Cary Dubek Is Disney's First Unapologetilly Gay Character

Contents:

• “THE OTHER TWO” IS ONE OF THE BT SHOWS ABOUT GAY MEN ON TV RIGHT NOW
• 'THE OTHER TWO' CREATORS ON SEASON 2, MOVG TO HBO MAX AND CARY'S GAY AWAKENG
• COMEDY CENTRAL'S THE OTHER TWO IS READG MILLENNIAL GAY LIFE FOR FILTH
• 5 THGS TO KNOW ABOUT THE MCU'S FIRST OPENLY GAY SUPER-POWERED CHARACTER

“THE OTHER TWO” IS ONE OF THE BT SHOWS ABOUT GAY MEN ON TV RIGHT NOW

We’d been posively drowng gay culture all week, but we were still not prepared for the show’s most recent episo: an almost Shakpearean edy of errors volvg Grdr, “dad/son” upl, and threom that felt like somethg we’d never seen before a mastream TV edy. ”The Other Two — now on HBO Max after a swch om Comedy Central and an extensive filmg lay ed by the panmic — never shied away om gay storyl s first season — as the olr brother to a famo teen pop star (Case Walker), Cary (Drew Tarver) always seemed eply unfortable wh his homosexualy, hookg up wh his “straight” roommate (Andrew Ridgs) and explog a gaggle of Instagays.

Wrg for BuzzFeed News, Manuel Betanurt clared The Other Two “one of the bt shows about gay men on TV right now, ” makg specific reference to an oddly sweet teractn between Cary and a love tert (Daniel K. In , Pat (Molly Shannon) hosts an episo of her new talk show which she lavish a $25, 000 check om Shutterstock on a young man named Eddie (Noah Galv) who has recently e out to his anti-gay father, Troy (Tuc Watks).

'THE OTHER TWO' CREATORS ON SEASON 2, MOVG TO HBO MAX AND CARY'S GAY AWAKENG

Pat’s dghter and manager Brooke (Heléne Yorke) has rrectly observed the pair are a uple who are fleecg Pat’s show for money after seeg her reward other young gays for their g-out vios. Gabe González, a edian who has hosted shows for the Grdr rival Scff, told me he thought was a “pch-perfect storyle, ” as well as a “funny and apt dictment of how gays ci image life for queer people who don’t live New York or LA.

”“Cary go along wh flatteng the characters to a piable stereotype — young gay men who n't be who they are bee of the ‘Kansas’ of all — even when 's beg unrmed right ont of him, ” González, the -creator, said the show don’t set out to actively explore new parts of gay culture every week, but stead tri to fd ways that the fame of Cary and Brooke’s mother and brother n be ed to teach them somethg about themselv.

COMEDY CENTRAL'S THE OTHER TWO IS READG MILLENNIAL GAY LIFE FOR FILTH

’” he said this episo — which was filmed Febary 2020 before productn shut down for a year — is all about Cary tryg to perform a “sanized, PG versn of himself” that he thks might make his late father more fortable wh a gay son. ”The Other Two ftly explor this ia that there is a lim to the gayns wh which straight people are fortable and which some the LGBTQ muny feel pelled to embrace: rabow-saturated rporate culture — like the Big Gay Ice Cream store to which Cary and Js drag the others — sweet g-out vios that play on morng talk shows, or “heteronormative” notns of marriage and children. Kelly and I noted the episo aired jt over a week after one of the most powerful gay men the untry, Transportatn Secretary Pete Buttigieg, announced he and his hband had weled a baby — news that some gay men onle joked would e their parents to wonr when they might do the same.

” So begs the h sgle “My Brother's Gay” performed by fictnal tween heartthrob Chase Dreams (played by TikTok star Case Walker), whose skyrocketg fame bewilrs his two olr siblgs — newly sgle, self-volved Brooke and the song’s spiratn, stgglg actor Cary — Comedy Central’s new s The Other Two. A bg satire about the state of fame and celebry 2019, The Other Two is also arguably one of the most astute televisn portrayals of what ’s like to be a gay man livg a big first glance Cary Dubek looks like many other gay male characters who have graced the small screen this past .

