#have a vague summary of stuff i've been occasionally reading for the past year

[marley-manson]

so i figure there are like five main types of pre-90s gay jokes based on reading stuff about homoeroticism in film/tv and also watching things in general:

1 - it's funny because it's absurd. dude making the joke is very masculine, there's no doubt as to his virility and manliness and heterosexuality, the punchline comes from the juxtaposition of effeminacy with masculinity, the laughter is safe because we know it's not true. you see this a lot in masculine genres like war movies.

2 - self deprecation. it's funny because it's a joke at the teller's own expense, he's not particularly masculine and he's highlighting this through sexuality jokes, to make fun of himself. in some way he's failed to live up to the standard of masculinity, and this is equated with homosexuality. everyone has a good laugh because they know it's just a joke, and often they can relate because most men fail to live up to at least some masculine standards. Jack Benny's an example I've seen cited a lot, though idk first hand.

3 - homoerotic male duos. it's funny because it's an exaggeration of a presumed platonic friendship, or maybe power dynamic. the first and second types may also factor in, but don't necessarily have to. this isn't all homoeroticism between friends, this is just referring to the jokes that lampshade it. couples jokes, one in drag playing a wife, etc. jerry lewis and dean martin are probably a good example, and starsky and hutch fit here.

4 - full on straightforward mockery. insults, brief appearances by people playing effete stereotypes for the sole purpose of making the audience laugh, etc. deprecation of others. the most common, probably

5 - the bugs bunny factor. it's not self deprecating, and it's not a juxtaposition to some 'real' masculinity underneath - it's a point of pride and triumph. this is where seducing your enemy to own him comes in. it's funny because it's subversive. it's not self-mockery, it's a mockery of social norms and authority through embodying their opposite. it's probably rooted in anarchic comedy? maybe burlesque before that, but i think most of these can probably be traced to burlesque, idk i need to read more on that. anyway this is the best kind and it's mainly where hawkeye fits.

i guess there's a bonus 6 too - sly allusions and double entendres only people in the know were expected to get. idk if that quite counts as a main(stream) type of joke, but it's probably worth mentioning.

[thankskenpenders]

I've been catching up on the BumbleKast after getting behind so here are some interesting tidbits from various September 2022 episodes. Lots of behind the scenes info, discussions of canonicity, hints of what may be coming in the future, and also just random fun stuff

1. I'll put the most intriguing one up front:

"Is there any chance the IDW comics will connect themselves to future games?" Ian: "Mmmmmmmmaybe." Kyle: "Is there any chance that the IDW comics have already connected themselves to any future games?" Ian: "...Not in the direction of comic into game."

Ian's wording is intentionally vague here, and I'm not sure if the phrasing of "comic [connecting] into game" would mean he's ruling out the comic connecting itself to the game or the comic being referenced in the game. He's already outright said Tangle isn't in Frontiers or anything like that, so don't expect something THAT big, but previews have also said that Sonic will occasionally make surprising references to characters from past games while exploring the islands. Maybe the IDW comics will get a nod like this? Or maybe he means it the other way around, and we'll see some Frontiers stuff in the comics next year?

Regardless, you KNOW I'll be reporting back on this when Frontiers is out

2. Ian very strongly hints that Silver will be relevant in 2023's comics. This isn't exactly a surprise, given his story in the Annual and the fact that Evan's lead writer. (She's shown immense restraint not shoehorning Silver into every arc lol.) But it's nice to know that setup will pay off before long!

3. In general he's been saying that how the Classic era games fit together is being discussed behind the scenes, especially now that it's considered the past of the Modern series again. Things like Chaotix being non-canon may no longer be true. It's probably best not to think too hard about these things (Sega didn't care about "canon" in the '90s), but he reiterates that the version of events depicted in Origin is what Sega considers the definitive start of the series

4. Ian was very pleasantly surprised (and jealous) when the Scrapnik Island team was allowed to use Mecha Sonic and other Classic elements. He's holding off on commenting further on why Sega might have allowed this

5. Ian gave his ideas for what he could do in a crossover between Sonic and Homestar Runner complete with impressions

6. He also described how a TF2 match on 2Fort between the IDW Sonic cast would go

7. The question of whether or not Nicole could still be a lynx if she came back in future media has come up on here a lot, and sadly Ian seems to think the answer is a definitive "no." If the Freedom Fighters were to ever return, ALL Archie-original elements would likely be gone, starting back at square one with only SatAM (and, technically, their Spinball cameo) as inspiration. Nicole would not be a holo-lynx, Antoine may not be able to use a sword, etc.

8. On the subject of Mega Man, Ian picks up the homoerotic vibes fans always read between X and Zero and wonders if it was intentional lmao. Ian's a real one

9. Ian gave a loose summary of what would have happened in the unreleased third issue of Archie's Sonic: Mega Drive. The story would have opened with the team working together to hunt for the Emeralds in the Special Zone, which wouldn't quite be 1:1 with any specific previous version

10. Several ideas have apparently been pitched for using the Warp Topaz again, since Sega requested they leave it intact at the end of the Metal Virus Saga so it could be used again, although no idea has stuck just yet

11. Ian does not want to admit that Starline is already a Tumblr Sexyman

I was going to add more to this post as I continued getting through the backlog, but this is already long enough