there's a lot to agree with in that quote ("ultimately mere fodder") but
this is subtly a perfect distillation of how your average liberal views gay people, as Muppets: sexless
what?
liberals generally have the same stereotyped view everyone else does, that gay people (especially men) are leading this debauched life of continual grindr-initiated hookups. i know gay men that don't fit that pattern that are made to feel uncomfortable for not living up to this imaginary standard.
― eris bueller (lukas), Friday, 28 June 2013 16:26 (ten years ago) link
ya i was gonna mention that as well
― we're up all night to get (s1ocki), Friday, 28 June 2013 16:27 (ten years ago) link
happy to defer to anyone better represented by the cover than I am but yeah: what Bert & Ernie stand in for on the cover is a couple who are a couple at home & can't/haven't come out publicly, being affectionate privately. this seems like a pretty good & funny read on them & on a big thing one could hope is changing with the news. it isn't untrue thatrepresentation iof coupescouples is important or is frequently subject to patronising interpretations but this is neat & exists in its own world successfully enough to be seem too terrible imo
― daft on the causes of punk (schlump), Friday, 28 June 2013 16:27 (ten years ago) link
phone; should read representation of couples
― daft on the causes of punk (schlump), Friday, 28 June 2013 16:29 (ten years ago) link
would've had less trouble with Big Bird and Snuffleupagus tbh
― A deeper shade of lol (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 28 June 2013 16:30 (ten years ago) link
freddie has this.... thing about "liberal representations of gay people"
― max, Friday, 28 June 2013 16:33 (ten years ago) link
it is like a lot of freddies things about 1/3 accurate and 2/3ds projection
"My father, a theater professor, introduced my siblings and me to queer people throughout our childhood, and the existence and acceptance of them was an assumed part of the landscape. And these people were queer, in the old sense, not the sanitized, sexless TV gays that are the dominant image of homosexuality today. "
― max, Friday, 28 June 2013 16:35 (ten years ago) link
should have been beavis & butthead
― johnny crunch, Friday, 28 June 2013 16:35 (ten years ago) link
in all fairness, they have lived together for decades. they probably are pretty sexless by now. hahahaha! #rayromano4ever
― scott seward, Friday, 28 June 2013 16:40 (ten years ago) link
it would have been more on point to show E&B working on a joint tax return
― i don't even have an internet (Hurting 2), Friday, 28 June 2013 16:44 (ten years ago) link
"Ernie! There are people here from The New Yorker magazine!"
― A deeper shade of lol (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Friday, 28 June 2013 16:45 (ten years ago) link
i think freddie suffers from a problem endemic to the liberal community; he's more principled than he is coherent.
― Mordy , Friday, 28 June 2013 16:51 (ten years ago) link
"Bert and Ernie clearly love each other. But does Ernie suck Bert’s cock? I don't think so."
http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2013/06/28/bert_and_ernie_on_new_yorker_cover_for_gay_marriage_a_terrible_way_to_commemorate.html
― scott seward, Friday, 28 June 2013 16:55 (ten years ago) link
a lotta "thoughts" out there about this. #chooseyourbattles
― scott seward, Friday, 28 June 2013 16:56 (ten years ago) link
#crazyforhashtagstoday
well he does now, in my mind, and I am really not happy about that slate.com
― i don't even have an internet (Hurting 2), Friday, 28 June 2013 17:04 (ten years ago) link
http://www.authenticmanprogram.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/bert-ernie-banana.png
― This amigurumi Jamaican octopus is ready to chill with you (Phil D.), Friday, 28 June 2013 17:11 (ten years ago) link
they aren't even the gayest muppets. you got kermit, grover, the count...
― scott seward, Friday, 28 June 2013 17:13 (ten years ago) link
statler & waldorf
― we're up all night to get (s1ocki), Friday, 28 June 2013 17:13 (ten years ago) link
Dr. Honeydew and Beaker
― This amigurumi Jamaican octopus is ready to chill with you (Phil D.), Friday, 28 June 2013 17:14 (ten years ago) link
ernie has never struck me as gay. bert, yes. maybe ernie was an old high school friend and he just ended up with bert and bert likes having help with the rent? seems more likely.
― scott seward, Friday, 28 June 2013 17:14 (ten years ago) link
So Ernie's just a boy who helps with the rent. A "rentboy," if you will.
― This amigurumi Jamaican octopus is ready to chill with you (Phil D.), Friday, 28 June 2013 17:17 (ten years ago) link
Yeah, if anybody in the Henson universe is a gay couple, it's these two.
― Ⓓⓡ. (Johnny Fever), Friday, 28 June 2013 17:39 (ten years ago) link
Are there any openly gay couples on Sesame Street? Honest question. At this point there should be.
