May 4, 2017

"Big Bang Theory star Jim Parsons—a gay man—was trotted out" to ask Stephen Colbert "Are you feeling homophobic?"

And "Colbert deflected and cracked 'No, I’m feeling homophilic.' Still less than a minute into their conversation, Parsons then rushed to Colbert’s defense: 'I thought that was a very strange tag to put on the whole monologue. I thought "That’s not homophobic" … As a gay man … it’s titillating. I wouldn’t call it homophobic.' Colbert said 'you’re welcome' to end chatter on the subject, then quickly switched gears to talk about The Big Bang Theory."

From "Stephen Colbert Responded to Controversy Over a Homophobic Joke, but Missed a Valuable Opportunity" (in Slate).

96 comments:

sparrow said...

Colbert has shown signs of interest in gay lifestyles. I remember him asking Tim Cook if being gay was "a feature or an upgrade", sidestepping the more common expression "feature or
a bug". I think he may be ambivalent or conflicted himself, possibly due to his faith: just a theory.

Bob Ellison said...

"trotted out" probably refers to equestrian activities. The trot is a specific way of moving for horses. He might have galloped out, or cantered out, but that he was required by others (probably with whips and chains) to trot out is unseemly.

Horse jokes go hereafter.

Achilles said...

The left has been populated by disgusting hateful control freaks for a long time. This is just the mask slipping.

TrespassersW said...

Was it funny? Not in the slightest.

Was it edgy? Pffft. You're kidding, aren't you?

Was it true? Only if you said it about a Democrat, admirers and apologists for totalitarian regimes around the world.

Was it homophobic? Wrong question.

And I like their choice of words: "trotted out." Like a trained animal would be, to perform the scripted tricks.

Michael K said...

It was an odd thing to be on network TV. Not that I watch or even knew if he was on cable or network.

The left has gone completely insane over Trump.

SukieTawdry said...

I probably could have gone all day without knowing what titillates Jim Parsons.

Earnest Prole said...

Alec Baldwin used the same technique to navigate the fallout from his homophobic gaffe.

sparrow said...

One other thing I remember reading about Colbert (I find him unwatchable): he was asked to testify to Congress over something by a friendly congressman (don't remember the context). He wanted to testify in character (the request was denied): at the time that struck me as a very odd/unhealthy desire. Just another data point, not enough to draw a hard conclusion.

Bay Area Guy said...

If the Left didn't have Double-Standards, they'd have no standards at all.

sparrow said...

Last Colbert had a very harsh childhood, with unexpected deaths in his family. So even though I find his work repellent I habor sympathy for him.

damikesc said...

So, cock holster is not homophobic. Good to know.

Mr. D said...

Here’s how you test the idea that Colbert’s joke is okay.

Substitute Barack Obama for Trump and the Ayatollah Khameinei for Putin
Substitute Chuck Schumer for Trump and Richard Trumka for Putin
Substitute Hillary Clinton for Trump and George Soros for Putin

See how that works out for you.

Bob Ellison said...

I'm going with "walk". That's what he did. A trot would have been more picturesque.

It took Parsons only about fifteen seconds to say "as a gay man". Cripes, Parsons, are you trying to tell everyone something? Could you give it a rest and just be a person for a minute? You sound like Paul Lynde on steroids.

JaimeRoberto said...

It would be homophobic if it came from Bill O'Reilly and if it were addressed to Obama.

rcocean said...

"Last Colbert had a very harsh childhood, with unexpected deaths in his family. So even though I find his work repellent I habor sympathy for him."

I feel the same way toward Stalin, Hitler, and Ted bundy. Tough childhoods.

rcocean said...

I'm surprised the FCC has not gotten involved. i thought over the air programs were subject to standards.

Original Mike said...

Colbert's not homophobic. He's just an asshole. He's mainstream television and I'm sure he's paid commensurate with that. There are (or at least there should be) limits to what he can say, whether he likes it or not.

Gary Kirk said...

