22 Jump Street's Funny Enough - Except for the Tired Gay Jok - LA Weekly

Contents:

• '22 JUMP STREET'S BIG GAY PROBLEM
• THE SHOCKG COCINCE BETWEEN ‘22 JUMP STREET’ AND JONAH HILL’S GAY SLUR
• "22 JUMP STREET": CHANNG TATUM AND JONAH HILL GO META-GAY
• "22 JUMP STREET": CHANNG TATUM AND JONAH HILL GO META-GAY
• "22 JUMP STREET": CHANNG TATUM AND JONAH HILL GO META-GAY
• "22 JUMP STREET": CHANNG TATUM AND JONAH HILL GO META-GAY
• "22 JUMP STREET": CHANNG TATUM AND JONAH HILL GO META-GAY
• ’22 JUMP STREET’: IT’S TIME TO KILL THE BUDDY-COMEDY “GAY JOKE”
• JONAH HILL GAY SLUR: '22 JUMP STREET ACTOR' ADMTED HE IS A GAY RIGHTS ADVOTE, APOLOGIZ FOR 'DISGTG' HOMOPHOBIC SLUR
• ‘YOU CAN’T SAY [FAGGOTS]!’: HOW ‘22 JUMP STREET’ IS GAYT STUD MOVIE OF THE SUMMER (SCE ‘NEIGHBORS’)
• THE SHOCKG COCINCE BETWEEN ‘22 JUMP STREET’ AND JONAH HILL’S GAY SLUR
• 22 JUMP STREET'S FUNNY ENOUGH — EXCEPT FOR THE TIRED GAY JOK
• '22 JUMP STREET' REVIEW: ONE LONG, FUNNY BUT FETTABLE GAY JOKE
• 22 JUMP STREET WOULD HAVE BEEN FE WHOUT THE GAY JOK
• 22 JUMP STREET'S FUNNY ENOUGH—EXCEPT FOR THE TIRED GAY JOK
• 22 JUMP STREET'S FUNNY ENOUGH -- EXCEPT FOR THE TIRED GAY JOK

'22 JUMP STREET'S BIG GAY PROBLEM

The fact of the matter is, both Hill and Tatum are way too old to be playg characters who are tryg to pass for llege stunts, and 22 Jump Street wants dienc to know that ’s on the when Schmidt and Jenko’s bond is tted as they beg to grow apart "llege" (Schmidt beiends the mp’s art crowd, while Jenko jos a aterny and starts playg on the football team), a rather juvenile, overplayed kd of humor rears s ugly head: “OMG, wouldn’t be so funny if the guys were, like, gay?? Hill and Tatum are sentially “playg gay” for lghs.

They’re actg like gay men but they’re not actually gay men bee that would be prepostero and also disgtg! I don’t thk that 22 Jump Street as a whole is homophobic — I jt thk that the cisn to clu the aforementned scen was misguid. ” Clearly, the wrers were aware of the need to be sensive and clive on some level, even though they still end up largely missg the tim, 22 Jump Street is a really funny movie, but ’s 2014 and our summer box office blockbters are still g "gay" as a punch le.

Jonah Hill has domated this week’s Hollywood news cycle, after a TMZ vio leaked over the weekend of the actor g a gay slur when nonted by a paparazzo. Earlier that day, the 30-year-old actor exprsed siar remorse for his homophobic remark on Howard Stern’s rad show.

THE SHOCKG COCINCE BETWEEN ‘22 JUMP STREET’ AND JONAH HILL’S GAY SLUR

A dg aler spots them the stacks, and believ they really are a gay uple, at which pot he utters the same slur that Hill was heard sayg on the tape. “22 Jump Street” argu, as Hill did on TV, that gay slurs mt be elimated om our daily vernacular. This thoroughly potls and unniably amg sequel ph the self-aware homo-bromance to new levels.

Actually, one uld argue that that back-and-forth dynamic of mascule possibily f the entire movie: We’re gay! We’re gay-macho! You n say ‘gay, ’ that’s OK.

Or maybe ‘homosexual. ” That scene – funny, surprisg and more than a ltle prepostero -- sums up the appeal, and the limatns, of this ultra-self-aware anchise, which has taken the latent homoeroticism of every buddy-p drama, pulled to the surface and allowed to bloom to a thoand flowers.

"22 JUMP STREET": CHANNG TATUM AND JONAH HILL GO META-GAY

In fact, there’s nothg new this paper-th llegiate farce – we get scen of at life, the football team, borg and pervy profsors, slam poetry and sprg break, all of distctly third-rate – except, perhaps, for the homoerotic subtext-turned-text.

