Jake Connelly: Delightful Derek from "Stranger Things" hugs Steve, dates Young Will. With a footballer and some ginger chubs

  

Link to the n*de photos

Luke Kokotec, who I profiled earlier, notes that his date at the Stranger Things premiere in December 2025 was Jake Connelly, who played Derek. I thought I'd check to see if it was an actual date, or just two buddies who attended on-set school together. 

Maybe it depends on who you ask.

Jake was born in Arlington Heights, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago, and appeared in commercials like "Two for one windows at Feldco!" and "Don't let your roof ruin your summer!", and a short, Between the Silence, about two elderly ladies becoming friends.

 Showrunner Matt Duffer saw him in a furniture commercial and cast him as one of the next generation of kids who fight the evil Vecna in Stranger Things, Season 5.

He starts out as Dipsh*t Derek, a bully who harasses Holly Wheeler (younger sister of the first generation's Mike, played by Finn Wolfhard).  He trips people, yells at his mother, and tells various kids and adults to "suck my (censored)." 

Left: Finn Wolfhard, n*de on RG Beefcake and Boyfriends.

That was supposed to be the end of his character, but the Duffers were so impressed that they gave him a plot arc: he is being groomed by a mysterious being called Mr. Whatsit.

Mike and his friends discover that Mr. Whatsit is actually Vecna in disguise, and recruit him into the battle.  He becomes a hero and rescues Holly, earning the new name Delightful Derek.  Rescuing a girl is a hetero cliche.

When Vecna is finally defeated, Derek hugs Steve Harrington (Joe Keery) and waves excitedly at Mike, whom he calls his "best friend."  Two queer codes.

In the epilogue, he attends Will and Mike's high school graduation (sitting with Holly), then plays Dungeons and Dragons with the new generation (a boy and two girls). Two hetero codes.

A fan favorite, Delightful Derek  goes to a lot of conventions, and is interviewed on a lot of podcasts. He was a guest on The Tonight Show.  His home town decreed February 17th "Stranger Things Day."  In May 2026, he got to throw out the first pitch at a Cubs game.

 

 

With fitness trainer Chase Bandolik. I thought they were pretending to be a romantic couple, but apparently Chase does the "I got invited," "I didn't" stuff with many people.  I don't know what it means.

More after the break

Not the Marrying Kind: Gay Burns and Allen

Television was introduced in 1949, just in time for the formative years of the first Boomers (the generation officially started in 1945). Radio performers scrambled to make the transition. Some made it, most didn't.  Burns and Allen, a "married couple" sitcom starring comedians George Burns and Gracie Allen, made it. After 20 years on radio, they transitioned to television in 1950 and stayed on until 1958, stopped only by Gracie's passing.

They're shown here with guest star Steve Reeves.

I recently listened to an episode from the end of the radio run, in 1949.

The homophobic silence of Dark Age America was starting to break -- very, very slightly -- as radio sought to compete with television by introducing "racy" content -- hints and innuendos about s*x, and about same-s*x desire. 

The plot: George and Gracie, playing themselves, are trying to find a wife for painfully shy next door neighbor, musician Meredith Willson (who penned The Music Man).

 They recruit singer Eddie Cantor, who was subject to some gay rumors because he and his wife only had daughters. Maybe he could donate one?

So Gracie invites Eddie Canter over, and announces to Meredith, "We've found someone for you to marry!"

Thinking that they mean Eddie, Meredith says:  "Gee, I had my heart set on a woman."

Later Eddie explains to his potential son-in-law how a wedding works:

"The minister says 'I now pronounce you man and wife, and then you kiss."

"Even if you've just met?" Meredith asks, thinking that he means kissing the minister.

Meredith (or at least the character he is playing) is too shy to talk to women, let alone marry one.  He complains: "I can't get married if a woman is [at the wedding]."

Again and again, joke after joke brings up the idea that Meredith is considering marrying a man.

What's going on?

If being gay is really beyond the boundaries of what can be known, then the characters are playing with an absurdity, a play on words like Abbott & Costello's "Who's on First" routine.

But people knew about being gay, even in 1949. The Kinsey Report (1948) revealed its existence to millions.  George Burns and Gracie Allen worked with gay people in Hollywood.

Their television series often implied that teenage son Ronnie Burns (or at least the character he played) preferred the company of men.

Maybe that's why Meredith Wilson's character trips easily over the boundary between "confirmed bachelor" and "gay."

At the end of the episode, everyone agrees that he "should never get married." At least not to a woman.

Even in the darkest of the Dark Ages, there were still hints and innuendos.

In real life, Meredith Wilson was married to women three times.  But there are some queer codes in The Music Man.

See also: Ronnie Burns: Gay Teen of the 1950s

Robert Ellis: Gay Best Friend of the 1950s

Ben Pajak plays the gay kids of Wolverine and Paul Blart, Harvey Milk, Max von Essen's buddy, and a gay Corey Haim.  He was also in The Music Man.

Justin Ellings: Kyle from the awful clown episode of "Modern Family" plays Corey Haim and Sean Giambrone, shows his physique and his d*ck

"I Would Rather Die": Zombie outbreak in Argentina, with a retro teen nerd plotline, some obnoxious jocks, and some Mendoza d*cks

 

Link to the n*de dudes

The Argentine tv series I Would Rather Die, Prefiero la Muerte (2026),  just dropped on Amazon.  Yet more zombies?  There'd better be a fascinating new twist, and some gay characters.

