"Vladimir": Pretentious English profs have affairs with students and each other. And talk. And talk. With some prof d*cks and backsides

  

Vladimir, on Netflix, has a man and a woman both gawking at a hunk as he dives into the pool and climbs out, so there are obviously gay characters.  Maybe the hunk is himself gay: he's played by Leo Woodall of Vampire Academy and White Lotus 

And some of the episodes are named after literary classics:  "We Have Always Lived in the Castle," "The Awakening," "Everything that Rises Must Converge," "Against Interpretation."   

I got a M.A. in English and started on a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature before switching to the social sciences, so I'm getting a tinge of nostalgia.  Let's go.

Scene 1: A rustic cabin.  A lady in her pajamas puts Toni Morrison's Beloved back on the bookshelf and tells us that she will never again have power over another human being.  Her students think she's out-of-touch; her daughter dislikes her; and she is no longer able to give men ___.  

As she tells us all this, we see that the unconscious Hunk is chained to a chair.  He awakens and starts yelling.  Well, if you can't give men ___  just by looking at them, this is your next best option.

Scene 2: Six weeks earlier.  The lady is buying greens for a salad to take to the faculty retreat -- her 30th.  She's been at the college for 30 years!  She isn't named on the IMDB or the Episode Cast, so I'll call her Madame X

She notices the Hunk chivalrously getting something from a high shelf for a lady shopper.  He glances at her a few times and gets an instant erection, then walks away.  Hey, I thought she couldn't do that anymore.

Scene 3: Madame X in her car outside the faculty retreat.  She tells us that this one will be fun, because there will be a scandal: a professor (her husband John) caught with students.  He texts to ask how f*ked he is. 

Inside, they faculty is discussing the situation.  Andre (Milton Barnes, bottom photo) reports that there are six accusers now (all female), and over a thousand signatures on the petition demanding Husband John's removal.  He'll be suspended until the hearing, and David (Matt Walsh, left) has stepped up as department chair.  

Matt Walsh, a founding member of the Uptight Citizens Brigade, has 190 acting credits listed on the IMDB.  I've only seen him in animated shows like Rick and Morty.

On RG Beefcake and Boyfriends: he pulls out his d*ck so Will Ferrell can get busy in Get Hard (2015).  Will is too disgusted to go through with it. .

Scene 4: 1:30 pm, time to go in and apologize for being late.  There are no chairs left, but the Hunk from the supermarket -- a new assistant professor named Vladimir -- offers his.  While the meeting drones on (I know all about that!), she zeroes in on his knees and neck.  

Scene 5: After the meeting, Madame X is eating Frito pie when the Hunk dismisses the other flirty female profs and zeroes in on her.  They discuss how sitting is a lethal habit, so everyone should stand at their desks; it's good for the quads. 

Just as he moves on to the shoulder-touching, his wife appears.  Ulp, competition!  Small talk: she's teaching as an adjunct,  she loves Madame X's novel, and she's late because their daughter pooped in her dress. Too much information, girl!  

Madame X tries to save face by inviting them "both" over for cocktails. The Wife refuses -- she doesn't drink.  Maybe the Hunk could go by himself?  Are you pushing them together?

Then David the Department Chair whisks them away.  She growls.

Scene 6: Stomping out, Madame X runs into Andre (who reported on the inquest earlier), and asks for a copy of the report on her suspended-and-soon-to-be-fired husband. 

She reads it in the car.  Pictures of all the complainants, including one with the girl sitting on his lap.  "Scandalous!" she tells us.

Scene 7: As husband John (John Slattery) grills steaks, Madame X sets the table outdoors, and asks us why people are scandalized by prof-student affairs.  They're fun because of the power differential.  The girls who complained are just sad, miserable losers.  So you're going to get even with them?  

John is the one who gawks at the Hunk in the opening sequence, but I think it's just a tease: he only references hetero interest in this episode.

John's backside is on RG Beefcake and Boyfriends

Later, John swims and complains that there are no rules against profs dating students, and his wife Madame X is fine with it, so what's the problem?  Then they discuss compost and growing lettuce (someone actually scripted dialogue about lettuce, yawn), what they hate about the new professors, and not telling their adult daughter Sid about the scandal.