No harm, no foul. Got it. The left has spoken. But why has his own network's Charlie, Nora, and Gayle been so silent on this? After all, he is their golden boy.

Amadeus 48 said...

This is disheartening because Colbert and his acolytes don't see that what he did was wrong. He insulted the president, he insulted his audience, and he demeaned himself. He should be ashamed of himself. I am ashamed for him.

Joe Biden, America's Putin said...

Colbert is a corruptocrat. He supports corruptocrats and he mocks non-corruptocrats. It's his job.

If he wants to pretend he isn't a homophobic jerk, and hide behind a likeable gay actor, what-evs.

The Godfather said...

a) Coal Bear succeeded: He's newsy for two days.

b) Of course it was a gay slur. If you insult a straight man by suggesting that he's gay, you are saying that there IS something wrong with being gay. That's a gay slur (this weird word "homophobic" confuses things, because phobic means afraid, but people who insult gays aren't saying that they're afraid of them). To use Mr. D's example, if you say Hillary Clinton is a cock holster for George Soros that's a slur but not a gay slur.

JohnAnnArbor said...

Hate. It's what they know best.

n.n said...

Parsons must lean masculine on the transgender spectrum.

I guess the female chauvinists have another name for it. Probably some euphemism that feels empowering.

Chuck said...

Since this falls under the "homosexuality" tag, today Trump issued an EO on protecting religious freedom that, according to Ryan Anderson at Heritage, was a huge copout, folding to LGBT pressure-interests. An early version had been leaked out of this White House; somebody within the Trump Administration wanted the original draft to fail.

Limited blogger said...

who cares

tim in vermont said...

It was nice while TBBT avoided politics.

Mark said...

I find it hilarious that all the people here bemoaning about cake bakers making gay wedding cakes are all suddenly experts on homophobia.

'I'm not a doctor, I just play one on TV' has become 'I don't know have many gay friends, but I pretend to know all about them on the internet'

Ken B said...

Cock holster was meant as an insult, but not just an insult, the capper insult, the insult to top all the preceding insults. And it can only be if cock sucking degrades a man. So the joke made by gay basher Stephen Colbert turns on homosexuality being degrading.

n.n said...

I think female chauvinists refer to it as a Clinton. A Lewinsky reminds them of their bigotry and the tell-tale hearts that beat ever louder.

Yancey Ward said...

Colbert's joke isn't homophobic, in my opinion, it is just in very poor taste and not particularly funny given events since the inauguration- it might have been funnier immediately after the election, but events have completely overtaken that old false narrative.

The joke is intended to play off the homophobia of Trump supporters, but the truth is that the most homophobic subgroups of the US probably voted for Hillary Clinton by overwhelming majorities.

Yancey Ward said...

And I will lay this marker right now- the first openly gay presidential candidate to run on a major party ticket will not be a Democrat, though I don't expect to live to see it anyway.

cubanbob said...

If asked how would Colbert respond to holstering Obama's gun?

Bay Area Guy said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
D 2 said...

I comment very very infrequently. But i concur strongly with the "who cares" comment. If i can add my one cent:
I visit this blog everyday for the reasons espoused by many others already re: how the hostess find/pulls alot of interesting takes on the day's news articles. You can then find interesting tangents / new knowledge / stuff added by the many many commentators. Many with varied skills and knowledge bases whatever their political leans.
Today, one of the posts has to do with a crazy scottish surfer. Comments then pulled towards using drones in search and rescue to reduce costs. And latest on towing insurance etc
Ok that isnt everyones cup of tea, but that post will (i estimate) get 1/8 of this post
And this post is about some guy and another guy who get paid lots o money to act in front of cameras, and they are riffing off what one guy said, a few nights ago, to show he's edgy. They are not capable of running search amd rescue operations.
If people stop paying attention - including the # of comments on a top blog - hmm maybe the edgy guy becomes less important in the grand scheme of things. Might not get gigs in front of congress
The posts today - the congress vote, the surfer, the army photographer, and the immigration post esp. - those posts deserve more comments than this fluff. IMHO
And thats why i post infrequently. Unless it is about Van Morrison.

tim in vermont said...

