Male nudity, gay romance, and queer codes in movies and television, especially "The Righteous Gemstones"
Joel Rush's Hot/Hung Photos, Part 2: Beefcake and nude photos, including the glory hole scene, a bare butt, and a kiss
BJ's Angels: A "Charlie's Angels" parody starring Joel Rush and Skyler Gisondo. With a guest appearance by Adam Devine
For this parody, you need to know that Kelvin and Keefe on The Righteous Gemstones could never call themselves "boyfriends" or use the word "gay."
BJ: Do you know how hard it is to come up with scenarios that get you guys out of your clothes for extended periods? Lifeguard, surfing instructor, stripper, underwear tester, and that's about it.
Zev Andros: Tony's gym boyfriend, Phuket diver, ball player, grandson of a Hollywood legend. With Phuket penises
Tony announces that he has recruited a new God Squad member. He probably means a gym buddy, or gym boyfriend, or gym buddy who he treats as a boyfriend
I can't give the last name of a non-actor, so I'll call him Zev Andros: an EMT, divemaster with the American Divers of Phuket, baseball player, and bodybuilder. I wonder if he can attest to the veracity of that "Cowboys Do It Better" cap.
Zev's grandfather was Charles Aidikoff (1915-2016). who ran a famous screening room on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills. Movie stars, producers, and critics came to the 57-seat auditorium to see early versions and works in progress. eat the candy that he provided -- Mars Bars and Red Vines -- and exchange Hollywood gossip.
Charlie screened over 50,000 films between 1966 amd 2011, when his grandson Josh took over the screening room. It closed with his death in 2016.
His Facebook memorial page contains photos of him with Betty White, Raquel Welch, Peter Fonda, Danny DeVito, Mel Brooks, Ryan Gosling, Wes Bentley, Ice Cube, King Charles...well, everybody.
But let's get back to Bodybuilder Zev, who grew up in Phuket, the gay capital of Thailand, and now lives in Los Angeles. Some highlights of his social media pages:
Michael O'Hearn: barbarian, superhero, nude model, backside annihilator.
Michael O'Hearn (no connection to Brock O'Hurn) played the bodybuilder who harassed Adam on Workaholics, and for some reason didn't get cast as a member of Kelvin's God Squad. Recently he had a gym date with Tony Cavalero: "After an intense couple of weeks of flirting online, we went at it at the gym like true barbarians."
He specifies: "Tony brings the business in the front and the party in the back, and I don't just mean the hair." Funny, I always thought Tony was more into oral. But when you have Michael O'Hearn behind you, who's going to say no?
Tony returns the compliment: "Honored to have you annihilate my back! Such a blast bustin' some smut with you." How many ways can you make a gym workout sound like sex?
You might not want to see Mike's first star vehicle, Barbarian (2003): "An ancient land suffocates in the shadow of evil. A dark lord rules unopposed. One warrior will become legend. He is the Barbarian... the last great warrior king." Did anyone actually write a script, or did they watch a 1980s sword-and-sorcery movie and say "Here -- act this out."
The Keeper of Time (2004) is more of the same, with characters named Bullrock, Anu, Udo...and Daniel?
Then Mike moved into comedy, with roles on Workaholics, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Lab Rats, Mighty Meds, and Epic Rap Battles of History. Plus he performed on two seasons of American Gladiators, the beefcake game show, as Thor and Titan.
But his main career is in bodybuilding and modeling. 4 time Mr. Universe, 7 time Fitness Nake Model of the Year, 470 magazine covers. Plus the cover model for Topaz romance novels.
And a lot of humorous instagram posts.
I do the same thing. Leg day? What's leg day?
Super bulge from when Mike played a Superman parody.
Hulked out for American Gladiators.
Miles Burris: Bodybuilder/footballer/family man "will come upon you." Plus some random dicks
Former football player Miles Burris broke into acting with roles as football players in Starwood and Safety, and a lot of buffed guys: Rip Hardcore in The Really Loud House, Triple H in Young Rock, Huge Guy #1 in Gym Rat and Mr. America in Federation.
He played Lucifer's dudebro brother Jophiel in a 3-episode story arc on Lucifer.
In Season 2 of The Righteous Gemstones, he plays, God Squad bodybuilder Titus, who begins the decline and fall of Kelvin's God Squad cult. He'd rather exercise than listen to a Bible story. When he is sentenced to a week in the tiger cage as punishment, he exclaims: "Retribution will come upon you, and I'll do the coming."