John Slattery, who has been nominated for 4 Primetime Emmys, has 94 acting credits listed on the IMDB.  I've seen him in an episode of What We Do in the Shadows and...um...

More after the break

Harrison Houde: It's Bowie! Plus gay-adjacent tv, synth-wave music, and a pink Ford. With Diego, Harrison backsides and Nemo d*ck

Link to the n*de photos 

 School Spirits features a high school girl named Maddie Near, who becomes a "ghost" when her spirit is dislocated from her body.  In Episode 2.3 (2025), we meet Diego (Zack Calderon), the older brother of Maddie's friend, n the best possible way -- wearing just a towel. 

Well, maybe not the absolute best possible way...

And we learn that Maddie's body is now occupied by Janet,  the ghost of a high school girl who died in 1958. She goes on the run, bringing a satchel-full of stolen cash. When she stops for supplies, we met Carl (Harrison Houde), a clerk at the superstore.  He has long hair and femme multicolored bracelets, pinging my gaydar.  And he's 5'5".  

Which should I profile?

Sorry, Zack.

You may remember Harrison Houde from Some Assembly Required (2014-16), the Canadian teencom about a boy (Kolton Stewart) who sues his way into owning a toy company,   Harrison plays Bowie, his cute, quirky best bud, who is put in charge of the Jokes and Pranks Division.  (He's pictured with Dylan Playfair as the dimwitted hunk.)  

Although the gay-vague fashion plate of the series is Aster (Travis Turner), until he gets a queerbait girlfriend, Bowie only expresses heterosexual interest in one or two episodes. 

Harrison began his on-screen career as Darren Walsh, who becomes an outcast for touching cheese, in Diary of a Wimpy Kid (2010).  

Next came three episodes of Spooksville (2013-14), about teenage ghost-hunters.

42 episodes of the "how it works" series Finding Stuff Out (2012-14)

And the movie Pants on Fire (2014), with Bradley Steven Perry as a chronic liar who wins The Girl of His Dreams (not by lying).

More after the break.  

Stefanos Kakavoulis: Bizarre, cerebral gay movies and n*de performance pieces, plus an adult video and a kooky documentary

  

Link to the n*de photos

When Stefanos Kakavoulis appeared on the n*de celebrity site, I thought his name was a prank.  Kaka means "bad, evil, garbage" in Greek, so Kakavoulis means, roughly,  "The Little Stinker"  But that's really his name:

Stefanos  was born in Australia in 1977, but moved to Greece when he was a baby.  He got his degree in teaching art from the Higher Drama School New Greek Theatre of G. Armenis (that's what it says).

He has five acting credits listed on the IMDB, and several others on his personal website.  I took a year of Greek in college, but it wasn't quite enough to understand the untranslated plot synopses and trailers. 

Hnychterini sonata ("The Nightengale Sonata," 2015).  I don't know what it's about, but it shows some people in towels kissing.

Exoria ("Exile," 2019):  Stefanos kisses a dude, but strangles him during the bedroom stuff, and approaches a lady dressed as a bumblebee who is lap-dancing a guy in a bunny mask. 

That's what the trailer shows.

Antonious (2020): , a 38-minute poem by gay Portuguese writer Fernando Pessoa, translated into Greek by Stefanos.  The Emperor Hadrian mourns the death of hislover.

Copper Sand (2020): Two men serve in the army together, then meet again after 15 years.  Is the spark still there?

Based on the trailer, I'd say that it's still there.

Howl (2020): A 20-minute performance of the Allen Ginsberg poem, translated into Greek.

Kathartirio ("Purgatory," 2022).  "Stories about love in modern Greece."  

Leonardo's Ring (2024), based on the play by Rick Elice, is about a ring that travel from hand to hand over the centuries.  Owners include gay icons Leonardo Da Vinci, Oscar Wilde, and Tchaikovsky.  Looks like a lot of musclemen in a pool, and two guys in bed in a crappy apartment.