Mark's right, it would only be called homophobic if a Republican had said it.

Same as Hillary can take tens of millions of dollars from the Russians and do them major favors, but Trump is their puppet because reasons.

Sebastian said...

"the joke made by gay basher Stephen Colbert turns on homosexuality being degrading." But we now have it on good, absolving authority that gay men also find it titillating.

MadisonMan said...

Some of Colbert's best friends are gay! How could he be homophobic!!?

David Begley said...

The Dems are the best at wagon circling.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

Oh, right. More with this fake controversy.

buwaya said...

"Oh, right. More with this fake controversy."

Fake controversies beget fake controversies.

Tit for tat.
Turnabout is fair play.
Retaliation in game theory.

etc.

CWJ said...

"Colbert had a very harsh childhood."

Very profitable adulthood.

Yancey Ward said...

The really funny thing about Colbert's joke is this- actual facts show Hillary! or Obama was more aptly described as Putin's cock-holster, not Trump.

Rhonda said...

If Jim Parsons is his target audience, Colbert is fine, but Johnny (oh how I miss Johnny) wanted as large an audience as possible, so you didn't know, and didn't care, what his political leanings were.

Trumpit said...

Stephen Colbert is very witty and funny. I didn't care much for that crude joke about a "cock holster" mouth. But, Trump is such a crude buffoon himself, and a such a nasty & stupid man that we pray and hope for his eventual impeachment. Ridiculing Trump and his cohorts has become a national pastime for those of us that despise him, and his malfeasance in office who number perhaps 200,000,000 citizens in this country alone. I would venture to guess that 5,000,000,000 people think he is a jackass worldwide. There is nothing we like about such an offensive nincompoop.

George M. Spencer said...

I'd like to "trot out" Jack Benny, Bob Hope, George Burns, Groucho Marx, Jonathan Winters...and, hey, why not ask Steve Martin or Mel Brooks what they thought of the joke? That would make a great story

It's no wonder cable subscriptions are collapsing.

William said...

I'm sure Colbert didn't mean to insult homosexuals. The butt of the joke was Trump and, by extension, his voters. Please note that it is beyond Colbert's field of vision that any joke directed at Trump or his voters can be too crass and deserving of an apology......Interesting, also, to note that no one here would respond by saying Hillary is Bill Clinton's cock holster. That's also beyond our field of vision.

Bob Boyd said...

Search for cock holster on Amazon returned, "penis cock ring with ball holster".
No mention of Colbert endorsement.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

Stephen Colbert is very witty and funny. I didn't care much for that crude joke about a "cock holster" mouth. But, Trump is such a crude buffoon himself, and a such a nasty & stupid man that we pray and hope for his eventual impeachment. Ridiculing Trump and his cohorts has become a national pastime for those of us that despise him, and his malfeasance in office who number perhaps 200,000,000 citizens in this country alone. I would venture to guess that 5,000,000,000 people think he is a jackass worldwide. There is nothing we like about such an offensive nincompoop.

Hear, hear.

The joke was about his servile gratification of tyrants - he seems to find a new one every day to suck up to. But homophobes could get past the "homo" part, of course.

tcrosse said...

A holster is more comfortable if it's toothless.

FullMoon said...

Apparently Colberts harsh childhood was the death of his father and two brothers when he was ten. I expected to find weekly, if not daily beatings, sexual abuse, starvation, or worse. I knew plenty of kids who wished there father had died and gone to hell instead of hanging around.

Anyway, this was in his bio:





"Six months after The Colbert Report debuted, however, Colbert appeared as the featured speaker at the 2006 White House Correspondents' Association Dinner. With President George W. Bush and first lady Laura Bush just a few feet away, Colbert proceeded to give an off-color tirade that left the audience silent and had the critics divided—some praised him and others said he had crossed the line into disrespect."

buwaya said...

