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Gay Jokes And The Bachmanns’ Hypocrisy

Political humor, if it cares about being insightful, should avoid the abundantly obvious and the exhaustively over-exposed. Portraying Bill Clinton as totally unable to resist the siren song of hamburgers doesn’t count as clever. Neither does depicting Marcus Bachmann is a lisping, effeminate closeted gay man:

One of the funnier inversions of this trope I’ve seen was in Friends With Money where everyone assumed Frances McDormand’s husband was gay even though he wasn’t. Turning stereotypes back on the people who hold them is almost universally funny than confirming them. Things like this won’t win the battle against Rep. Michele Bachmann as a viable national political figure and help delay victory in the larger war over gay rights.

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