Stefanos is primarily a theatrical actor.  His credits include The Importance of Being Earnest, The Talented Mr Ripley, Bent. and Vitruvio, where he performs Da Vinci's Vitruvian Man (n*ked, of course) in a meditation on mortality.

I'm getting the impression that he's gay.

More after the break

Gemstones Episode 3.7: The handsome man, misdirection, queerbaiting, tied-up guys, and me yelling at the screen a lot

 

Link to the n*de photos

In Episode 3.6, we saw the aftermath of the Judy/BJ and Kelvin/Keefe breakups, with failed reconciliation attempts, a fist fight, and both Kelvin and Judy quitting their jobs at the church.  In this episode, things get even worse.

Title: "Burn for burn, wound for wound, stripe for stripe."  Exodus 21:25. Fans argued like mad about trying to connect the burn/wound/stripe to the personalities or kidnapping strategies of the Gemstone siblings, but it's a misdirection. The previous verse has the more familiar "eye for eye, tooth for tooth." It just means that the punishment should fit the crime.

Burn for burn and all that:  During the evening of the day of the Aimee-Leigh Hologram debacle, the BJ-Stephen penis fight, and probably the Kelvin-Keefe rocking chair fight, Judy goes to a drug store to buy pain medication for BJ.  On her way home, goons from Peter's militia crunch her car with the Redeemer and grab her. 

Misdirection alert: the trailer makes it look like she is the one crunching. 

Chuck Montgomery tries to trick Jesse, and when that doesn't work, the goons shoot him with a tranquilizer dart.  

Kelvin bangs on the door at Woodpecker's Carpentry, yelling: "Are there any woodworkers in there? I'm looking for Keefe Chambers!"  Now that he's no longer worried about his job at the church, he's free to reconcile with Keefe.    But it's long after hours; the building is dark and deserted. Why would anyone be inside?  Besides, Keefe told Kelvin where he was working; wouldn't he give him his new address and phone number, too?

Imagine if someone were inside: "See, my ex-boyfriend and I had this big fight, and he doesn't want me to have his new number, and I don't know where he's staying...I need to see him...no, I am not a stalker!"

Six militia men wearing scary masks surround Kelvin.  The trailer makes him look paralyzed with fear, but actually he is quite brave, trying to intimidate them and then defend himself.  They punch and hit him, and squirt a toxic liquid into his eyes -- which stings but has no long term effects.  Why does Kelvin need six guys to take him down?  Why does he get a more brutal kidnapping?  I don't know.

Screaming like a woman:  The three siblings are put in what everyone calls a chicken silo, although chickens are housed in coops.  They are tied to chairs, with pillowcases over their heads.  What for?  You don't need to be imprisoned and tied up both.

Fans uncomfortable with the idea of gay relationships noticed that Kelvin's pillowcase resembles the trans pride flag, thereby signaling that he is actually a transgender woman.  Doubtful: Jesse's depicts the cartoon character Maisie Mouse. 

Kelvin yells for help. Uncle Peter enters and asks if he is "screaming like a woman," maybe a dig at his gayness, but more likely because he considers any emotion "like a woman."   He explains that the militia is holding them for ransom.

The handsome man: When Keefe arrives for work the next morning, he sees Kelvin's car with the doors still open, checks the ground for signs of a struggle, and asks his coworkers, "Have you seen The Handsome Man?"  This makes no sense, as Kelvin only visited once, for a few minutes, and most of the carpenters weren't paying attention.

Cut to Amber and BJ noticing that their partners didn't come home last night. Next, Eli, at the office even though he's retired and should be fishing, receives a scary video of Kelvin crying and Judy and Jesse screaming in rage.  The gay one has a "sensitive" reaction. Peter gives the ransom demand.  

Eli goes home and confronts May-May: "Your sons have fucked me over."  She denies that she has anything to do with the kidnapping.

Back at the chicken silo, the siblings complain about the heat and the food, and bicker.  Shouldn't they be praying?  They're religious, right?

Cut to BJ, Amber, Gideon, and Eli discussing the kidnapping with Sheriff Brenda. They were kidnapped in town, so it should be the Rogers Police. 