But while Billy and Elijah prid themselv on their quick-wted sass, arguably a fense mechanism to survive the thlsns of the cy and of their chosen reers, Cary is cidly ’s the kd of fumblg, slightly secure guy who gets his sister to shave his lower back hair before appearg shirtls on TV, and who p for his super-hot straight roommate, and bumbl away any opportuny for ep nnectn wh other gay men around him.

5 THGS TO KNOW ABOUT THE MCU'S FIRST OPENLY GAY SUPER-POWERED CHARACTER

He’s never que nfint enough his looks, his meanor, or his talent, and ’s this behavr that mak him such an unlikely poster boy for Chase’s gay anthem and such a rehg gay character. As he croons about how beg gay is okay (“and if you thk that’s gross / then I thk you’re wrong”), he’s surround by photographs of Cary at var ag, a visual metaphor of the “It Gets Better” rea. By makg Cary a workg actor, a rather niche slice of life, The Other Two also manag to ment not jt on a very specific type of gay man, but also on the way Hollywood (mis)unrstands LGBTQ reprentatn.

That she’s willg to play up and play to Cary’s sexualy shows how far Hollywood may have e, but also reveals how such progrs n be uched hilarly limed ias of what gay men n look like. It’s the verse of what we’d seen a few episos earlier, when a stg agent asked Cary to butch up his livery orr to book the fart-smellg gig, and a mere ht of what we see later the season when Cary pantomim gay sex onstage: “Listen, class, ” his actg teacher says, “to w awards, you mt do gay sex scen. In The Other Two’s world, Chase’s ll for tolerance and cln (however PR-targeted may have been) exists alongsi a slew of anti-gay microaggrsns that chip away at Cary’s own sense of self-worth.

Such platus n be cripplg when he don’t actually engage or participate the larger gay muny around ’s failed romantic life is perhaps the bt example of how The Other Two is playg wh faiar gay trop to unearth all-too-hilar tths about them. Matt requir such quotatn marks bee spe spendg his ee time watchg Survivor rens and boastg about cleang his junk ahead of dat wh women, he tak any chance he n get to kiss, grope, and at one pot, even blow what’s ostensibly a much-fantasized gay porn premise, The Other Two spends a few episos breakg apart what means to vet a seemgly straight du.

Common topics like body image are betifully plited on the show, thanks part to The Other Two’s wrg team, which clus fellow funny gay men like Jordan Firstman, Cole Esla, and Joel Kim Booster. Aptly scribed by Brooke as beg those guys “that, like, n around wh no shirt on, postg song lyrics that have nothg to do wh the pic he’s put up, ” Instagays are a particular brand of social media fluencers who have bee easy straw men when to bat about toxic trends wh the gay male muny.

Trashed for beg va and shallow, and chastised for promotg an airbshed, platu-filled, unattaable image of gay life, Instagays and everythg they stand for would’ve been a low-hangg target for The Other Two to h. And ’s all the more palatable for s ank approach to sex, securi, and the many ways we gay men are sometim hampered by our own unrealistic notns of what gayns should look like 2019. The affect and enthiasm wh which this straight woman livered the le to a prumably gay man was so ranged, so chuckle-worthy, and yet, so blistergly faiar, I did all the Googl I uld until I found the source of the clip.

But by episo two, I was absolutely hooked on somethg that was not only smart, scream-at-the-TV good, and eply self-aware, but also turned out to be, unqutnably, the gayt show on televisn (maybe settg Drag Race asi) many gay-as-hell referenc snuck their way between l -- referenc so sir-baseball that only a iend of Dorothy would tch. The show featur one of the funnit Call Me By Your Name spoofs I've ever seen, and even a (very good) joke about the Out of this left me wonrg: How the heck did the show's creativ get away wh so many homosexual easter eggs every sgle episo? The answer: "[Creators] Sarah [Schneir] and Chris [Kelly] did such a great job of staffg a room full of wrers that reflected the characters they were wrg for -- women and gay men, " says Joel Kim Booster, one of the show's wrers and -producers.