"Please note that it is beyond Colbert's field of vision"

Nothing is beyond anyone's "field of vision".
Everyone will be judged, by someone or someone else.
Madame Defarge knits this into her endless scarf, waiting for the days of the tumbrils and guillotines.

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

I'm sure you would know that from experience, tcrosse.

Gahrie said...

Oh, right. More with this fake controversy.

The controversy is not Colbert's disgusting insult and slur, the controversy is the fact that the Left and the MSM don't find his remark controversial.

Comanche Voter said...

A gay man is talking about "titillating"? Where is Laslo when you need him?

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

The controversy is not Colbert's disgusting insult and slur, the controversy is the fact that the Left and the MSM don't find his remark controversial.

What was disgusting and whom did he slur - apart from (gay) prostitutes like your Ho Trump?

FullMoon said...

The Toothless Revolutionary said...

I'm sure you would know that from experience, tcrosse.
5/4/17, 5:49 PM



Uh, pretty sure you missed the mark on that one.Unless, you have previously holstered tcrosse,and are flirting with him. nttiawwt

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

What was the mark, FullMoon? That you've had edentulous women fellate you?

Paul said...

So the question is, did Colbert suck his cock? I mean, Colbert isn't homophobic, right?

FullMoon said...

I knew you would swallow the bait. Too easy.

Btw, pretty quick to insult poor women who cannot afford dental care Sad!

Bleach Drinkers Curing Coronavirus Together said...

I didn't insult them. I insulted your taste in fellatrices.

Talk about being too easy to swallow bait there, Tex.

tola'at sfarim said...

So....some of his best friends are gay?

n.n said...

Abortion is life.

Mengele was a medical progressive.

Hope and Change is peace.

A Lewinsky empowers women.

Perhaps the holster is an implicit reference to gun to weapon to domination to sodomy to abortion to extajudicial trials to elective regime change. How very trans-human.

William said...

If there is anyone in public life more in need of a cock holster than Anthony Weiner, I don't know of them. Just today there was a news item about Huma sending a classified document to Anthony's computer. Dicpics and classified documents. There's a farcical element to this. But don't hold your breath waiting for Colbert to poke fun at Hillary's security breaches. She's too big for her breaches......In Colbert's world, only Trump behaves in a louche way and deserves mocking for his behavior.

FullMoon said...

The Toothless Revolutionary said...

I didn't insult them. I insulted your taste in fellatrices.

Talk about being too easy to swallow bait there, Tex.

5/4/17, 6:11 PM


Good try, but lame.
As for fellatrices, variety is the spice of life. That's what you're mom said, anyway.

Rosalyn C. said...

So if you are a gay man, being Putin's cock holster is a good thing. Colbert was complimenting Trump. Thanks for clearing that up, Jim!

YoungHegelian said...

What I find amazing about this is that Colbert, a believing Catholic, found nothing in his conscience that said "this is a bridge too far". None of his writers, none of his producers, & none of his directors, said "Steve, ya know, I don't believe that Catholic booyah you do, but if I did, I'd really have second thoughts about using that joke". Seemingly, not one.

That's moral lacuna so big you could drop Mt. Everest into it & the peak would disappear below the surface.

wholelottasplainin said...

"Btw, pretty quick to insult poor women who cannot afford dental care Sad!"

************

I bet Sandra Fluke wishes she had thought of that one.

Unknown said...

Colbert's comment wasn't homophobic, because homophobia is a bullshit term used to control people who show reluctance to divest themselves from their innate disgust with excrement.
It was a sexual dominance reference

HoodlumDoodlum said...

Why, some of his best friends are gay!

Pathetic.

robother said...

So gay men actually enjoy being called "cock holsters" to their face. Live and learn.

Trumpit said...

Matthew Blaine, you obviously have a problem with male homosexuality that goes beyond your disgust of feces. So, in my book, you are homophobic besides being coprophobic. How do you feel about sucking dick?

Make of long list of the things that disgust you, and put the list under your pillow before you go to bed. Maybe, the tooth fairy will leave you a dollar.