Notice that Keefe is not there.  Why didn't Eli call him?  Because his number has changed, because they have broken up, or because he is just a friend, not a partner?

The Freemans arrive.  Tiffany has made dolls of the siblings --very quickly -- "for you to hug and kiss until they come home safe."  She gives the Kelvin doll to Eli.  Same question: Why doesn't she save it for Keefe? Because they have broken up, or because they were never partners to begin with? 

Geography problem: How did they get to Eli's house so fast?  Don't they live in Florida?  

The trailer made it seem like the militia sent the dolls, adding a hint of the paranormal that turned out to be a misdirection.  Still, they look like Gullah Island voodoo dolls: "You can hug and kiss them until your loved ones come home safe.  And if they ever stray, you can make their privates fall off." 

More queerbaiting after the break

"Crap Happens": Many gay/bi/trans actors, a gay boy, father-son bonding, puppies, a talking duck , and some Deutsch d*cks

 

Link to the n*de photos

After the death of his mother, failed rapper Toni (played by real-life rapper Fatoni, aka Anton Schneider) returns to his backwater Bavaria home town with the charming name Kacken an der Havel, "Pooping on the (River) Havel."  So basically Schitt's Creek.

 He deals with endearing/annoying townsfolk, his mom's much younger boy toy, and Charly, the 13-year old son that he didn't know he had.  While trying to jump-start his rap career.  Hey, Crap Happens.

Right: Anton Schneider.  I don't think he's the same one.

Preliminary research revealed that Charly is played by the nonbinary German actor Sky Arndt, and voiced in the English dub by trans actor Greg Vinciguerra (left, with a post from his tv series  Wolf Pack).

Surely Charly is trans on the show, too.

More LGBTQ representation: The Boy Toy, Johnny Carrera, is played by straight actor Dmitrij Schaad (left), but voiced by JP Karliak, founder and president of Queer Vox, an organization for LGBTQ voice artists.

Vincent Redetzki, who plays school band leader Paule, is gay in real life.

Showrunner Alex Schaad won an Queer Lion Award for Skin Deep (2022), about body swapping and s*xual identity.

That's enough for me. I'll  reviewing Episode 1.3, which is Charly-centric: he experiences "his first heartbreak" and meets his first arch-nemesis.

Scene 1: Fleischer's Towing Service (his Mom's company). Asleep on a day bed, Toni is awakened by his son Charly: he had a nightmare. Can he sleep in Toni's bed?  There's no room, but Charly squeezes in anyway.

The narrator, a talking duckling named Tupac, explains that Charly didn't really have a nightmare.  He just wanted to cuddle with his dad.

Scene 2: Toni is exhausted after getting no sleep, but Charly is energetic, and makes breakfast for him, the duck, and the Boy Toy: Chocolate-ketchup fountain, sausage water coffee, green farfalle, and chocolate scrambled eggs.  Does Charly have a learning disability?   Boy Toy insists that they try it to avoid hurting Charly's feelings, and it turns out to be delicious. 

Boy Toy: "It feels like love in my mouth."  This is completely innocent of double-entendre.

In other news, is it weird to be in love with your cousin?

Boy Toy: It's normal in Mexico.  Toni: It's weird in Germany.

Charlie announces today's plan: Paddleboard limbo (a real sport where you stand on a paddleboat and negotiate a barrier).

Toni: "Sorry, no time.  I have writing to do today." Ms. Muller-Muller has commissioned him to write eight rap songs.

Meanwhile, the evil Mayor Veronica and her son are surveilling them, cooking up mischief.

Scene 3: Toni starts to work on a rap song, but is distracted. Narrator: "He hasn't finished a song in 18 years."

At school, Charly heads for Sascha, his girl cousin. She is played by Sherine Ciara Merai, who is gay in real life, and voiced by Jonna-Lynn Alonso, a bi/pan, genderfluid, femme presenting voice artist. 

Apparently they've considered dating before, and he is reporting on his research.  Genetics: No problem with their offspring.  So Charlie must be cisgender. A trans boy doesn't produce sperm, so...wait, is Sascha a  trans girl?  