― Treeship, Friday, 28 June 2013 18:26 (ten years ago) link
― scott seward, Friday, June 28, 2013 1:13 PM Bookmark Flag Post Permalink
I always though kermit was just afraid of sex
― i don't even have an internet (Hurting 2), Friday, 28 June 2013 18:38 (ten years ago) link
there is a character with a parent in prison, which is both awesome and crushingly depressing in what it represents
― BIG HOOS aka the denigrated boogeyman (BIG HOOS aka the steendriver), Friday, 28 June 2013 18:57 (ten years ago) link
did you ever see the very special episode prequel where the muppet dad kills grover
― daft on the causes of punk (schlump), Friday, 28 June 2013 19:01 (ten years ago) link
tbh i'm just glad it wasn't peppermint patty and marcie
― (The Other) J.D. (J.D.), Friday, 28 June 2013 19:03 (ten years ago) link
elmo was probably behind the whole thing
― i don't even have an internet (Hurting 2), Friday, 28 June 2013 19:03 (ten years ago) link
i can see both sides of the "should bert & ernie be appropriated like this" coin enough that what really annoys me about the new yorker cover is that a) they're admiring a shot of the ENTIRE supreme court and b) that the appropriating is being done by the new yorker
― da croupier, Friday, 28 June 2013 19:05 (ten years ago) link
I realize it's not totally my place to say, but this ultimately comes off as another Thing To Be Vaguely Outraged About On The Internet
― i don't even have an internet (Hurting 2), Friday, 28 June 2013 19:07 (ten years ago) link
i.e. blog fodder
blfodder, as you say
― BIG HOOS aka the denigrated boogeyman (BIG HOOS aka the steendriver), Friday, 28 June 2013 19:13 (ten years ago) link
imo the cartoon character (or puppet) that will retroactively be written as a "gay character" will probably be Bart Simpson, not Bert and Ernie
― Cunga, Friday, 28 June 2013 19:13 (ten years ago) link
Like, a liberal, pro-gay rights publication celebrated a victory for gay rights with a humorous cover that may have been just like a hair off in tone and allegedly perpetuates a stereotype of gay people that almost no one, especially liberals, really has.
― i don't even have an internet (Hurting 2), Friday, 28 June 2013 19:14 (ten years ago) link
that people still get their news from network TV in 2013?
― Cunga, Friday, 28 June 2013 19:23 (ten years ago) link
btw, you know who else codes as gay to me? that Neil Patrick Harris fella
― Cunga, Friday, 28 June 2013 19:24 (ten years ago) link
what really annoys me about the new yorker cover is that a) they're admiring a shot of the ENTIRE supreme court
That aspect hadn't quite occurred to me, but I do find it weird that they're looking at a still photo superimposed on a TV screen.
― Murder in the Rue McClanahan (jaymc), Friday, 28 June 2013 19:27 (ten years ago) link
what do you mean?
― congratulations (n/a), Friday, 28 June 2013 19:28 (ten years ago) link
getting pretty deep into objections to an illustration of sesame street characters at this point, does anybody have issues with the decor, model of tv
― daft on the causes of punk (schlump), Friday, 28 June 2013 19:30 (ten years ago) link
just wait for my forthcoming gawker piece addressing exactly that
― i don't even have an internet (Hurting 2), Friday, 28 June 2013 19:35 (ten years ago) link
OK, I have no evidence that it's a still photo per se. But it seems like an image that would be unlikely to appear on a TV screen except as a small graphic in the corner of the screen in a news broadcast. (Obviously, it was chosen as a symbol to communicate in the easiest possible manner what the illustration is about.)
― Murder in the Rue McClanahan (jaymc), Friday, 28 June 2013 19:45 (ten years ago) link
cancelling my subscription
― daft on the causes of punk (schlump), Friday, 28 June 2013 19:49 (ten years ago) link
Jesus Christ you guys
― copter (waterface), Friday, 28 June 2013 19:50 (ten years ago) link
wait since this is the new yorker thread are people annoyed that people are annoyed with the cover just defensive readers?
― da croupier, Friday, 28 June 2013 19:55 (ten years ago) link
my interpretation of the cover is that bert and ernie are anti-gay bigots. this is why they're holding onto each other in the dark, retreating from "the light" of the frightening new world that doesn't discriminate quite so much and which they don't understand. they are watching a dvd that contains a slide show of supreme court images because they no longer understand how to have fun.
― Z S, Friday, 28 June 2013 19:59 (ten years ago) link
lololol
― Cunga, Friday, 28 June 2013 20:32 (ten years ago) link
Check out the comment section on the New Yorker page for a whole lot more of people taking this kinda funny, kinda sweet image way too seriously.
― The Butthurt Locker (cryptosicko), Friday, 28 June 2013 20:34 (ten years ago) link
the inside cover is the same shot from the other side, and ernie and bert have the faces of roberts and scalia
― i don't even have an internet (Hurting 2), Friday, 28 June 2013 20:36 (ten years ago) link