Sydney said...

@YoungHegelian :What I find amazing about this is that Colbert, a believing Catholic, found nothing in his conscience that said "this is a bridge too far".

It's Joe Biden style Catholicism.

Quaestor said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Quaestor said...

Trumpit wrote: How do you feel about sucking dick?

A question only an habitual fellator could conjure.

Quaestor said...

Trumpit the homophobe wrote: Stephen Colbert is very witty and funny. I didn't care much for that crude joke about a "cock holster" mouth. But, Trump is such a crude buffoon himself, and a such a nasty & stupid man that we pray and hope for his eventual impeachment. Ridiculing Trump and his cohorts has become a national pastime for those of us that despise him... [yadda, yadda, ad nauseam]

Colbert witty? On a kindergarten level, perhaps. Trumpit reveals a remarkably low brow, does he not? One wonders if he can wear a hat.

In case there are intelligent people who haven't been paying attention since the Reagan Administration the sentiments of Trumpit and his fellow travelers (the execrable Toothless Revolutionary amongst them) is final proof that "homophobia", "Islamophobia", misogyny, chauvinism, and racism are not nor have ever been character flaws or social pathologies. These isms are and have always been political weapons in the hands of the proglodyte Left. Devoid of any truths or even internally consistent political theory the Left have only insults to hurl at the decent responsible and cheap platitudes and empty promises to ensnare the indolent and parasitical.

Trumpit reminds me of the panderers of the Malbolge — immersed in bullshit so long and so deeply he's grown to love the stink.

Darrell said...

Ritmo went toothless to be a better cock holster. He made "Beet of the Week" in his local cell, that week.

Professional lady said...

I would describe Colbert's performance as an intentional hate-filled, obscene rant. Really disgusting.

sparrow said...

I agree that Colberts past doesn't excuse him. I just have sympathy for some people even though I know what they do is wrong. I take seriously the belief that we are all flawed in need of grace. He's been spouting ugly comments for years, mocking others for a living yet he claims to be Catholic, thereby giving scandal (in the canonical sense). I expect he's very far down the wrong road and deluded into believing himself righteous. I beleve it will not end well for him if he does not wake up to his sins. Anyone, certainly including myself, can delude themselves and fall into similar traps, so I'm sympathetic. I see him as spiritually and perhaps psychologically ill and refusing to seek help, i.e. hardened of heart.

sparrow said...

Watching him (Colbert) is , for me, like watch Kenneth Branaghs Frankenstein: you know that disaster is looming ever closer but every actor is either oblivous, incapable or unwittingly contributing to their horrible end. It's like noir in real time.

wendybar said...

I'm just glad that now I can say whatever I want to whomever I want. Stephen just killed the Politically Correct stance that has overwhelmed our Country for years. Thanks Stephen!! I don't EVER want to hear anybody cry about what somebody says or calls them again!!

sparrow said...

Wendybar,

There's no good reason to descend down to that level yourself: it's not a race to bottom.

Matt Sablan said...

... Wait, so Colbert's defense is literally "I have lots of gay friends!"

John said...

What the right needs to do is take this and run with it. Using crude terms for homosexuality as an insult is now okay. We can now call Chuck Schummer a cock sucking homo if we like. We can talk about Nancy Pelosi munching Hillary's carpet. I suspect lefty catchers like Parsons won't like that very much but too bad. If its okay for Colbert, it is okay for everyone.

John said...

Colbert has lots of gay friends. That is nice. I suppose if some white guy called another white guy a "house N*****" the fact that he had black friends would make that totally okay and make it clear he had nothing against black people.

Biotrekker said...

Homophobic ===> "When I use a word," Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, "it means just what I choose it to mean- neither more nor less." "The question is," said Alice, "whether you can make words mean so many different things." "The question is," said Humpty Dumpty, "which is to be master-that's all."

Toto said...