Miles discusses how he prepared for the role: by watching a lot of youtube videos about Christian muscle groups. "They would lift their brothers and rip phone books."
Hank Strong: Bodybuilder, firefighter, enforcer, leatherman, gay daddy
The Brooklyn-born Hank Strong (Henry Akinsaya) graduated from Xaverian Brothers High School in Westfield, Massachustts in 1998, then studied pre-law at NYU.
He competed in some amateur bodybuilding competitions, worked as a bodyguard, and did some modeling where he had to show his abs.
He appeared in two episodes of Godfather of Harlem as Big Dick Buster. Crime lord Bumpy Johnson, a real figure from the 1960s, keeps "Big Dick" on retainer to rape men who rape black women.
As a firefighter in The King of Staten Island, he takes his clothes off, of course, to bond with Pete Davidson.
In 2020, Hank played Jericho, a member of Kelvin's God Squad in Righteous Gemstones Season 2. When they threaten Keefe, he defends himself by swatting Jericho's nipple. (Actually a courageous act, since Jericho is nearly a foot taller and 100 pounds heavier than Keefe).
More Hank after the break
Brock Cock, Part 1: Brock O'Hurn's boyfriends and bulges, pigs and penises, cowboys and....well, you get the idea
He may be most famous as Torsten, the "gentle giant" of the God Squad, a homoerotic muscle commune, in Season 2 of The Righteous Gemstones. Presumably Adam Devine isn't in character here, or he'd be much more interested in the muscles pressing against him.
Brock is a co-creator and model for Kane Comic Universe about an immortal muscleman who travels through time, fighting demons, evil gods, madmen, and so on. Warning: Issue #2 features women's boobs rather than Brock pecs.
Joel Rush's Hot/Hung Photos, Part 1: Why does everybody else in his movies get naked?
It's difficult to research Joel Rush: no instagram or personal website, only a minimal Facebook page, a Twitter page that hasn't been updated since 2012, a wikipedia page that just tells us that he was born in Logansport, Indiana on August 26, 1981, worked as a software salesman in Tampa, did some modeling, and broke into acting after being runner-up on the reality show True Beauty in 2009.
He's been in several gay-themed movies, including Eating Out: Drama Camp, Eating Out: The Open Weekend, and Love or Whatever, but I can't tell if he's gay in real life. True Beauty judged your inner beauty; it didn't hook you up with a romantic partner.
I noticed something else unusual about Joel: he's been in a number of movies and tv shows where other guys got naked, but he did not.
In Eating Out: Drama Camp, we see Aaron Milo's cock and Ronnie Krell's butt, but Joel just takes his shirt off.
In Eating Out: Open Weekend, we see Michael Vera's butt and Alvaro Orlando's dick, but no Joel.
In Love or Whatever, Corey, played by Tyler Poelle, is distraught when his boyfriend John, played by David Page, dumps him. They get naked, but new romance Joel Rush does not.
We do get a butt in the anthology series Femme Fatales, but Jon Fleming gives us the Full Monte.
More Joel after the break. Caution: Explicit
Gemstones Episode 2.8: Baby Billy sees a ghost, Judy becomes a mom, and Kelvin gets ***.up. Plus nude dwarf athletes
Previous: Episode 2.7: Holding hands among the yurts and eating pizza for desserts. With a nude Jonathan Bennett bonus.
Next complaint: Glendon was going to leave Junior the business when he retired, but he never retires: "Look at me, Daddy: I'm going gray with my dick in my hand." Look at him, with his jaunty hand on hip, similar to after spending the night with Eli earlier this season. He's got some femme mannerisms going on I'm looking at a middle-aged gay man.
Glendon wants to know how he can retire when his idiot son has terrible ideas and does everything wrong? "You hurt my feelings," Junior exclaims, starting to cry. The boy gets hurt feelings a lot, doesn't he? Glendon mocks him. But he agrees that he's been holding on too long: let's liquidate the gambling operation.
We cut to Glendon being upset while Junior loads the slot machines into a truck for Mr. Dukare (played by Dakare Chatman, who was playing a teenager in Season 1.)
Later, Junior counts the money, annoucing that they will triple it with their new wrestling promotions.
But Glendon has other ideas. Brandishing a gun, he orders: "Handcuff yourself to that inversion table and shut the fuck up." He then moons Junior and leaves: "You ain't never going to see ths old ass again."
