Gayest Episode Ever - A Queer History of SNL, Part Two

A Queer History of SNL, Part Two

Explicit content warning

10/04/23 • 130 min

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Gayest Episode Ever

And here is the second half of our two-part opener for this new season. In this episode, we look at LGBTQ-themed recurring Saturday Night Live sketches airing in the year 2000 and beyond. Basically, this one gets us from The Girl With No Gaydar to Bowen Yang, and that’s actually a pretty good synopsis for the evolution of queer-inclusive humor of on this show. Our next installment will be the first deep dive into a specific era of SNL, starting with the “Not Ready for Prime Time” era, and that will be coming in November. So look forward to that — and meanwhile prepare for a little bit of cultural whiplash. Listen to part one here. Here are the sketches, in order:

Girl With No Gaydar (S27E17: The Rock, 4/13/2000)
Donatella Versace (S30E18: Johnny Knoxville 5/7/2005)
Two Gay Guys (S32E4: Hugh Laurie 10/28/2006)
Deep House Dish (S32E7: Matthew Fox 12/1/2006)
Vincent Price Holiday Special (S34E16: Alec Baldwin 2/14/2009)
Stefon (S36E15: Russell Brand 2/12/2011)
Right Side of the Bed (S40E19: Scarlett Johansson 5/2/2015)
Dyke & Fats (S39E16: Louis C.K. 3/29/2014)
Whiskers R We (S41E13: Melissa McCarthy 2/13/2016)
Bowen Yang Surprisingly Gay (S46E17: Carey Mulligan 4/10/2021)

If you want to watch these, they're all posted on Patreon here. You can see Drew’s master list of LGBTQ-focused SNL sketches here. Go shop at our TeePublic store! Follow: GEE on Facebook • GEE’s Facebook Group • GEE on Twitter • GEE on Instagram • Drew on Twitter • Glen on Twitter Listen: Apple Podcasts • Spotify • Stitcher • Google Podcasts • Himalaya • TuneIn

Girl With No Gaydar (S27E17: The Rock, 4/13/2000)
Donatella Versace (S30E18: Johnny Knoxville 5/7/2005)
Two Gay Guys (S32E4: Hugh Laurie 10/28/2006)
Deep House Dish (S32E7: Matthew Fox 12/1/2006)
Vincent Price Holiday Special (S34E16: Alec Baldwin 2/14/2009)
Stefon (S36E15: Russell Brand 2/12/2011)
Right Side of the Bed (S40E19: Scarlett Johansson 5/2/2015)
Dyke & Fats (S39E16: Louis C.K. 3/29/2014)
Whiskers R We (S41E13: Melissa McCarthy 2/13/2016)
Bowen Yang Surprisingly Gay (S46E17: Carey Mulligan 4/10/2021)

Previous Episode

A Queer History of SNL, Part One

Welcome to a new season of Gayest Episode Ever. It will be a Saturday Night Live-centric season. Among the regular, sitcom-focused episodes, we will be doing periodic deep dives into the LGBTQ-focused sketches that ran on the show during its various eras.

To kick it off (and to kick off the new season), we are starting with a two-part look at the various queer-adjacent recurring sketches from SNL. This first episode covers the launch of the show until the mid-90s, and next week’s episode will get us through the current era. Enjoy? Maybe? It’s a lot to take in, honestly, but we swear it’s worth discussion.

Here are this episode’s sketches:

Anita Bryant (s5e16 — Burt Reynolds, April 12, 1980)
Dion (s9e8 — Flip Wilson, December 10, 1983)
Nancy Reagan (s11e2 — John Lithgow, November 16, 1985)
Coffee Talk (s16e13 — Roseanne Barr & Tom Arnold, February 2, 1989)
It’s Pat (s17e3 — Kirstie Alley, October 12, 1991)
Lyle the Effeminate Heterosexual (s17e16 — Mary Stuart Masterson, March 21, 1992)
Mickey the Dyke (s22e8 — Martin Short, December 7, 1996)
Ambiguously Gay Duo (s23e20 — David Duchovny, May 9, 1998)
Jeffrey’s (s26e12 — Sean Hayes, February 2, 2001)
Mango (s27e9 — Ellen DeGeneres, December 15, 2001)

You can watch the sketches on Patreon. You can see Drew’s master list of LGBTQ-focused SNL sketches here.

Go shop at our TeePublic store!

Follow: GEE on Facebook • GEE’s Facebook Group • GEE on Twitter • GEE on Instagram • Drew on Twitter • Glen on Twitter

Listen: Apple Podcasts • Spotify • Stitcher • Google Podcasts • Himalaya • TuneIn

And yes, we do have an official website! We even have episode transcripts courtesy of Sarah Neal. Our logo was designed by Rob Wilson. This episode’s art was designed by Ian O’Phelan.

Next Episode

Fine, We Will Cover Ellen’s Big Coming Out Episode

“The Puppy Episode” (April 30, 1997) After a great deal of self-reflection, we decided that maybe it was worth discussing the most famous episode of Ellen Degeneres’ 90s sitcom, even if it is the most analyzed piece of LGBTQ-centric television ever. Whether we were correct in thinking this remains up to you, but we nonetheless have offerings of talking points about this hourlong coming out extravaganza, including but not limited to how much of this show’s latter existence was dedicated to meta commentary. If nothing else, Ellen — the person *and* the show — understood how people were interpreting all this. Watch: the supercut of all the foreshadowing leading up to Ellen’s coming out, compiled by Becky Burning so I didn’t have to. Read: the 1994 L.A. Times piece about the drama going on backstage during Ellen’s first season. Watch Ninjago Decoded, Glen's series that explains the history of the Ninjago series and will help you understand his episode of Ninjago: Dragons Rising. Go shop at our TeePublic store! Follow: GEE on Facebook • GEE’s Facebook Group • GEE on Twitter • GEE on Instagram • Drew on Twitter • Glen on Twitter Listen: Apple Podcasts • Spotify • Stitcher • Google Podcasts • Himalaya • TuneIn And yes, we do have an official website! We even have episode transcripts courtesy of Sarah Neal. Our logo was designed by Rob Wilson. This episode’s art was designed by Ian O’Phelan.

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