The Chair Company, Episode 1.6: More queer codes at Seth's 18th birthday party. Plus Seth's selfie, a queer puppeteer, Ebenezer Scrooge, and Brock cock

The Chair Company (2025), on MAX, stars Tim Robinson as corporate schlub Ron, whose chair collapses during an important presentation.  Looking for the company that sold the defective piece of office furniture, he finds an empty warehouse, a website with an invented board of directors, and...it gets weirder and werider, with conspiracies, hidden agendas, and threats. Or is it all a paranoid delusion?

He hires Mike (Joseph Tudisco) to help with the intel gathering.  Eventually they become close, and Mike refuses payment: "We're family."  

His young adult daughter and her girlfriend have substantial roles, and his teenage son Seth (Will Price) displays some queer codes.  Especially in Episode 1.6, "Happy Birthday: A Friend"

Scene 1: The boss (Lou Diamond Philips, top photo) is weekending in Sedona, Arizona with his buds.  He claims that his property management company is important, but they dismiss it as "making pretty boxes."  The real life, the only thing that's important, is spending time with your friends.  No women around; are these guys all gay?

Scene 2: The photos of the fake Board of Directors on the chair company website were taken by someone named Maggie S. during an acting exercise.  Ron goes to the acting studio  and asks around.  No one remembers the exercise, and they all claim not to know a Maggie S. -- except for Headphone Guy (Brendan Jennings, left), who runs off in a panic.  Ron catches up and starts punching and hitting him, yelling, "Who is Maggie S.?"  Then he realizes that everyone is watching him assault a guy, and runs away.

Scene 3: During the chair collapse, Ron accidentally saw up his coworker's dress.  Human Resources got upset, and brought in a consultant to watch their interactions and make sure he isn't stalking or harassing her.  The Consultant is not sure.

Scene 4: The Boss brought back some photos of vibrant colors and textures from Sedona.  He wants them to redo the design of the big Shopping Mall project, to make it "inspiring" and "cool." But he doesn't give them any detailed instructions, so the design team is confused.  This is not connected to the central mystery.  This show has a lot of bit pieces that are weird for their own sake.

Later, they show the Boss their plans for "bold, earthy colors," with textures like sandstone or "a harsher contrast with nickel plating."  He doesn't like it; "dig deeper." 

Scene 5: Ron walks into the house late at night and sees a long-haired chubby guy getting himself a bowl of popcorn.  He says "Hi, Honey" and "Seth, your Dad's home!" before returning to the basement.

Mom explains that he's Richard (Tyler Bunch), working on a project with Seth. 

Tyler Bunch is a member of the Jim Henson Company, appearing as a muppet on 103 episodes of Sesame Street (1998-2024).  He also voiced several characters on 400 episodes of Pokemon (2012-22), and he sings Gilbert and Sullivan.  He is gay in real life.

Ron is not happy with his not-quite-18 year old son being friends with a guy 40 years older, plus it's late: he needs to be in bed so he can play basketball tomorrow.  Seth refuses: "Nope, this is important."

In other news, Son Seth invited Toby to his birthday party.  "He's really excited to come," They haven't seen each other for years because they go to different schools, but when he was thirteen, they performed the Pee-Wee Herman Dance, and Ron joined in: one of the happiest memories Seth has of his dysfunctional Dad. 

Dad Ron doesn't think Son Seth and Toby should be friends.  This upsets Seth.  No wonder: that's two friends you disapproved of in five minutes. Sounds like you're threatened by the thought of your son having someone special in his life.  

Scene 6: Later, in his room, Son Seth drinks while looking at a photo of his junior-high basketball team, with Dad Ron hugging him.  So Dad should be threatened?  "Hi, Honey" Richard is a Dad substitute?

Left: Potential Will selfie.  Don't worry, the actor is 25.

Later, Ron meets with "We're family" Mike.  They discuss some more clues about the bogus chair company.  In other news, would Seth like a decommissioned police car for his birthday?

