Late night host Jimmy Kimmel and comic Chelsea Handler have come under fire for separate insult tweets in which they used being gay as a punchline.
While trading barbs with FOX News host Sean Hannity, Kimmel tweeted: “When your clown makeup rubs off on Trump’s ass, does it make his butt look like a Creamsicle?”
When your clown makeup rubs off on Trump’s ass, does it make his butt look like a Creamsicle? https://t.co/DEhmfOh0Hn
— Jimmy Kimmel (@jimmykimmel) April 6, 2018
He followed that up with another tweet: “Don’t worry – just keep tweeting – you’ll get back on top! (or does Trump prefer you on bottom?) Either way, keep your chin up big fella..XO”
Don't worry – just keep tweeting – you'll get back on top! (or does Trump prefer you on bottom?) Either way, keep your chin up big fella..XO https://t.co/R4QJCoGYCL
— Jimmy Kimmel (@jimmykimmel) April 6, 2018
Kimmel’s followers called him out.
https://twitter.com/ScottLinnen/status/982401899545677825?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
https://twitter.com/ScottLinnen/status/982402439323283456?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
So, it's OK for you to make homophobic slurs? What an asshole.
— RogerThornhill (@_RogerThornhil) April 6, 2018
https://twitter.com/JoeWatchesTV/status/982388108871122945?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw
Unrelated to Kimmel and Hannity’s beef, Chelsea Handler tweeted this: “Jeff Sessions is definitely a bottom.”
Jeff Sessions is definitely a bottom.
— Chelsea Handler (@chelseahandler) April 6, 2018
Handler was called out on it by another Twitter user: “So the joke is he’s shit because he’s a bottom. Because gay men who are bottoms are inferior. Funny. So many ways to make fun of Jeff Sessions and you went with this. Dude, this just sucks.”
Which prompted this tweet from Handler in response: “I’m a bottom, and I’m proud of it.”
I’m a bottom, and I’m proud of it. https://t.co/wPs7c7ZBb8
— Chelsea Handler (@chelseahandler) April 6, 2018
So the joke is he's shit because he's a bottom. Because gay men who are bottoms are inferior. Funny.
So many ways to make fun of Jeff Sessions and you went with this. Dude, this just sucks.
— beth, an alien™ (@bourgeoisalien) April 6, 2018
Writes Ira Madison III in the Daily Beast:
Why do “progressive” comedians so readily jump to homophobic jokes when it comes to mocking conservatives? Either insinuating that they like receiving anal sex via bottoming—or any other homosexual sex act—is the surefire way to knock someone down a peg. Because insisting that they’re gay must be the ultimate insult, right? Because the insinuation that a man might want to have sex with another man is somehow funny. The act itself is comical…
…Their use of terms like “bottoming” show that they at least have a casual understanding of gay terminology, which means that when they make jokes about it it’s almost as if they’re trying to show off how “in the know” they are. In the way that “hipster racism” was coined to describe white people being “ironically” racist to show that they weren’t racist (while mostly being racist), comedians employ bottom-shaming jokes to show that they “get” gay culture and are just having fun with it. But if they actually cared about gay people, they wouldn’t resort to clichéd jokes that imply being on the receiving end during anal sex is somehow a shameful, cringeworthy act.
Kimmel and Handler’s jokes specifically target gay sex as worthy of derision while also implying that one particularly gay sexual position is shameful. It’s basic, and gay comics haven’t even made those jokes since Queer as Folk went off the air, so maybe it’s time for straight comedians to move on too.