Scene 1: Archie  (Diego Bernal) is chased through a convenience store by Mr. Rodriguez, a zombie.  Flashback to pre-zombie times, coming in with Goth Girl Kris, "the sister I never had."  Pre-zombie Rodriguez is "a perv*rt," but he makes the best strawberry popsicles in Mendoza." Does he make them or sell them?

Mendoza, population 115, 000, is a "welcoming, safe, queer-friendly" city in the wine country of Western Argentina, known for its annual Vendimia Para Todos, a LGBTQ wine festival.  

Argentine n*de dude on RG Beefcake and Boyfriends

The perv demonstrates his creepy intent by caressing Arch's hand as he takes the money.

Creepy gay or creepy pedo?  Archie is in high school, so 16-18.  Generally pedophiles like younger teens or children, but Argentina never had a s*domy law, and got gay marriage in 2010, so I'll probably say pedo.

Cut to class, where Arch tells us that he's a straight A student, but fails at making friends and winning the Girl of His Dream.  She's...sigh...Brenda!  Close up of her hair blowing in the wind, even though they're inside.  Hetero identity at Minute 2.25. Unfortunately, she's dating Domino, an obnoxious jock who no one could possibly be interested in, except that it's necessary for the plot.  Wait -- they're on a break.  This is your chance, buddy -- go for it!  

Scene 2: The Girl drops by to invite Archie to a party that her Obnoxious Jock Ex (Leonardo Avila) is holding, but he refuses.  She just asked you for a date, Arch.  That's a pretty blatant sign of interest. Say yes or give up and find someone else. 

Goth Girl Kris agrees: "Find someone else, so you can stop being a v*rgin, and people will like you."  Apparently "v*rgin" is the worst thing you can be in western Argentina.  

Next the Obnoxious Jock grabs Archie. "The Girl invited you to my party, but don't come.  We may be on a break, but I hate you regardless, because it's required for the plot."

Scene 3: After school, Archie drops by the convenience store.  If there's a creepy pedo or gay guy inside,  why go there?  Uh-oh, Mr. Rodriguez has zombified!

The door is right there, Arch Baby.  Just run away!  "No, I think I'll run into the storeroom."  

Left: There are several Diego Bernal actors out there.  This might be our Archie.

Mr. Rodriguez follows, trips, and gets his leg impaled on a pole -- which protrudes through his thigh.  Some heavy-handed homophobic symbolism.  Anyway, he bites Archie, thus recruiting him into the homos*xual...I mean, zombie lifestyle.

Scene 4: The next day at Tae Kwon Do class, Archie chats with Leopoldo (Gabriel Fritsch de Anda), who shows him something disturbing about Goth Girl Kris.  Archie rushes to school and confronts the Obnoxious Jock.  Turns out that he posted semi-n*de pictures.  I thought it would be a lesbian "slur."  "Leave her out of our beef!"

"Nope! I'm going after you and your friends, because my palatable hatred is required for the plot."

More after the break

Rick Gomez: What has Endless Mike of "Pete & Pete" been doing lately? Is Steve Zahn his boyfriend? Is he really endless? With Rick d*ck

Link to the n*de photos

Remember this?

Hey smiin' strange
You're lookin' happily deranged
Can you settle to shoot me?
Or have you picked your target yet

It's the theme to The Adventures of Pete and Pete (1991-95), the first of the Nickelodeon "adults are insane" teencoms.  Two brothers, both named Pete, negotiate the weirdness of the city of Wellsville, where no one is really well. 

A bowling ball has mystical powers.

A garage band vanishes overnight.

Little Pete accidentally erases baseball from existence.

I liked Rick Gomez as Endless Mike, who knows more about the town's weirdness than he lets on.  He sometimes bullies and humiliates Big Pete, and sometimes acts as his ally and protector. You might even find a gay subtext in their interaction.

No one ever explains why his name is Endless.  Maybe the teenage boy is a manifestation of a transdimensional being who exists beyond time and space as we perceive it.

Or maybe he's endless in the beneath the belt region (example on RG Beefcake and Boyfriends).

When Pete & Pete ended, I moved on to other things, and thought about Endless Mike rarely, if at all.  And the years passed.

Recently we started watching Silo (2023-), a dystopian science fiction series where 10,000 people, all of surviving humanity (that they know of) live in a huge underground helix.  They can't go outside, or ever open the single door, because the air is poisonous (or so they are told). 

And there in the cast list was Rick Gomez!

He plays Patrick Kennedy, a maintenance worker with a dead wife (of course) who sells strictly-forbidden relics from the Before Time.  He starts to suspect that they are being lied to (they are, sort of), and joins the Resistance. 

Right: Steve Zahn plays Solo, who survived a rebellion in his own silo, where everyone went outside and died.  They buddy bond in Season 3.

A few years have passed, but you can still see that insoucient, all-knowing smile.  

I wanted to check what Rick has been doing since 1995, whether he is actually gay in real life, and if he is really endless.

Searching for "Rick Gomez," "actor," and "n*de" yields a lot of photos of Rick kissing guys (top photo) and showing his backside (on RG Beefcake and Boyfriends), but it turns out to be a Google Images misdirection.  The gay/backside actor is Ricardo Gomez.

Our Rick starred in five tv series between Pete & Pete and Silo.

1. Hitz (1997), about workers at a record company (remember records?)

2. Band of Brothers (2001), about World War II soldiers. Rick plays George Luz, who does some buddy-bonding during the War, but then returns to Rhode Island for the married-with-children bit.

Not much of gay interest so far.

More after the break