It’s Always Sunny Philalphia: The issue wh makg homophobic characters gay | The Inpennt | The Inpennt

Contents:

• MAKG HOMOPHOBIC CHARACTERS GAY PANRS TO A PERVASIVE MYTH
• IT'S ALWAYS SUNNY IN PHILALPHIA DIDN'T ALWAYS PLAN TO MAKE MAC GAY
• IT'S ALWAYS SUNNY PHILALPHIA SEASON 6 EPISO 1: "MAC FIGHTS GAY MARRIAGE" QUOT
• ALWAYS SUNNY'S ROB MCELHENNEY YELLS 'GAY RIGHTS!,' GO VIRAL
• GLENN HOWERTON EXPLAS WHY ‘ALWAYS SUNNY’ OUTED MAC AS GAY
• IT’S ALWAYS SUNNY STAR ROB MCELHENNEY BE LATT CELEB TO CLARE “GAY RIGHTS!”
• MAC COM OUT AS GAY TO HIS FATHER STUNNG ‘IT’S ALWAYS SUNNY PHILALPHIA’ DANCE SEQUENCE: WATCH
• 'IT'S ALWAYS SUNNY' STAR ROB MCELHENNEY TALKS DECISN TO MAKE MAC GAY
• ALWAYS SUNNY GANG, SANS DENNIS, TEASE MAC'S GAY PRI, ALL-FEMALE REBOOT EPISOS SEASON 13

MAKG HOMOPHOBIC CHARACTERS GAY PANRS TO A PERVASIVE MYTH

Of the rpective idsyncrasi of The Always Sunny Philalphia gang — such as Charlie beg illerate and Dennis beg a sexual predator — one of the funnier nng gags throughout the seri has been Mac’s latent homosexualy. In Wednday night’s “The Gang Group Dat, ” at one pot Dennis refers to Mac as “the gay one” and at another pot when he turns to Mac and tells him that he riv his self worth om “nvcg himself that he’s tough and straight, ” Mac fir back “I am tough. Of urse, what mak the joke work is that Mac himself is probably the only one that don’t know that Mac is gay.

If he were jt a guy stgglg to bottle up his homosexualy, that would jt be prsg, and a different kd of show. But as a strict Catholic, Mac has reprsed his homosexualy so much that he don’t even unrstand his fatuatn wh badass tough guys is bee he wants to have sex wh them. FXX has renewed Always Sunny for two more seasons followg the 10th, which I n only assume will fally be the seri’ last, and I’m really hopg before ends we get an episo lled “Mac Realiz He’s Gay.

” Until then, I’ve put together this timele that outl Mac’s homosexualy as bubbl ever closer to the surface.

IT'S ALWAYS SUNNY IN PHILALPHIA DIDN'T ALWAYS PLAN TO MAKE MAC GAY

At this pot the seri, they probably didn’t yet have any tentn to make Mac gay. Season Six — “Mac Fights Gay Marriage”.

Mac go on a csa agast gay marriage bee after pletg her transn to a woman, Carmen married a man named Nick. Mac sists that Nick is gay sce Carmen was born a man, seemg to miss the irony that he had sex wh Carmen before she pleted the operatn, clarg their marriage to be a “gay marriage. This is the episo, which the gang participat a day that revolv pletely around Mac, they fally and fively realize: “I know we’ve never said this as a group, but Mac’s gay.

Mac’s “Country Mac” shows up — and not only is he tougher and more of a badass every sgle way than Mac is, but he’s also openly gay.

IT'S ALWAYS SUNNY PHILALPHIA SEASON 6 EPISO 1: "MAC FIGHTS GAY MARRIAGE" QUOT

While geics have never been scientifilly proven to have a role sexual orientatn, ’s always been a strongly held theory, so would make sense that Mac would have a gay .

(Actually two gay s, as Mac ns to another gay Paddy’s the seri premiere when they accintally turn to a gay bar. ” But jt to le out, he volunteers to see if the leprechn might have a pot of gold at the end of the rabow — this se the “rabow” beg a fictnal Philalphia gay bar actually lled The Rabow, which he bravely volunteers to search solo.

ALWAYS SUNNY'S ROB MCELHENNEY YELLS 'GAY RIGHTS!,' GO VIRAL

When the gang cis to go on a booze-ee Christian cise, Mac is ially flummoxed to meet a married Christian gay uple, pletely throwg a wrench to his nstant ternal stggle. ” Unfortunately after the boat almost sks wh them locked the brig, the near ath experience leads Mac to believe that God was jt ttg him and he’s not gay after all. This, however, was an earnt moment which Mac (played by seri creator Rob McElhenney) fally found the means wh which to exprs himself and affirm his inty as a newly out gay man.

