Straight Eye
It seems that Comedy Central is going to broadcast a three-part show called Straight Plan for the Gay Man; in each segment, "four straight comedians, the 'Flab 4'" will help a gay man achieve his dream of passing for straight for a day.
The gay men include: Jonathan, an upscale fashion salesman who's always wanted to better understand the life of a blue collar worker; Roger, a quirky yoga instructor who has always dreamed of competing in a pick up basketball game; and Stephen, a hip singer/dancer with tons of female friends, who's always wondered if he'd be a smooth straight man when it comes to picking up the ladies.
First episode to broadcast soon: February 17.
Interestingly, Bravo is also doing a parody of their own show, a one-shot to air sometime in 2004.
Some in the gay community are apparently upset by the idea of these parodies, while others find the parodies no more annoying than the original.
But perhaps even more interestingly than any of that, the networks are late to the party: there's already a five-minute short film available for free online called Straight Eye for the Queer Guy. It even uses the "Flab 5" joke. It proudly announces at the start: "'Offensive ... I wish you hadn't sent it,' says Steve Ridgeway of NBC's Tonight Show," but it seems pretty mild to me (except for one kind of unfortunate bit about shaving near the end), and reasonably funny; I suppose it could be seen as offensively stereotyping straight guys, but I think it's so obviously a parody that I have a hard time being bothered by it.