There isn’t a smidgen of nsc or tentnal homophobia “22 Jump Street, ” which is certaly an improvement on the stream of angst-ridn gay-themed humor that ns through many Apatow-style edi.

) I was gog to say that there’s still a slight unrcurrent of the ia that homosexualy is herently funny this movie, but even that is not entirely fair. ) They’re gay or they’re cluels or ’s all a big, funny misunrstandg. They are, scendg orr of effectivens: the film’s uproar awarens of self as a bigger, lour, more expensive sequel; the fact that, even unrver as llege stunts, protagonists Schmidt and Jenko (and the actors who play them, Jonah Hill and Channg Tatum) are a good too old, and look ; and that the profsnal partnership between Schmidt and Jenko, and the stra their llege experience puts on , is somethg ak to a gay relatnship.

"22 JUMP STREET": CHANNG TATUM AND JONAH HILL GO META-GAY

The “ha ha, that’s so gay” bs leav a sour aftertaste — particularly light of Mr. He gets jealo of Jenko’s new iendship, and puts a stra on their relatnship, which is amed, at every possible opportuny, as siar to that of two gay men. Once you get past the Three’s Company-level verbal misunrstandgs, seems to be, a nutshell, that they are “actg gay” (as the meathead dience the humor seems geared towards might put ).

A few weeks back, for a ndown of sports edi, I watched Slap Shot for the first time — a funny, energetic picture whose hont-to-God homophobia is so crge-ducg, all but wrecks the viewg experience.

"22 JUMP STREET": CHANNG TATUM AND JONAH HILL GO META-GAY

No self-rpectg edy hopg for mastream succs n get away wh that kd of anti-gay “humor” anymore; for that matter, ’s hard to even image the gay panic bullsh of 2002’s Boat Trip or 2007’s I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry flyg at the multiplex the days. And ’s not that there isn’t humor to be med om the gay experience, or even, to get more specific, the homoerotic unrton of Greek life.

"22 JUMP STREET": CHANNG TATUM AND JONAH HILL GO META-GAY

’” At s re, 22 Jump Street isn’t a homophobic movie, jt as seems likely that Hill’s apology is scere, and he’s not a homophobic guy. Jonah Hill has jt recently apologized for a gay slur he had thrown anger at a paparazzo. Jonah Hill's gay slur was ught on mera and had ma s rounds on the ter through a vio leaked by TMZ.

On a recent terview on Howard Stern's rad show, the "22 Jump Street" actor admted that he lost his ol that's why he said the "disgtg" homo slur at a paparazzo. Hill who was an Amy Award nomee for his performance "Moneyball" and "The Wolf of Wall Street, " shared the terview that was never his tentn to sult the gay muny. In fact, he has long been a gay advote.

"22 JUMP STREET": CHANNG TATUM AND JONAH HILL GO META-GAY

It was remembered that the actor took to Twter his prott agast Mosw's anti-gay laws before the Wter Olympics Rsia. Jonah Hill admted that the paparazzo who he hurled the gay slur at was purposely mockg him, and was sayg "hurtful thgs" about his fay.

In between riffg on the nventns of Hollywood sequels and the homoeroticism of hypermascule iendships, the movie’s visn of llege never que jells. “22 Jump Street” has some fun wh the implitn that Zook might be gay and love wh Jenko, but spends far too much time on the ia that sex between the two men would be herently hilar (and mak one very nasty joke about transgenr people) to be any way would have been far funnier for “22 Jump Street” to follow Jenko to his human sexualy class and to explore his revelatns there, or even to embed him wh llege gay rights activists.

“Did you know I ed gay slurs high school? Later, Jenko blows his ver to lecture a group of dg alers on their e of homophobic slurs.

’22 JUMP STREET’: IT’S TIME TO KILL THE BUDDY-COMEDY “GAY JOKE”

Knegt peeled back the layers on ‘Neighbors’ to fd s gooey homoerotic.

JONAH HILL GAY SLUR: '22 JUMP STREET ACTOR' ADMTED HE IS A GAY RIGHTS ADVOTE, APOLOGIZ FOR 'DISGTG' HOMOPHOBIC SLUR

shy gay pestal wh the most unapologetic pair of bromanc I’ve ever.

fact, nothg so outwardly and realistilly homoerotic as the penis stg. the middle of the film all the more ripe for gay riffs. graphic homoeroticism the dience I watched wh was prepared to handle.