 Social attitudes: A problem in Germany, but they can always move to Mexico.

Nope, Sascha breaks up with him.  Narrator: "The first heartbreak of his life."  

More after the break

Yani Xander: Headless ghost, Speechless body double, Telugu cop, hottest guy on the planet has a boyfriend and a tree trunk-sized d*ck

  

Link to the n*de photos

When I was researching the beefcake on the British Ghosts tv series,  I found Yani Xander listed as Headless Humphrey: a Tudor nobleman who was accidentally beheaded, so as a ghost his head keeps falling off his body.  Except Humphrey's head is played by Laurence Rickard.  You never see the incredibly gorgeous Yani, because at 5'3", he is inside Humphrey's body. 

One of the hottest guys I've ever seen, and 5'3"?  Sign me up!

He was born in 1997 in Burgos, Bulgaria, a resort town on the Black Sea about 4 hours from Sofia, which gives me an excuse to dip into my photos of n*de Bulgarian guys.  

After graduating from secondary school, Yani moved to London to study at the City Academy ((2017) and Anthony Meindl's Actors Workshop (2018).  He started getting roles in short films, like A Different League (2017), Alice and Jack (2017), and Refugee Point (2018).

Hey You (2019), only about five minutes long, has gay interest:  (Noel Samuels, Dmitri Spodobaev, top photo) are arranging a hookup. Yani plays a third guy (I'm guessing a bottom).

In 2019, Yani starred a starring role in the Telugu series Erra Gulabhila Govindu.  He plays a cop.  Wait, Telugu, the Dravidian language spoken in South India?  What's Yani doing there?    What's he doing in southern India?  And learning Telugu?

Next came three episodes of Alex Rider (2020), featuring a teenage James Bond (Otto Farant), his goofy best friend (Brennock O'Connor), and the Girl of His Dreams.  Yani plays the son of a Russian baddie. 

And two episode of Dangerous (2020), a "bland and cliched" Bollywood crime series.  So you're still in India, but learning Hindi, not Telugu

And 21 episodes of Ghosts (2019-23).

Also Yani was the stand in for J.J. Dimeo, the Speechless guy (Micah Fowler) when the gang went to London, and a body double for Joshua McGuire (left) in Cheaters.  Yes, he showed his backside (on RG Beefcake and Boyfriends)

His most recent work is the British-Indian sci-fi movie IRaH (2024), a weird spelling because it's an app devoped by Hari Singh (Rohit Roy).  It falls into the wrong hands, and chaos ensues. Yani's character does not appear in the plot synopsis.

What else has he been up to?

A lot of traveling!

 Bali

Japan

Abu Dhabi

Denmark

Cambodia

Greece

Many more countries and c*ck shots after the break

Gemstones Episode 3.6: BJ swallows a lot, Keefe learns about hard wood, and Kelvin gets a girlfriend. With n*de boxer bonus

 

Link to the n*de boxers.

In the last episode (before the interlude), we saw the family shattered, with Judy/BJ and Kelvin/Keefe breaking up and the Montgomery boys plotting against Eli.  Now we're going to see life amid the ruins.

Title: "For Out of the Heart Come Evil Thoughts." Matthew 15:19: "For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies." We don't need to match the Gemstone with the sin: they are all guilty of false witness, lying to others or to themselves.

How to Make Things Right: BJ didn't move out, after all,  but the two are barely speaking. Judy asks what she can do to make things right. BJ doesn't know.  She is despondent. Remember that in 2000, she worried that she would never find anyone who would love her.  It took 18 years, but she finally found someone, and now it's over.

Gay joke: "I swallow a lot, but this may be something I can't choke down."  You just need a little practice.  Ask Keefe for some pointers. 

The Montgomery Boys Leave:  At Eli's mansion, the Montgomerys thank the family for "straightening them out."   Kelvin suggests that it happened "when we dressed them up."  That sounds like a gay reference.  

Jesse says "They're ready to f*ck": their next steps should be girlfriends,  wives and kids, the whole heterosexual trajectory.  To start them out, he gives them his monster truck, the Redeemer.