When Colbert said that line I figured there would be zero outrage. Look at the target. The media won't summon an ounce of outrage. I forgot that the act in question, if used in a negative way, would be considered homophobic in some circles.

Meanwhile, a broadcast TV comic used such a vulgar joke on a sitting president. Now, if Obama was the target of that joke, Colbert would be co-hosting that online GQ show with Mr. Olbermann.

Anonymous said...

Someone was speaking of broadcast TV having standards. Hmm. I was forced to watch part of an episode of Real Housewives of Atlanta and they were discussing whether one of the gals had said she wanted to "eat out (insert name)'s box". I'm a 65 year old ex-Marine and there isn't much I haven't heard but hearing that on TV shocked me. Housewives is cable so the rules are looser but geez. There are no standards anymore.

Phil B said...

Of course Colbert's not "homophobic"! Although...when he wanted to characterize Trump's relationship with Putin as demeaning, subservient, weak, unmanly, etc. - when he wanted to suggest that Trump is Putin's bitch - he chose a sex act between two men as the appropriate metaphor. (Or maybe he just meant to suggest that Trump is an "American hero." http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2017/05/04/stephen_colbert_responds_to_controversy_over_homophobic_joke_video.html)

TWW said...

Little late here, but I just want to say that 'The Big Bang Theory' is unwatchable. Terrible writing, bad acting and a dubbed laugh track that is incredibly irritating. I finally watched three episodes to see what I was missing; didn't laugh once (and I was prepared to like the show). Feel a moral duty to warn others.

jimb82 said...

Meanwhile, a broadcast TV comic used such a vulgar joke on a sitting president. Now, if Obama was the target of that joke, Colbert would be co-hosting that online GQ show with Mr. Olbermann.

Contrast Colbert's daily treatment of Trump with SNL's slobbering "To Sir With Love" homage to Obama. The only guy so far who seems to know how to navigate this is Jimmy Fallon. He will make Trump jokes, sure, but they're not mean.

Gahrie said...

but I just want to say that 'The Big Bang Theory' is unwatchable

The first couple of seasons were pretty good. But then it became a "thing".

I haven't watched it in years......

Rick67 said...

*Sigh* So if a gay man says it's okay to make disparaging jokes about someone being gay, it's all right. There is an axiology lurking there that doesn't hold up well to examination. "Because I belong to group x, I determine whether references to group x are offensive or not".

John said...

Dissing on the Big Bang Theory is one of those ways stupid people can make themselves feel smart. Is it the greatest show? No. But it isn't bad. As mindless TV goes, it is just fine and better than most. Yet, it seems to attract criticism way beyond what could be reasonably warranted. It is fascinating how things in culture will become some kind of designated other where expressing your exaggerated disapproval becomes a way for stupid people to virtue signal their perceived intelligence. Sarah Palin was that way in politics for a while. Saying Sarah Palin was stupid as opposed to being an ordinary politician was a way for stupid people to feel smart. The Big Bang Theory has become that for TV shows.

Bilwick said...

I like Parsons very much, not just as an actor but as a person, based on when I've seen him appear on talk-shows. He projects an old-fashioned gentlemanliness that modern Gays seem to have lost, if not actually spurned. I guess I would assume he's a "liberal" because Gays seem to be one of those groups who--like women, Blacks and Jews--have historically been the biggest victims of the State, yet in some kind of weird manifestation of the Stockholm Syndrome, largely vote statist. Still, sad to see him playing the trained show dog for the King of Late Night Agitprop. Colbert could have just have well had Parsons jump through a hoop, then rewarded him with a dog biscuit.

Martin said...

That's the ticket, say something that confirms to half the country that for all Trump's flaws, he is merely offensive while the other side is more offensive and actually deranged, and then just keep repeating it, over and over, in as many ways as you can think of, to drive the message home to anyone who may have missed it before.

TWW said...

"I like Parsons very much, not just as an actor but as a person..."

I like him too. Watched him several times on the Dan Patrick show. Thought he was good in the excellent movie "hidden Figures".

But TBBT sucks, nevertheless.