"You're not invited to his party.  It's just for his friends and their parents."

"But I'd really like to come.  We're family, remember."

"No!" Why don't you want him there, buddy?  Afraid that you might let down your defenses and actually care about someone?

Scene 7: More weird stuff at work, and then the Boss wants to discuss changing the Mall plans -- tomorrow.

"But it's my son's birthday party."

"Great, I'll be there!"

Later, Ron looks at the photos he took of the guy he assaulted at the acting class.  A strange tattoo leads him to the chair company's parent website...but at that moment, someone calls to threaten him: "I'm thinking of finally doing something to you."

Gulp.  More after the break.

Oskar Viniar: Russian boy with two gay-positive and a homophobic project, a queer tease, a lot of "girl!" songs, and some dicks

 

Next guy in my "profiles to do" file whom I've never heard of: Oskar Vinier.  According to his Instagram, "You're here for fun! Acting! Music!"  Actually, I'm here to see if you've played any gay characters, or are gay in real life.

Oskar Vinier lives in Miami, but he's got a definite European vibe.  

Like sitting "too close" to a buddy.  In the U.S., this would be an invasion of body space, unless they are boyfriends.  But this is at a theatrical competition in Orlando, and Oskar sits this close to several other dudes.

Maybe he just likes dudes.

Like his mom or sister wearing a frilly dominatrix outfit at the kitchen table while they play a Gummi Bear game.  A very sex-positive family.  

According to his official website, Oskar moved to Miami from Russia in 2019.

He has ten acting roles listed on his resume:

Taylor in Pimp My Life (2020), by Benjamin Renassia. Google only finds three references to this movie, in the resumes of Oskar, communications student Oren Salman, and John Cain

A boy in The Joke (2020), an experimental short film by visual artist Alain Gr-Polanco, who uses they/them pronouns and presents as female.

Son in the documentary Dear White Parents (2020), encouraging them to have discussions about racism with their kids.

Son in the experimental horror short Let's Play (2021), about two robbers who pick the wrong house.

Then there's a gap, probably due to his singing career, but he played a background student in four 2025 projects:

The Life List: A woman can't get her inheritance until she completes the bucket list that she wrote at age 13.  With Kyle Allen (left).

Left: Kyle's butt.

More butts after the break

Daniel Quinn Toye: The Scottish Boy Toye queerbaits "Heated Rivalry," plays gay-adjacent roles, posts photos while...you know

 I started watching Sterling Point due to an interview where Daniel Quinn Toye said that his Rory and Elliot (Jacob Whiteduck-Lavoie) have a Heated Rivalry-type relationship. Turns out that he was using the term as a cliché: the guys are both straight, competing for the affection of focus character Annie.  Was he deliberately queerbaiting, or so out of touch with queer culture that he had never heard of the gay hockey player show?  To find out, I checked the guy's social media, and found some interesting posts.

First his biography: The Boy Toye grew up near Glasgow, where he attended the Dance School of Scotland.  After graduation, he enrolled at LAMBDA (don't get excited -- it's not the gay symbol, it stands for the London Academy of Music and Dramatic Arts).  

While at LAMBDA, he appeared in Alice (in Wonderland), The Angry Brigade, Measure for Measure, Three Sisters, A View from the Bridge, and The Trojan Women.

He received a B.A. (Honors) in 2024, and was immediately cast in a "minimalist, modern" version of Romeo and Juliet on the West End (May-August 2024), with Tom Holland as Romeo.  The Instagram page has a graphic with R&J superimposed on a Pride Flag, so there must be some queer content, maybe in the Romeo-Mercutio relationship.  But Daniel plays Paris, the wealthy nobleman betrothed to Juliet.  He and Romeo fight, and he is killed. Sounds like the straightest of the crew.

In 2026, Daniel got a photo shoot in the British Vogue, and three on-screen roles:

Sunny Dancer: Cancer survivor Ivy is sent to a chemo summer camp, with many of the actors cast because they have real-life experience with cancer. She falls in love with Jake (Daniel).

