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The Simpsons Does a Riff on Lesbian Cult Classic

Gayest Episode Ever

Release Date: 02/14/2024

It’s a Will & Grace Thanksgiving! show art It’s a Will & Grace Thanksgiving!

Gayest Episode Ever

“Homo for the Holidays” (November 25, 1999) What? An episode of Will & Grace that Drew actually likes? Kind of! This season two episode has Jack coming out to his mother over Thanksgiving dinner, and it’s basically the gayest Thanksgiving episode of any sitcom ever. And it’s a good piece of TV with some thoughtful dialogue, even if a lot of the jokes are very representative of that Will & Grace style, which you either like or you don’t. Also: Is Jack McFarland responsible for popularizing the phrase “platinum gay”? Listen to previous Will & Grace episodes .

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King of the Hill Accidentally Explores Muscle Gainer Subculture show art King of the Hill Accidentally Explores Muscle Gainer Subculture

Gayest Episode Ever

“Bill, Bulk and the Body Buddies” (May 20, 2007) Can one illustration of a buff Bill Dauterive change your entire life in an instant? Well, for some people, yeah. This King of the Hill outing manages to stuff in a whole lot of imagery that will be familiar to a certain gay subculture. It’s inadvertent — and specifically this episode also features explicitly gay characters as a counterpoint to the rude, crude muscle bros, but there’s plenty to talk about nonetheless in Bill’s adventures through body transformation. Listen to our previous King of the Hill episodes .  Follow , ...

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That Girl Meets the Cross-Dressing Cops show art That Girl Meets the Cross-Dressing Cops

Gayest Episode Ever

"A Muggy Day in Central Park" (November 14, 1968) A contemporary of Bewitched, That Girl aimed for a more sophisticated audience than most sitcoms of its era. Not only does it look more cinematic, in a way that sitcoms generally wouldn't until the 2000s, but it's also more clearly a feminist show, where Marlo Thomas plays a woman braving big city life on her own. This episode does that tired thing where gay men, cross-dressers, trans woman and drag queens are conflated down to a single thing, but it’s nonetheless interesting to see how a progressive show handles queer things fairly...

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Boy Meets World Does a Scream Parody show art Boy Meets World Does a Scream Parody

Gayest Episode Ever

“And Then There Was Shawn” (February 27, 1998) Somehow, Boy Meets World got ABC to say yes to a parody of Scream within the confines of the TGIF lineup. That’s wild enough, but it’s even more surprising what this “it was all a dream” episode lifts directly from the 1996 slasher. Joining us to discuss this unlikely intersection of franchises are the hosts of the  podcast,  and her little brother,  (not the gay beach). Happy Halloween! Listen to Guide to the Unknown groundbreaking analysis of the Scary Movie franchise, . Listen to William’s narrative horror...

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Bewitched Unleashes the Gay Scourge That Is Uncle Arthur show art Bewitched Unleashes the Gay Scourge That Is Uncle Arthur

Gayest Episode Ever

“The Joker Is a Card” (October 14, 1965) Nearly two hundred episodes later, we’re finally returning to Bewitched to give Uncle Arthur a proper introduction. And while he’s a big part of Bewitched’s gay fandom, Paul Lynde brings a lot of baggage to the role that taught Americans to laugh at eccentric gay weirdos everywhere. Watch the new season of Glen's show, ! Listen to Drew discussing 16-bit horror video games . This episode featured a lot of references to previous episodes, so here are all of those, for your listening pleasure:  (but honestly this new episode is better) ...

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Karl Is the Simpsons' First Gay Friend show art Karl Is the Simpsons' First Gay Friend

Gayest Episode Ever

“Simpson and Delilah” (October 18, 1990) Not only the earliest gay-themed Simpsons episode we’ve ever done, this one is also the first gay-themed episode The Simpsons ever did. And while the enigmatic Karl doesn’t get to be explicitly gay, we argue whether having a gay-coded character might have been the show’s way to — in its second season and at the height of Simpsons mania — signal to grown-ups that no, despite the t-shirts, this was not a show for kids and it could operate at a higher level. But how many adults watching TV in 1990 knew who Harvey Fierstein was? Remember when...

