"Hello and welcome to Gayest Episode Ever, the podcast where we talk about the LGBT focused episodes of classic sitcoms—that is to say, the Very Special Episodes that are also the very queer episodes."
—Drew Mackey's intro to every episode
Gayest Episode Ever is Drew Mackey and Glen Lakin's podcast on classic sitcom episodes with queer themes, starting on March 8, 2018. The result is a trip through the history of queer representation on television, warts and all. Its main website can be found here
, and it can also be listened to on iTunes, Google Podcast, and Spotify.
Tropes:
- Artifact Title: There are now more than a few episodes that discuss sitcom episodes revolving around bisexuals or trans people, and the show's language has changed to reflect this ("the very queer episodes" instead of "the very gay episodes" in the opener, for instance.) The show's still called Gayest Episode Ever, though.
- Author Appeal: Sitcoms, obviously, but Drew and Glen are also fond of B-movies, animation, and Shelley Long.
- Bizarro Episode: Invoked on at least two occasions:
- Crosses over with Milestone Celebration: The fiftieth episode is a live reading of Glen's The Golden Girls fanfic about Blanche sexing a man to death and the girls having to hide the body.
- Glen hates listening to his own voice. In the hopes of producing an episode Glen can listen to, Drew hands a transcript of "Diane Chambers is an LGBT Ally" to guests Sam Pancake and Tony Rodriguez, and tells them to go nuts. They do.
- Bury Your Gays: Drew and Glen stick to sitcoms because the alternative is dealing with a lot of this. That said, episodes of All in the Family and Grace Under Fire, among others, have dealt in this.
- Camp Gay: Discussed Trope. Drew and Glen tend to flag when this sort of thing tips into mean-spirited parody.
- It also becomes a point of contention when discussing John in "Homer's Phobia", and whether it's more accurate to describe his aesthetic as "camp" (which the episode uses) or "kitsch".
- Cold Open: Before we hear Drew or Glen speak, a clip from the episode's topic plays, giving the audience a taste of how tactful the show they're discussing is about queerness.
- Deadpan Snarker: Both Glen and Drew are snarky, but Glen really sells the deadpan.
-
Fair for Its Day: Discussed Trope. Drew generally tries to give context for how the queer community reacted to the week's episode at the time, for good or for ill, while still highlighting how the episode might be received differently today. - Idiosyncratic Episode Naming: Drew enjoys giving episode titles that describe the premise of that week's sitcom episode as bluntly and tastelessly as possible while highlighting the cis, straight main characters. "[X] Meets a Homo" and "[X]'s Relative is Gay... And Also Dead" are common permutations.
- Info Dump: Drew gives long explanations of each sitcom discussed—its airing history, its creative background, and the histories of the actors involved. This will almost inevitably detour into infodumps about other related topics, especially when Drew can find a connection to one of the Author Appeals above.
- Long-Lost Uncle Aesop: Discussed Trope. A lot of episodes have a supposed close friend or family member comes out as gay to teach the cast to be more accepting, only to disappear into the ether, never to be seen again.
- Mistaken for Gay: Discussed Trope. Drew and Glen find it frustrating how often this happens to Camp Straight main characters, seemingly for the sole purpose of reassuring the audience the show isn't about a gay guy.
- Our Lawyers Advised This Trope:Drew: Our use of clips is protected under what, Glen?Glen: Fair use!
- Please Subscribe to Our Channel: Relentlessly lampshaded—Drew ends every explanation of why you need to rate, review, or donate with "You know this, you've listened to a podcast before."
- Real Life Writes the Plot: The show was originally intended to have short, non-continuous seasons, but season three ran from October 2019 to December 2020. Being trapped indoors has left Glen and Drew with precious few ways to spend their time.
- Shipper on Deck: Drew and Glen are endlessly amused by the number of listeners who seem convinced they're gonna hook up.
- Signing-Off Catchphrase: Born of panic and eventually codified. Behold, the most bluntly literal example in this trope's history:Drew: End of episode!Glen: Bye forever.
- Straight Gay: Discussed Trope. Many of the episodes discussed, especially ones from in or before the eighties, are trying to teach the viewer that gay people are "normal", and avoid discussing or depicting anything related to queer culture.
- What Do You Mean, It's Not Didactic?: Invoked. Glen's "reach-arounds", or queer readings of scenes or jokes that probably didn't have any intended subtext.
