What would heterosexual filmmakers and scriptwriters do without homosexual panic, the fear of "going faggot" as Stephen King describes it in his minimally panicky and aptly named novella The Body, to make their adolescent comedies? Sometimes it seems like they couldn't make a move at all, as in turgid teen dramadies like American Pie 2 (or 3, I really can't remember which) which force ostensibly het young men into comprisingly "gay" positions: in Pie's case, forced by two female objects of lust to kiss their (boy)friends — with tongue. The humor depends on the audience's feelings of disgust at the characters' experience of humiliation; um, some might say torture.
Director Danny Leiner has another way.
In his cult hit Dude, Where's My Car?, referenced hilariously in H&K twice, Leiner pits his two male het leads in a kissing contest against Fabio and a bimbette and guess who wins — with tongue? It's hilarious, it's a great kiss, and it's only a non-sequitor if you ignore the affectional basis of all these buddy movies. It's the subtext that refuses to die and refuses to stay quite so sub. I mean even the movie itself says, self-reflexively: "It's obvious they're totally gay for each other."
Newcity critic Ray Pride has this to say about Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle:
"John Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg’s politically incorrect, homosexual-panic-embracing screenplay is an equal-opportunity offender in its pursuit of twentysomething comic touchstones…
Well I dunno about that last bit: you'd have to be pretty hung up to be offended by a movie so good-natured and with a lead so cute and open-mouthed. But what exactly happens when you embrace homosexual panic? In Jon Hurwitz and Hayden Schlossberg's script it means every ten minutes or so some dude looks at your penis while you're pissing or sloppily swabs your full brown lips seductively (I'm right there witcha') or you trim your pubes in your roommate's room and ask said roommate to inspect your work (a warped queer-eye-for-the-straight-guy moment: "It makes it look bigger!"). And after each incident you either don't feel particularly creepy or you ignore the incident completely as if it's all part of your daily life.
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Article comments
1 - dude where's my boyfriend
What holds for filmmakers and scriptwriters also is true for US broadcast television censorship. When the only representations of gays are in humorous contexts it limits general understanding of the broader, more realistic cultural framework. Gay characterizations that continue to limit our perspectives are missed opportunities and perpetuate discrimination and disrespect.
2 - Rick Powell
I hope my post doesn't give the impression that I
"have a problem" with this movie because I don't. I'm not fucking GLAAD, after all.
I like your fake nick though. That should have been my headline.
3 - francis
Have you heard about this young man who is afflicted with chronic
Spontaneous Human Combustion?
He discovered that the flames killing him little by little have miraculous
healing power.
He wrote a screenplay about his life and published it in his personal website
together with an open letter to novelist Stephen King.
It has become a very popular website with lots of visitors from all over the
world daily.
Everybody's reading his script.
Check out www.burnymadden.com
His story is very interesting and unique.
Grade: A+