' And most of the people I know that mp tend to be fairly homophobic. So we began gog down that road: Let’s satirize that hard Christian nservative who is also tensely homophobic. And that’s when I thought, 'Let’s jt make him gay.

GLENN HOWERTON EXPLAS WHY ‘ALWAYS SUNNY’ OUTED MAC AS GAY

"Gags about Mac's sexualy had long been one of the show's many nng jok, but jt as the show had skewered racist and sexist viewpots before, so too were viewers ved to lgh at the characters' homophobic ments, not wh them. "The joke wasn’t that Mac was gay, obvly. "The joke was that he was the closet, and he refed to e out and doubled down on his homophobia.

We weren’t creatg a gay character for edic effect, that was there jt to be gay and to be funny bee he was gay, but a very plex, very disturbed, very fucked-up and awful character, who happens to be gay. When they go to a sportg goods store to pass out the flier Dennis and Mac accintally h on several guys, cludg one guy who won't break a cise-y look at a first season episo, the show ed homophobic humor to signal the gang's unlikably (one of many signs).

In an terview wh Rollg Stone, Rob McElhenney – creator and star of dark edy It’s Always Sunny Philalphia – revealed more tails about his character Mac’s journey towards acceptg that he is gay. “And most of the people I know that mp tend to be fairly homophobic.

IT’S ALWAYS SUNNY STAR ROB MCELHENNEY BE LATT CELEB TO CLARE “GAY RIGHTS!”

So we began gog down that road: ‘Let’s satirise that hard Christian nservative who is also tensely homophobic. ’”Makg Mac gay was seemgly a natural next step. McElhenney clarified that havg the most outwardly homophobic character turn out to be a self-hatg gay man was tend to be a ment on “hypocrisy”, rather than be “meang or offensive” to the LGBT+ a gay man, I agree that this storyle is a ment on hypocrisy – I jt doubt that ’s the type that McElhenney was meang to explore.

Dpe his good tentns, ’s a shame that this plot panrs to the well-trodn myth that most homophob are, ep down, jt closeted gay men.

MAC COM OUT AS GAY TO HIS FATHER STUNNG ‘IT’S ALWAYS SUNNY PHILALPHIA’ DANCE SEQUENCE: WATCH

The hypocrisy, then, is straight people dreamg up storyl which posn gay people as the primary poers of the homophobia that they (as a mographic) created, spread and ntue to “gay homophobe” narrative massively predat It’s Always Sunny Philalphia. Yet there’s no nyg that, over the years, pop culture has fostered the ia that a signifint number of homophob are gay.

From teen flicks The Perks of Beg a Wallflower and Cel Intentns, to Channel 4 soap Hollyoaks and Netflix’s 13 Reasons Why, the tradnal “straight bro homophobe” who turns out to be gay is a recurrg trope.

30 TV shows that jumped the sharkShow all 30In the media, too, gayns is often ed to mock “alpha” men.

'IT'S ALWAYS SUNNY' STAR ROB MCELHENNEY TALKS DECISN TO MAKE MAC GAY

We’ve all seen the rtoons of print Vladimir Put and Donald Tmp – two of the world’s most high-profile homophobic bulli – kissg.

The jok, which are lapped up by lots of so-lled “liberals”, are predited on the ia that the easit way to remove power om a man, no matter how awful or dangero he is, is to make him gay. The gay homophobe trope is plited by the fact that some homophob do turn out to be gay.

Several high profile “nversn therapists” – a wily bunked form of torture which operat on the relig belief LGBT+ people n be “cured” of their sexualy or genr inty – have e out as gay recent years.

ALWAYS SUNNY GANG, SANS DENNIS, TEASE MAC'S GAY PRI, ALL-FEMALE REBOOT EPISOS SEASON 13

Yet there is a particular glee (or thly veiled relief) the social media posts acpanyg this news, as if a nversn therapist beg gay absolv the outwardly heterosexual stutns that support the practice of rponsibily.

Earlier this year, when gay magaze Attu tweeted the news that 21 MPs (mostly olr whe men) had voted agast troducg LGBT+ clive tn schools, mol and activist Katie Piper replied: “50 per cent of them on Grr [sic]”.

Piper nsirs herself a supporter of the LGBT+ muny, and I’m thankful for that, but the typ of jok – which simultaneoly blame gay people for homophobia and shame people who are not out of the closet – are not the way to show allyship. Recurrg trope: Timothy Granaros as a ‘gay homophobe’  ‘13 Reasons Why’ (David Moir/Netflix/Kobal/Shutterstock)Growg up, I had my own experience wh a gay homophobe, when one of the very few people who bullied me eventually me out after we left school.