Left: Glendon's butt.
Junior screams and cries. Glendon goes off to visit Eli and get murdered on Christmas Day, 1993.
They're just kids!: In the present, Martin visits the captured Cycle Ninjas in jail: a group of scruffy teenagers. Sheriff Brenda tells him that they have fake ids, no fingerprints in the system, and they aren't talking. Martin tries to use psychology: "We know who sent you. Now you tell us." But it doesn't work; they just fart at him.
Cut to Baby Billy selling his health elixer in a nursing home. Afterwards the spirit of his sister Aimee-Leigh appears, and encourages him to visit his son Harmon, whom he abandoned in a shopping mall in 1993. "It's time," she tells him, and "You know I'm right." He tells her to get lost. Aimee-Leigh appears in the Seasons 1 and 3 finales, but doesn't interact with anyone. I wonder if she is a hallucination here.
Of course, they had an ulterior motive for not going home: the God Squad has taken over their house.
Cut to BJ and Judy putting the very pregnant Tiffany on the bus for the 15 hour trip to her mama's house in West Virginia, where she can raise her son with no money. At the last moment. Judy asks her to stay: she's family.
Cleansing the Temple: Later that day, Kelvin and Keefe spy on the God Squad as they dance, fight with sticks, run wild on a golf cart, and..um... masturbate into a watering can? "It's time to cleanse the temple!" Kelvin exclaims. How could the God Squad control the house for several weeks with no one noticing? There's a housekeeping crew and regular security patrols. This must be another chronological mishap.
The guys burst into the gym, knocking over things. "This was a house of prayer, but ye made it a den of thieves!" Kelvin exclaims. Torsten orders the men to put Keefe back in the tiger cage, but Keefe tries to fight back, Kelvin yells "No one re-cages Keefe," and they relent.
Next he reminds them of all the good he's done. Before joining the God Squad, Torsten was "a little doughboy" who still lived with his parents. "I chiseled you into the sculpture you are today."
When Cody had cramps, Kelvin "crawled into his yurt and massaged him until sunrise." A sexual reference, of course. The guys stare at Cody, who shakes his head -- that didn't happen. In a cult based on homoerotic desire, why would anyone disapprove of Cody and Kelvin getting busy? There appears to be a major misunderstanding here. Many of the God Squad musclemen are straight alphas, in it for the muscles, just tolerating the homoerotic activity of Kelvin, his boyfriend, and the guys he invites to the steam showers.
Torsten challenges "the Messiah of the Muscle Men" to another cross raising to determine leadership.
As Kelvin grabs the crossbars, the casts on his hands fly off -- a miracle! Although he is much smaller than the musclemen, he is able to "get it up" -- another miracle! Keefe drops to his knees, apparently in worship. He needs to decide whether he wants a boyfriend or a Savior.
When he has achieved leadership with "a proper erection," Kelvin orders the God Squad to get out of his house, then pulls Keefe to his feet. They hug and do their weird forehead press thing, but don't kiss. I guess it's been decided for him: Kelvin is the strongest, but not the Messiah, and Keefe is an equal partner, not his disciple.
Torsten: "It's your house, Bro. You didn't need to get weird about it." But of course Kelvin had to prove that he was strong, sexually potent -- a man.
Naked guys after the break
Workaholics Episode 3.7: Bodybuilders for the Lord turn out to be gay, so the guys try to help. With Kali cock
Adam Devine said on his podcast that Workaholics Episode 3.7 inspired Danny McBride to offer him the role of Kelvin on The Righteous Gemstones. I'm not so sure: this episode aired in 2012, long before the Gemstones, Unlikely, since it aired in 2012, long before The Righteous Gemstones was ever conceived of. But there are certainly parallels between the Gaylord's Force and Kelvin's God Squad.
Scene 1: The guys are hiding in a supply closet at work, watching The Lord's Force, bodybuilders who perform strength stunts. "How did these buffed dudes escape my radar?" Blake wonders. Their interest in hot guys has never been more obvious.
The Lord's Force is performing in town tomorrow. Adam wants to watch the show, then try out. Der protests that the show is religious, and Adam doesn't believe in anything.
"I'm very religious! Father, Son, whatever. Noah's ark, two animals having sex."
Scene 2: The show is sold out. They try to get in by claiming to be bad people who need salvation: Doesn't work. Darn, I wanted to see the actual show.