 James Norton (left) and Neil Patrick Harris play counselors, and Ivy is played by Bella Ramsey from The Last of Us, who is nonbinary and "not 100% straight.  So there's some LGBTQ representation in the cast, even though the story is heteronormative.

Pressure, about the preparation for D-Day, June 6, 1944, when the Allies invaded Normandy, marking the beginning of the end of Nazi control of Europe.  No gay content.  Daniel plays Private Michael Gregory.

And Sterling Point, which has a lot of lesbian characters.

Two upcoming projects:

Cry to Heaven, based on the novel by Anne Rice. At age 15, Venetian nobleman Tonio Treschi (Nicholas Hoult, left) is castrated by his half-brother to ensure that he doesn't have any heirs.  He becomes a famous castrato (castrated opera singer), and seeks revenge.  In the original novel, he has romances with another castrato boy, Domenico (not in the cast list), and his mentor, Guido (Aaron Taylor-Johnson).   So there's LGBT content in the original, even if they straighten him for the movie. 

Daniel's character is not mentioned in the cast list.

Voltron, about the robots who combine into a bigger robot.  Daniel plays Keith, who pilots the head and torso (voiced by Neill Ross in the 1980s and 1990s series and Giles Panton in 2011). He's got a crush on Princess Allura.  

So Daniel has only played straight guys, but four of his six projects have some sort of LGBTQ content, subtexts, cast, or source material. 

Better than most actors. 

The Heated Rivalry reference after the break.  Caution: Explicit.

Alfie Williams and Recker Eans on a double date? With a gay ghost, a drag boy, Jonathan Groff, and Colin's cock

 

 Alfie Williams, the star of 28 Years Later and 28 Years Later: Bone Temple,  always seems to surround himself with LGBTQ people; I get a lot of profile ideas just by checking who he's hanging out with.  His social media has been sort of dry for several months, so I was happy to see this photo posted earlier today (August 2026): Alfie at the new Spider-Man movie with three guys, with the background song "In Bloom," by Nirvana:

He's the one who likes all our pretty songs, and he
Likes to sing along, and he likes to shoot his gun, but he
Knows not what it means.

I have a pretty good idea what it means: Looks like a double date.  But even if it's four buds hanging out, it gives me three new probably-gay guys to research.

Milo Maharlika (far left).

A Hawaiian actor of Filipino ancestry, the 13-year old is best known as Demi Hauntley, an over-zealous 600-year old ghost sent to assist the vampire girl in live-action Vampirina (2025).  Fans say that he's a gay stereotype.

Is that a pink triangle, babe?  Do you even know what it means?

Milo also played Gavrouche in the national tour of Les Miserables, starred in several shorts and the Filipino slasher-comedy Nurse of the Dead, and will be skewered by gay actor Jeff Hilliard in a chicken costume in the upcoming Cluck.  Cameron Cowperthwaite (left) also gets to run around like a chicken with its head cut off.

 

When he's not singing, dancing, and acting, Milo quotes Aristotle, likes Buster Keaton, and has a hot dad.  On the IMDB, his sexual orientation is listed as "straight," but that's probably from his parents.  . 

Alfie Williams, second left.  

The 15-year old actor from Newcastle-upon-Tyne played Spike in the post-Apocalyptic zombie movies 28 Years Later (2025) and 28 Years Later: Bone Temple (2026).  He has two upcoming movies:

The Banquet; A woman's perfect life starts to unravel when her son (Alfie) returns and starts digging up horrifying family secrets.

Left: Corey Mylchreest co-stars, but I think this is Jonathan Groff.

Friend Thing: In 1996 Seattle, a "sensitive" 14-year old boy (Alfie) is torn between his friends and The Girl, before "a family tragedy shifts his perspective."   

Wait -- "sensitive" is code for "gay," and why are there no teenage boys in the cast list for him to be friends with?

Ryder and Recker after the break