 As they drive away, Kelvin takes off his "wedding ring."  If he leaves it off, the relationship will really be over.  He'll be single again.  He puts it back on.  But maybe he is thinking of a heterosexual trajectory of his own. 

Taryn is Back: We cut to Kelvin introducing Taryn, who we last saw at Keefe's "wieners and ice cream" party, as his new assistant youth pastor.  A kid asks about Keefe, and he gets all bitchy: "He is leaving to pursue other opportunities.  Not even sure why you keep bringing that up!" -- while fiddling with his wedding ring again.  He continues to fiddle -- and look despondent -- as Taryn leads the kids in a dance. 

Paying off the Scandal:  The siblings meet with Stephen, his wife, and their lawyer.  They want $500,000 for "damages and emotional distress," or the affair goes viral.  So it's like the blackmail over Jesse's  party in Season 1, but this time there's no tape.  Judy could just deny that anything happened.  She could even sue him for slander.

Martin suggests paying the money, along with an apology.  Kelvin must be wondering: if it's worth $500,000 to keep an extramarital affair under wraps, how much damage would he cause the church by coming out  -- or being outed.  He doesn't like Taryn in that way -- he doesn't like women in that way -- but what choice does he have?  

After scenes where Baby Billy and Jesse discuss the hologram Aimee-Leigh idea, and BJ stalks Stephen, Kelvin tries to find out if the relationship is really over.

The First Reconciliation Attempt:  We find Keefe working at Woodpecker's Carpentry.  Wood-pecker, har har, the first of many ph*llic references in this scene.  His earing, necklaces, and rings are gone -- for safety, or to keep closeted?  

Suddenly Kelvin appears. Looking around nervously, Keefe asks "Brother Kelvin, what are you doing here?" Note that he uses formal titles to reaffirm that they have broken up: they are just pastor and parishioner.  No doubt he's worried that Kelvin will out him by referencing their relationship or just being flamboyant.  Kelvin does try his usual titty-tweak, but Keefe doesn't respond.  You're broken up!  You're not allowed to take liberties anymore!

Gay joke: "Master Bishop has taught me a lot in the ways of hard wood." Tell me more about your...um...hard wood.  The odd title "Master," not used for master carpenters, led some fans to speculate that he and Keefer were involved in a b*ndage relationship. 

 Wait -- how long has he worked there?  Surely it's only been a few days since the breakup.

Kelvin asks "Have you found happiness?" An odd question. Why not just ask if he likes his new job.?  Keefe says that he has, but of course he's lying.  He's busy working on a reconciliation rocking chair.  He uses the  punching gesture that straight guys sometimes use to ward off physical contact: a bro-hug would be too painful.

Apparently Kelvin expected Keefe to be crying and miserable, lost without him, like in the Season 1 breakup.  Seeing that his ex is doing ok, he becomes bitchy, denigrating the carpentry job and declaring that he's having lots of fun with Taryn: "everybody loves her...no one misses you at all." The happiness facade fails: Keefe frowns and orders him to leave. 

We cut to Judy asking Eli for the bribe money. He exclaims "Can't you children figure out your lives?" and refuses.  

Then the Montgomery Boys zoom the Redeemer into Peter's new militia compound, claiming that they stole it.  But in Episode 2, he sent goons to kill them.  When did they start working for him again?

BJ Trains: BJ bursts into tears while working at his Church Welcome Center job. Jesse and his crew sympathize: Stephen has cuckolded him, taken away his power.  He needs to fight the guy, "knock his dick in the dirt, show him who is the man."  

They take him down to the basement for punching-bag training.

Top photo: Michael O'Hearn works out with boxer Paulo Costa.

After the Rain: At the youth group, Taryn is bouncing on the trampoline, while Kelvin looks on,  despondent.  Shouldn't the kids get a chance to play on it?  

Kelvin's turn: he bounces toward the ceiling, still looking despondent, while Nelson's "After the Rain" plays:

He never really loved you from the start.

The only thng he ever gave you was a broken heart.

Don't be afraid to lose what was never meant to be.