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A Different World Meets a Possible Lesbian show art A Different World Meets a Possible Lesbian

Gayest Episode Ever

“Wild Child” (February 4, 1988) Officially, A Different World never did a gay episode and there were no queer students at Hillman. Nestled in the middle of the Bonet/Tomei season, however, is an interesting episode about a girl named Cougar, who happens to be easily read as a lesbian and interact in interesting ways with both Denise and Whitley. Entertainment journalist joins us to discuss this episode and why A Different World still matters in 2024. You can watch this episode of A Different World . Listen to Stacey's appearances on Sam Pancake Presents the Monday Afternoon Movie...

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The Beetlejuice Cartoon Is Weird, Gross and Very Queer show art The Beetlejuice Cartoon Is Weird, Gross and Very Queer

Gayest Episode Ever

“Pranks for the Memories” (September 18, 1991) and “Beetlebones” (September 27, 1991) Sure, we’ve all thought more about Beetlejuice in the last few weeks than we have in the last few decades, but we come to you today not to discuss the sequel film but the animated spinoff. returns to explain why this more kid-friendly version of the Tim Burton ghoul lends itself to trans and queer readings. Listen to Henry’s movie podcast, , and also subscribe to , which is currently on hiatus. Mentioned in this episode:  and specifically their episode about  and their episodes...

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It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia Stops Being Funny to Be Gay Instead show art It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia Stops Being Funny to Be Gay Instead

Gayest Episode Ever

“Mac Finds His Pride” (November 7, 2018) Twelve seasons in, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia stopped giving Mac the Smithers treatment and let him be gay, but it’s the season thirteen finale we’re talking about because it highlights Mac’s sexuality without making jokes, at least for the third act. The episode received wide praise, but did it also jeopardize the show’s comedic tone in order to make a statement? Thanks to Dr. Alfred Smith, David Russell and Ally J. Shivka for offering their interpretations of the narrative in the dance sequence! Watch the dance sequence in...

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The 80s Gay Fantasia That Is Jennifer Slept Here show art The 80s Gay Fantasia That Is Jennifer Slept Here

Gayest Episode Ever

This is the second-to-last of our summer reruns; new episodes back Sept. 18 on the Patreon feed and Sept. 25 on the main feed! For this one, we're taking a break from looking at the ways that sitcoms advanced American discourse about LGBTQ people and instead gawking at campy 80s fluff — because that is also a thing that is important to gay people. “Jennifer: The Movie” (October 29, 1983) We’re celebrating both Halloween and week two of our celebration of Ann Jillian with an episode about how the 1983 NBC series Jennifer Slept Here is both so very weird and also a little gay boy’s...

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More Episodes

“Lisa the Drama Queen” (January 25, 2009)

So here’s an interesting one. In its twentieth season, The Simpson did an episode inspired by Heavenly Creatures, the 1994 Peter Jackson movie that has Kate Winslet and Melanie Lynskey playing schoolgirls who flee into a fantasy world and also each other. More than a decade later, this story would play out again, only with Lisa Simpson and a new character voiced by Emily Blunt, and that might seem like a strange combo, especially because the Simpson version nixes the sex and violence of the original, but it nonetheless works.

Special thanks to the writer of this episode, Brian Kelley, for sharing his memories of how this episode came to be.

For a limited time, you can still screen Heavenly Creatures via the GEE Patreon, but that window is closing. Info here.

Listen to Drew on the In Retrospect podcast’s episodes about the “lesbian/Lebanese” joke (part one & part two)

Go shop at our TeePublic store!

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And yes, we do have an official website! We even have episode transcripts courtesy of Sarah Neal. Our logo was designed by Rob Wilson. This episode’s art was designed by Ian O’Phelan.