To see if Stephen Schneider (Stephen Downes of Season 3) has played any gay characters, I googled his name and "gay," and this clip came up on youtube. He's not in it.
A blond guy and a woman are standing at an apartment door . He asks "He never gave you the key?" She says no, so he bangs.
A very muscular black guy in his underwear answers. Shocked, he says "Oh...shit. Hey guys."
Blondie: "What the hell are you doing?"
Muscle Guy: "Sorry. We needed a place."
Woman: "For what?"
A swishy guy appears with a flourish, also in his underwear. They stare in shock.
Woman (Disgusted): "You're GAY????"
Muscle Guy (Upset): "No!!!!! But this n-word's son sucks really good dick." So the gay guy has a black parent?
The whole exchange -- the looks of shock and disgust, the need to defend yourself against the horrifying accusation, the gay guy's pronounced swishiness --- displays just the sort of jaw-dropping homophobia that I hate running into at 4:00 am.
The caption reads: You're the Worst - Brandon Mychal Smith. So let's look it up.
You're the Worst is a tv series that lasted for five years on FX (2014-2019), but was so under-exposed that I don't recall seeing a single commercial. Most episodes drew between .2 and .5 million viewers. It featured a romance between two horrible people, writer Jimmy (Chris Geere, the Blond Guy in the clip) and public relations person Gretchen.
The homophobic scene is from Episode 1.3, "Keys Open Doors." TO put it in context, I watched the whole episode.
Scene 1: Morning. After a night of carousing, Jimmy and Gretchen are lying naked, asleep, on the ground outside his house.
Cut to Jimmy pooping (butt shot) while Gretchen uses the hand nozzle of the shower to masturbate. Jimmy notes that he uses it too, in his butt.
They've spent six or seven nights together, so Gretchen wants a key to his apartment. He refuses, so she rushes out in passive-aggressive rage.
Scene 2: Edgar (Desmin Borges, left and below), Jimmy's horrible roommate, cooks breakfast. They discuss the key request as a symbol of banality and predictability, leading to "shopping for sconces at Williams-Sonoma."
Scene 3: At the coffee shop, Gretchen and her friend Lindsay discuss the key request, Lindsay's husband cheating, and "snorting in her vag."
So she's bisexual?
Her assistant rushes in with a crisis: Sam the Rapper gave an interview to a college newspaper, and used "gay" and "faggot" 37 times! And the interviewer was the president of the gay student association! So, if he said all that to a straight person, it would be fine?
More after the break
Scene 4: Gretchen left her cell phone at Jimmy's house. He snoops, and finds a text from Ty (Stephen Schneider, left), saying "Can't wait to see you tonight." "Who the hell is Ty?" he bellows.
Cut to Gretchen at work, confronting Sam the Rapper. He explains that he and his crew were trying to pick up college girls, when this dude asked for an interview.
"Didn't you notice that he was gay?" Yeah, like gay men are all instantly recognizable due to their fruitiness.
"He was hella fruity, but so what?"
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"No more interviews without me being there!"
Scene 5: Jimmy goes to Gretchen's office to return her cell phone. On the way out, he runs into Sam the Rapper, who liked his book: "It was boring as hell, and clearly you jacked off to Hemingway in high school, but the prose was good."
Then they discuss how great Gretchen is. Jimmy decides that she should get the key to his house after all, and gives it to Sam the Rapper to give to her.
Scene 6: At a gay bar (you can tell by the rainbow flags everywhere), Darren (Trey Gerrald), the guy who interviewed Sam the Rapper, is having a swishy comversation about hair-weaves. The 1960s stereotype even has a limp wrist! Gretchen asks him to not mention the slurs "gay" and "faggot" in his article, but he refuses: "We're at the start of a revolution. You won't say the n-word, but people feel free to say 'faggot' whenever you want." Um..that was Stonewall, 54 years ago, and saying "faggot" will get you called out, and maybe fired. What year do they think this is?
She tries flirting with him, but it doesn't work. Um...did you think that 'gay' means 'fruity heterosexual'? What about $2000 hush money? Ok, that works.
Scene 7: Night. Jimmy tails Gretchen, hoping to find her screwing this Ty guy.
Wait -- did they agree to be monogamous? He follows her to a bar, where she's having drinks with her friends (including Jimmy's roommate!). Why wasn't he invited? She explains that some people he hates are there, including his ex-girlfriend.
As they are arguing, Ty arrives with his date. So they're just friends? Jimmy is relieved -- until Ty whispers in Gretchen's ear "I need to see you soon." I'll bet it's something innocent, like he wants to hire Gretchen to do his pr.
Scene 8: After the party, Jimmy and Gretchen head back to his house. Remember that Jimmy gave Sam the Rapper a key to give to her? She never got it. But that was Jimmy's only key! They bang on the door, and we get Sam the Rapper and Darren's "you're gay????" scene.
Now I understand their shock -- they thought that Sam the Rapper was homophobic -- and his need to defend himself -- he is homophobic. But I still don't like the old-fashioned, pre-Stonewall depiction of gay men.
As far as I can tell, Sam's same-sex interests are never mentioned again, but Jimmy has sex with two guys to mess with Gretchen. Actual gay people appear in only two episodes.
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