds, no matter what the setting or who delivers the punchline. If you start drawing all sorts of complicated aesthetic lines about what's acceptable and what's offensive, you're probably going to end up being the butt of the joke yourself.

RECENT AND RELATED:

'The Dilemma' and the sudden dilemma over gay jokes in Hollywood

Photo: Steve Carell at the New Yorker Festival Party in New York City. Credit: Amy Sussman / Getty Images 

 

Comments

[Peter Blair]

I agree. There is a paper thin fine line between the humor found offensive in the Dilemma and the script writers sense of humor working on The Office. Your article makes me start to think Cooper overreacted. What about stand up comedy where there are no boundaries and stars are born cracking jokes about fat people. Obese children in playgrounds across the country are bullied because they don't fit a stereotype. How was Vaughn's joke dangerous but Carell's was harmless? There are so many angles to this discussion.

[Anonymouse]

The difference is totally clear: context.

All the things Steve Carrell says on "The Office" are meant to dramatize his ignorance. The joke is--"There is a guy who still thinks that way."

In the trailer for THE DILEMMA, Vince Vaughn is the clear protagonist, the proxy for the audience. You are on his side. And on his side, it's funny to say that electric cars are gay.

Maybe we'll see the movie and it'll turn out that Vince Vaughn's character is meant to be viewed as totally wrong about everything and we're not meant to take his point-of-view at all. But, if previous Vince Vaughn stage-of-life comedies are any indication (FOUR CHRISTMASES; THE BREAK-UP; COUPLES RETREAT), his character is always the proxy for the audience.

[Kermie]

You're wrong. There's a difference between making jokes about gay people and calling something "gay." I'm gay and can take a good-natured ribbing, and thought the Office was funny last week. What isn't funny is using "gay" as a synonym for "dumb." Vaughn wasn't making a gay joke. He was perpetuating a denegrating comment. What if people starting calling things they thought were lame "negro" or "jewy" or "womanish." Not so funny, is it?

[WRTRPROD7]

Years ago, gay people co-opted the word "gay," giving it an entirely new meaning (as anyone who's
heard the Flintstones' "Gay old time" line can attest).
Now the comedy world has given gay yet another meaning and they complain.
It sounds like whining since, even in the joke, they explain it's not meant in the homosexual sense.
It would be nice if the gay community were as sensitive about changing the meaning of
another word that upsets and offends the sensibilities of those adherering
to a traditional value...."marriage."

[Zoey]

Actually, Kermit, there is a denigrating term of women in terms of film and what that term implies: "chick flick?" And apparently, we've only seen a clip of the trailer for the film, and therefore can't understand the context of who Vaughn's character is in the film and why he would speak that way. It's a piece of fiction, either you will go see it or you won't...film, television, etc. There have been offensive characters in television in the past, hello Archie Bunker?

[Alex Blaze]

It's not that complicated, and maybe you should reread that Amelia McDonell-Parry quotation a few times before you pretend like she's explaining quantum mechanics; The Office's joke that was cited makes fun of homophobia, the Vince Vaughn joke is homophobic. I'm just going to guess that you don't see the difference because you don't think the Vince Vaughn joke is homophobic because you don't know what it's like to have your identity become the official equivalent of the word "stupid," but it's something that most gay people I know are at least bothered by.

Anyway, there are plenty of other examples of gay jokes that are offensive that no one complains about. I don't know why you had to pull a counterexample that isn't really offensive and make a stink about that. We live in a very homophobic culture where gay jokes are made all the time on TV, radio, movies, etc., and people are going to choose their battles. Maybe it'd be better if straight people put a little effort into understanding instead of always dismissing everyone else's feelings as if they don't matter.

[maryann]

re: vince vaughn

this is crazy society has become hyper sensitive when i was growing up gay ment lame and had nothing to do with a persons sexual orientation.. people have to learn to take a comment as is and stop reading into so much

[dreamwalker]

Webster's dictionary definition #2: Bright, colorful, frivolous...

Which leads to: Ineffectual and "lame".

Since the 14th century.

So, that line seems to have nothing to do with homosexuls (unless they want to claim it)... and this is a tempest in a teapot.

[Sophie]

I also agree. The explanation given by TheFrisky.com editor makes it sound like all gays should have editorial rights over any jokes anyone does about gays. What happened to the artist's freedom of expression? So only jokes which don't make fun of or belittle gays are okay? Should all categories (the obese, the bald, the "too tall", the short) be given the same editorial rights?

Comedy is full of inappropriate jokes about all categories of people. It's the nature of comedy.

[CMYK RGB]

Holly McKay clearly "gets it" and the writer (blogger?) here doesn't. Maybe Norman Lear can explain it to him/her? Norman Lear brilliantly mined this sort of humor in "All in the Family" but apparently Ron Howard is not up to the task.