"Deadbeat": Slackers See Dead People, Hate Gay People

 

The icon for the Hulu tv series Deadbeat shows two guys recreating the pottery scene from Ghost, but they looked shocked rather than romantic.  A bit of homophobic panic going on, or a gay subtext romance?

The plot synopsis: Kevin (Tyler Labine) is a slacker medium who makes a living helping ghosts finish their unfinished business so they can go into the light.  How do they pay him?

For instance, the ghost of a World War II soldier who died a virgin (Todd Alan Cram) wants to have sex with his long-lost girlfriend before going into the light.  Kevin has to track her down -- she's now pushing 100 -- and tell her "Hi, your boyfriend who died in 1943 wants to have sex with you.  He's possessing my body.  How about it?"

Or: a professional hot dog eater (that's a thing?) died before the big contest, and his . stomach was donated to an elderly Jewish guy (they do stomach transplants?).  Kevin tries to convince the elderly Jewish guy to participate in the hot dog eating contest, but he refuses because they're not kosher. (Why not just possess Kevin's body, like with the WW II sex episode?).

Kevin is heterosexual, dating the ghost of a girl who died in his apartment.  And  a keyword search in the extensive, barely-literate episode synopsis reveals just one gay character, who doesn't get a centric.  The ghost of the head of the Swedish Mafi (Darrell Hammond) has to have his "secret" revealed to his coworkers in order to go into the light.  But the episode is actually about a ghost who videotaped a murder before he died.

There's some homophobic panic, however.  Kevin hires a male stripper, Billy Club (Chris Matesevac), to perform for the ghosts of some ladies who died on the way to their bachelorette party.  But he misunderstands and dances for Kevin.  When Kevin tries to explain the situation, Billy Club runs away, so the ghosts insist that Kevin dance for them.

The other guy in the Ghost parody is Clyde (Kal Pen), a fellow medium who appears in Season 3.  Clyde and Kal become roommates and coworkers.  So let's check for gay subtexts.

In the first episode after they move in together, there's a ghost haunting their aparment: Clyde's middle school guidance counselor (Neal Huff). Clyde falsely accused him of "showing him his testicles,"  which caused him to be fired and labeled a sex offender.   To get revenge, the ghost tricks Clyde and Kevin into responding to a To Catch a Predator-type program.  

His name: Mr. Fage.  Pronounced "faggy."  Like the cigarette if you're in Britain, but these guys are in America, where it's like the homophobic slur.

 Clyde framed a gay guy named Mr. Faggy.  

Holy sh*t, that's the most homophobic thing I ever heard of.  And I've seen Chuck and Buck.

I'm out.