Scene 3: They wait outside until two members of the Lord's Force, Ram and Samson (Adam Dunnells, Scott Connors), come out. Adam begs them to go out for a beer with him. Wait -- Evangelicals don't drink.
Scene 4: At the bar, drinking shots. Ram and Samson go out to smoke. The guys don't smoke, but decide that it would be cool, so they rush out to find Ram and Samson.. .kissing? They are shocked.
Of course, bodybuilders can't be gay, so the guys figure that they're just good buddies, checking o each other's breath, so they are ready to "kiss hot chicks"? Strangely, I heard that on fan boards after the Kelvin-Keefe kiss.
Their manager, Rev. Troy, pulls up. This is a homophobic squad -- the guys are busted! They claim that they are playing "gay chicken," where straight guys try to out-gay each other. Der demonstrates by moving in for a kiss with Adam, who backs away. "You lost!"
Rev. Troy asks God what to do about "the gay thing." God says "Fire them." But they'll be stranded in a strange town in the middle of a tour.
Scene 5: The guys are letting Ram and Samson stay with them. They offer a "proposition." Misunderstanding, thinking that they want sex, Samson insists that they are not gay. "No, of course you're not gay, Dudes with giant muscles are never gay."
"Maybe I am gay," Ram says. "I'm just really confused right now." Is he really "questioning," or pretending so he can stay in the closet.
Easy way to find out if you're gay: kiss. If you don't feel anything, you're not gay. Ram and Samson start kissing, and end up pawing all over each other. The guys are shocked, but double-down. "Ok, you've proven that you're not gay. You can stop kissing now."
On to the proposition: let's start a Lord's Force. Samson and Ram aren't sure.
Scene 6: A montage of the guys going about their daily activities, running into Ram and Samson getting it on, and being embarrassed. No one can sleep because of the bed-squeaking and moaning ("You're injuring yourselves working out").
Adam catches them showerng together ("to conserve water"), and notes that they have monster dicks: "Chicks must love sucking those."
Scene 7: Finally catching on, probably because Ram and Samson are having sex right in front of them, the guys propose the Gaylord's Force, with a bicep-and-penis logo and and the motto: "If you can take the pain of a man's unit pressing into your butt, you've got the strength to do anything." This is homophobic: not all gay men are anal bottoms, and those who are don't see it as an ordeal, but as an enjoyable sexual act. Plus "Gaylord" is often useds as a slur. But the guys seem to believe that they are helping.
Der has had enough: "I don't mind the sucking and screwing, but are you going to be part of this show are not?" That's not what I expected him to say. Ok, they agree.
Scene 8: The guys are setting up a "gay stage" for the show, when Rev Troy pulls up in his van. He wants Samson and Ram back. He'll offer up to $38,000 per year. A terrible salary!"I should never have asked you back, you pillow-biters!" Rev. Troy sneers.
Adam comes to the rescue, suggesting that they use "the Gaylord's Force." They are able to lift the cross. Then they kiss! Everyone in the congregation is shocked and storms out, but the guys rush onto the stage to congratulate them.
Scene 10: At the house, some gay guys are waiting for the Gaylords Force show. But Ram and Samson aren't coming: they're moving to Vermont to start a new life.Vermont legalized same-sex marriage in 2009. The guys have to perform themselves.
Adam notes that he's had sex with over five women, but he can still channel Gay Strength. He pretends to break some pre-broken bricks and beans himself with a board, but then tears a real phone book in half. The crowd applauds. "I will sign your dicks!" he exclaims. The end.
Beefcake: Adam is constantly on display, plus some chest and pixilated dick shots of the muscle men.
Heterosexism: Excellent depiction of heteronormativity: "whatever Ram and Samson do must be what straight guys do, because gay people do not exist."
Homophobia: Again, the guys are gay allies, but the depiction of Ram and Samson is problematic. Gay men are hypersexual, doing it constantly, and utterly unreliable, selling out their friends twice.
My Grade: B
Bonus: Cock shot of Kali Muscle, bodybuilder, actor, and best-selling author.
See also: Gemstones Episode 2.6: Torsten gets it up, Keefe holds Kelvin's dick, and Sky is skyclad
Join Kelvin's God Squad: Recruitment video gives us the dirt on the God Squad
The top photo, of Adam groping Ders, is an outtake from Workaholics 1.9: Adam kisses a cougar, gets frisky with Ders, and raps as a bodybuilding fairy wizard