However, there were gay "jokes" from the beginning. In a running gag, Brain has a sudden insight and asks Pinky "Are you pondering what I'm pondering?" Pinky replies with a nonsequiter that can often be read as sexual, or at least dirty, such as "I think so, Brain, but how can we get seven dwarves to shave their legs?" or "I think so, Brain, but isn't a cucumber that small called a gherkin?"
Of seventy-five recorded "pondering" responses, thirteen concern transvestism or fetish costumes — "I think so, Brain, but this time you wear the tutu" — and twelve evoke sexual double entendres — "I think so, Brain, but apply North Pole to what?"
The tag line of each episode, after the most recent plan for world domination has failed, similarly allows for a homoerotic reading:
Brain: Let us go back to the lab and prepare for tomorrow night.
Pinky: Why, Brain? What are we going to do tomorrow night?
Brain: The same thing we do every night, Pinky. [Pause, while we ponder just what it is that they do every night] Try to take over the world.
When Pinky and the Brain moved to prime time in 1995, plotlines became more complex, with movie and television parodies and recreations of the basic scenario in various historic periods. The writers also added what Warner Brother's head of programming referred to as "family and romantic element." Potential heterosexual partners did appear occasionally, and Brain was somewhat swayable, but Pinky steadfastly chose the Brain over any other love.
Most of the romantic elements, however, involved the duo's attraction to each other, which Pinky celebrated and the Brain grudgingly admitted. In "Just Say Narf", Pinky sings and flirts with a despondent Brain: he bats his eyes seductively, lays his head cozily in Brain's lap, and twirls him about in a waltz before Brain finally cheers up.
Even when the Brain takes up smoking, Pinky's attraction does not diminish: "Hello there, stinky smelly smoky boy," he says with a leer, "Do you have a monkey in your pants?" He "means" to say "Do you have a monkey on your back?", a metaphor for addiction. When he says "pants" instead, the "mistake" produces a striking metaphor that is not not sexual.
Pinky and the Brain share more than physical attraction, however; they begin to represent themselves as a closeted gay couple. A prospective employer asks Brain, "Are you married?" After a brief, awkward pause, he responds "No. I do have a ... roommate." Considering various responses and then deciding on "roommate" is — or was — a familiar strategy for hiding same-sex partners from potential homophobes. Brain gets the job and enters corporate culture as a closeted gay man — or mouse — clumsily rejecting a female suitor and inventing a lame explanation for the picture of Pinky on his desk.
When Brain's parents visit, Brain again introduces Pinky as "my ... um ... roommate." The liberated 1990's parents are not fooled, however; while constantly criticizing Brain for his poor housekeeping, poor cooking, and unrealistic career goals, they never nag him to "meet a nice girl" and get married; obviously they are aware that he already has a partner. At the end of the episode, Mom and Dad invite the two to visit as a couple at Thanksgiving.
No other cartoon of the 1990's portrayed same-sex relationships so overtly.
See also: Animaniacs
'Hey, Arnold' had a gay teacher with a domestic partner. It is dealt with in a Thanksgiving Episode. The show also had a mom who was an alcoholic. The 1990s Superman cartoon did have Maggie Sawyer and her girlfriend in a few scenes. If you were familiar with the comics, then you would notice.
ReplyDeleteThe fan blog states that the partner was one of two friends,"Peter and Joy," who appeared at Thanksgiving Dinner. The writers intended Mr. Simmons to be gay, but never mentioned it during the series.
DeleteKinda funny you should mention Bruce Timm. I don't know if Renée Montoya's love life was ever mentioned, but you do see teasing Harley and Poison Ivy.
DeleteAt the same time, there is heterosexism. In the comics, Dick Grayson (near with me, I'm summarizing two decades of comics) simply goes off to college, dates a girl, is cheated on, dates another girl, co-founds a new generation of Titans with her cousin, is Barbara Gordon's intern in Washington, joins and leads Raven's Titans, finds a new son for Batman, falls in love with an alien princess and "would have trouble resisting being seduced by" a mercenary's son (who everyone else thinks is a traitor just like Beast Boy's girlfriend, and really I could go on forever about how in the 80s under Marv Wolfman, Dick was bisexual and far better representation than what Devin Grayson was writing in the aughts, much less Tim Seeley and Tom King in that spy arc), takes the name Nightwing in honor of Superman (but he really means to call himself Shady McShaderson), replacement is killed, a Robin fanboy tries to get him to be Robin again and ultimately becomes Robin.
Jim Starlin writes a post-Crisis variant where the Joker shoots Dick, Bruce fires him and replaces him with a random homeless kid. Because Jim Starlin never liked the concept of Robin, with a kid fighting, e.g. the mafia. You may have guessed Starlin's tenure as a Batwriter ended with Jason's death. (Dick was in space at the time, but when he gets back, he rightly punches Bruce.)
Alrighty then. Bruce Timm also had a schism planned for the Dynamic Duo. But it's dumber. Dick likes Barbara. (Remember how I said she was a politician?) So naturally she gets pregnant with Bruce's baby. (Could be worse, Dick. You could be repeatedly raped. You know, canon.) Dick shows up again, outright randomly, when Tim becomes Robin. Nightwing also has no ties to Krypton, unlike canon incarnations of the name.