‘YOU CAN’T SAY [FAGGOTS]!’: HOW ‘22 JUMP STREET’ IS GAYT STUD MOVIE OF THE SUMMER (SCE ‘NEIGHBORS’)

It also prented, by my unt, the bt “gay power” moment of. “Gay, sure. Homosexuals, maybe.

paired wh an earlier scene which he apologiz for any homophobic slurs he. about beg homosexual whout takg shots at homosexualy. keepg wh the rt of the homosexually-oriented scen the film, neher.

he nor Schmidt ever ny their stat as gay men. that while the film do wonrs for the homosexual subtext of bromantic. Earlier that day, the 30-year-old actor exprsed siar remorse for his homophobic remark on Howard Stern’s rad atten at Wednday night’s world premiere New York of Hill’s upg release, “22 Jump Street, ” were surprised to see a scene the movie eerily rembl the actor-producer’s real-life sndal.

THE SHOCKG COCINCE BETWEEN ‘22 JUMP STREET’ AND JONAH HILL’S GAY SLUR

A dg aler spots them the stacks, and believ they really are a gay uple, at which pot he utters the same slur that Hill was heard sayg on the stead of ignorg him, Tatum’s character los his temper.

“22 Jump Street” argu, as Hill did on TV, that gay slurs mt be elimated om our daily Wednday’s premiere, Hill showed up for prs photos but dched the red rpet, refg to answer any qutns om journalists. Jenko and Schmidt drift apart; the movie mak numero homoerotic referenc to this fadg iendship, but only a “Totally yank' your cha, bro!

But Lord and Miller go overboard on the nudge-nudge gay jok, as when Jenko and Schmidt fd themselv a unselg ssn wh a shrk who assum they're a uple. It's not that this gag, or any of the others 22 Jump Street, is blatantly homophobic.

22 JUMP STREET'S FUNNY ENOUGH — EXCEPT FOR THE TIRED GAY JOK

But whatever they're tryg to say remas distct and nonmtal, even as they seem a ltle too obssed wh ; the recurrg “gay, not-gay” jok are neher particularly funny nor sightful, and they ph the movie slightly out of whack. His send act scen are the bt a highly self-aware edy that is also one long gay joke. The dg vtigatn is relegated to subplot (and a lazy one) what really is a gay romantic edy between the two leads.

The humor is good-natured but you do spend almost all of the movie lghg at two men who don’t know they’re actg like platonic homosexuals gog through a break-up. Most prompts for gay porn, meanwhile, explibly flt to people of ambiguoly LatX scent wh an unrcut hairstyle.

'22 JUMP STREET' REVIEW: ONE LONG, FUNNY BUT FETTABLE GAY JOKE

Is that ditive of the typ of gay porn the mols were traed on? A gay uple, as picted by Unstable Diffn. Also on the menu for “22” is the homosocial tensn that lgers jt beneath the surface of most buddy movi, the kd that’s historilly been ward off wh an unhealthy dose of homophobic humor.

The difference “22 Jump Street” is that the humor is self-aware: It’s meta-homophobia.

22 JUMP STREET WOULD HAVE BEEN FE WHOUT THE GAY JOK

Later, Jenko blows his ver when one of the dg alers he’s meant to be hidg om an anti-gay slur (ht: the same one Hill had recently had to apologize for g public), drsg him down wh a lecture right out of his Human Sexualy 101 class. Schmidt and Jenko are like a gay uple, but they’re not gonna do anythg yucky. Even this putatively gay-iendly environment, there’s still a buggery bugaboo: the jailhoe relatnship between “21 Jump Street’s” Rob Riggle and Dave Fran.

It don’t have to be a gay romance, though that would be thrillg myriad ways.

22 JUMP STREET'S FUNNY ENOUGH—EXCEPT FOR THE TIRED GAY JOK

Schmidt, for no discernible reason short of science fictn, hooks up wh the llege’s hottt girl (Amber Stevens), while Jenko learns class that ’s not ol to e homophobic slurs (you know, of the kd Hill was ught g last week). ), ’s gog overboard wh retro gay-panic humor.

22 JUMP STREET'S FUNNY ENOUGH -- EXCEPT FOR THE TIRED GAY JOK

One scene pends on Jenko beg grossed out by pretendg to be a gay uple (and even, eww, holdg hands wh Schmidt) a therapist’s office. Jenko and Schmidt drift apart; the movie mak numero homoerotic referenc to this fadg iendship, but only a "Totally yank' your cha, bro!