Only after the rain can you find true love again.

So Kelvin has to get over Keefe to find true love?  But there are no other gay guys around..just Taryn...uh-oh....  

Later, after the kids are gone, they are putting gym mats away.  Kelvin says that he was "working some stuff out" while somsersaulting. The staging suggests that he has worked out a way to stay in the closet by adopting a heterosexual facade.  The first step will be asking Taryn for a date.

 He's smiling, complimenting her, setting the scene.  They discuss how to get kids into physical fitness by making it fun, sort of like putting cheese on their broccoli so they'll eat it.  In a parallel, is he trying to use physical fitness to make a heterosexual relationship palatable?

But be careful, Kelv Baby.  In this universe, cheating on your true love is the worst sin imaginable.  It doesn't matter that Keefe broke up with you.  It doesn't matter that Taryn would save you from being outed.  If you stray, you will be punished. 

This is definitely the nadir of the Kelvin/Keefe relationship.  Even after seeing the entire season, knowing what is going to happen, I'm starting to get anxious.

But on the bright side, does anyone still doubt that they were a romantic couple?

Bonus: to reduce your anxiety, Gideon brought pizza.

More after the break

The Muppet Show: a refuge for the head cases. With a g*y Scooter, a fluid Gonzo, a dr*g queen Miss Piggy, and Sylvester Stallone

How can this article, which is been around since 2020 and has no mention of anything inappropriate for a 5-year old, possibly get the blogger censors upset?   But it did!  The only thing I can think of is that the Orange Goblin must commanded them to censor the word g*y itself, so....

When I was an undergraduate at Augustana College, I spent most of my free time in a little bookstore off the Student Union lobby. It stocked some bestsellers and miscellaneous nonfiction, including The Little Prince and Dag Hammarskjold's Markings,  but mostly science fiction and fantasy, with some underground comics under the counter.

It provided a bright belonging place for "head cases," boy who were majoring in English or philosophy or music, who wanted something greater and nobler from life than carrying briefcases into skyscrapers.  We called ourselves the Bookstore Gang.

During any hour of the afternoon and early evening, half a dozen members of the Bookstore Gang could be found standing by the counter, or sitting on it, or browsing through the shelves, or reading in the armchairs or green couch that blazed with western sunlight.  We discussed classes, comic books, movies, ghosts, and politics, but for some reason never girls.  When the bookstore closed, we adjourned to the Rathskeller or to the TV Lounge, to argue and advise and review, discussing The Wizard of Id or Saturday Night Live, yelling "No one expects the Spanish Inquisition!" while stuck-up Business Majors stared.

 

Everything we watched or listened to or read was hip, anarchic, iconoclastic, but my favorite was The Muppet Show (1976-81), with Kermit the Frog from Sesame Street hosting a comedy-variety show, juxtaposing back stage bits with musical numbers and tv show parodies:

The Swedish Chef

Veterinarian Hospital

Pigs...in Space

 Meanwhile, obviously g*y couple Statler and Waldorf heckled everything, except for the famous guest stars, of course.

And what a cast of guest stars!  Everybody who was anybody stopped by:
Joan Baez
Milton Berle
Bert and Ernie
Joel Grey
Arlo Guthrie
Vincent Price
Tony Randall

Sylvester Stallone, post-Rocky and pre-Rambo, who sang "A Bird in a Gilded Cage" and "Let's Call the Whole Thing Off."  (He means ending the romance, not removing clothing).

When I moved to West Hollywood, I found that every gay man had a copy of Miss Piggy's Guide to Life (1981) on his bookshelf.  The diva, ghosted by Henry Beard, offered a combination of real and parody tips for diet, exercise, entertaining, and romance.  The only one I remember is "Miss Piggy runs only when she is being chased."

Other hip, anarchic, iconoclastic tv programs and movies -- Monte Python, Mary Hartman, Saturday Night Live, WKRP in Cincinnati, Blazing Saddles, The Cheap Detective, Silent Movie -- were loaded down with anti-g*y jokes and hetero stuff, but The Muppet Show had neither.  

More after the break