Karl Is The Simpsons' First Gay Friend
Added 2024-10-11 02:32:48 +0000 UTC“Simpson and Delilah” (October 18, 1990)
Not only the earliest gay-themed Simpsons episode we’ve ever done, this one is also the first gay-themed episode The Simpsons ever did. And while its character, the enigmatic Karl, doesn’t get to be explicitly gay, we argue about whether having a gay-coded character might have been the show’s way to — in its second season and at the height of Simpsons mania — signal to grown-ups that no, despite the t-shirts, this was not a show for kids and could operate at a higher level. But how many adults watching TV in 1990 knew who Harvey Fierstein was?
Remember when I did a supercut of all the LGBTQ jokes on The Simpsons? It still lives, even if you have to go to YouTube to watch it now for stupid homophobic reasons. 3.7 million views as of the publishing of this!!
Also listen to the most recent Talking Simpsons take on this episode here.
Comments
Forgot about this episode! They didn't tend to play the very early seasons on syndication where I grew up (Alberta, Canada), so they're not quite as embedded in my brain as S4-10. Thanks for bringing this one back! The joke about the name B-Sharps being less funny every time you hear it is another Beatles joke (though it's also true there is technically no such thing as a B-Sharp in music scales, except in the key of C#). The joke, I think, is a reference to the misspelling of the word "Beetles" being a boastful pun meaning "the beat-alls," which may have seemed very cute in 1959, but has since become steadily less funny over time. The Simpsons use a similarly cutesy pun on "Be Sharp." Bit of a convoluted joke, really :/
Rhea Folkers
2024-10-17 10:09:55 +0000 UTCFixed!
Drew Mackie
2024-10-11 20:12:09 +0000 UTCLoving the episode! When I first read the title I thought it was about Carl of Lenny and Carl fame not realizing there was a spelling difference, and I thought I had missed when Carl came out. At 1:12:14, Drew quotes something Mr. Burns says, but the audio cuts out. Is that just on my end?
JonJamesM
2024-10-11 19:32:06 +0000 UTC
