20 Years Later, Gay In Buddy Cole Is More Relevant Than Ever | Wisns Public Rad

Contents:

• WHY STT THOMPSON IS CANADA'S TE GAY NATNAL TREASURE
• BCE MCCULLOCH EXPLAS HOW 'THE KIDS IN THE HALL' KEPT THEIR GAY COMEDY EDGY IN THE 1980S
• CARROT TOP NET WORTH | GIRLIEND & GAY?
• KIDS THE HALL ALUM STT THOMPSON ON HANNIBAL AND WHY BEG GAY IS NOW BORG
• STT THOMPSON OFFERS A TIMELY REVIS WH FEARLS GAY SOCIALE BUDDY COLE
• STT THOMPSON ADVIS GAY YOUTH TO FIGHT BACK
• COLBERT SENDG FLAMBOYANTLY GAY CHARACTER TO SOCHI JT TO SEE WHAT HAPPENS
• LIBERACE'S EX-LOVER STT THORSON -- MATT DAMON IS A GAY SEX PRO
• 20 YEARS LATER, GAY IN BUDDY COLE IS MORE RELEVANT THAN EVER

WHY STT THOMPSON IS CANADA'S TE GAY NATNAL TREASURE

Queeri is a weekly lumn by CBC Arts producer Peter Knegt that queri LGBTQ art, culture and/or inty through a personal a Canadian gay man, if someone were to ask me to name our untry's tt natnal treasure, I would have to say that — personally — there are three rrect answers to that qutn: Céle Dn, Carly Rae Jepsen and Stt Thompson. I highly spect if I took a poll of say, 1000 other gay Canadian men, Ms. Thompson, however, would be very unlikely to do the same — which ankly is a great gaynadian shame, bee he is one of the greatt gay ics of all time, anywhere.

BCE MCCULLOCH EXPLAS HOW 'THE KIDS IN THE HALL' KEPT THEIR GAY COMEDY EDGY IN THE 1980S

— wh Buddy Cole that timate settg would be somethg I uld easily fd a gaggle of fellow gays to e wh me. Thompson walked to the bookstore, full Buddy Cole garb, and ma clear we shared a mutual annoyance regardg how gay Torontonians were choosg to spend their eveng. There's no other explanatn for gay men g out to see another gay man!

"The gay men who ma that choice were not disappoted. "I feel sorry for young gay men today, " Cole screamed as he opened his monologue, marti hand.

But also, for me, the time that I grew up — the time that I me of age —was a very different time for gay people. You uld not really be an openly gay ic and fely not an openly gay stand-up edian. Especially for a gay man of my generatn the world today, bee thk of what we suffered through to get here.

CARROT TOP NET WORTH | GIRLIEND & GAY?

"As for how the world today treats openly gay ics, though Thompson is sure 's "1000% better, " there's still one major problem: there's still no openly gay male star edy. "There's lot's of famo gay women edy, but not gay men, " he says. I thk the level of self-loathg wh gay men is a lot higher than people thk.

And as a rult gay men have a very difficult time givg up for other gay men.

KIDS THE HALL ALUM STT THOMPSON ON HANNIBAL AND WHY BEG GAY IS NOW BORG

We're a stage when gay men only seem able to give up for women or drag queens, but not other gay men.

STT THOMPSON OFFERS A TIMELY REVIS WH FEARLS GAY SOCIALE BUDDY COLE

Like if a gay man is up there beg funny and he's not drag I thk most gay men feel like, 'Well, I'm as funny as he is. ' Gay men all thk they're hilar and I have to rm you, they're not.

To me, 's somethg that I found very sad over my reer: how ltle gay men embrace me, and how ltle gay men embrace other gay men edy.

STT THOMPSON ADVIS GAY YOUTH TO FIGHT BACK

We gay men "need to take a hard look at ourselv the mirror. "Gay men need to look at themselv and go, 'Why n I not let another gay man she?

' You ask any gay male edian and I'm pretty sure 99% of them would agree wh me. Remember, gay men are still let's be hont, the gay media is absolutely guilty too.

"Personally, I thk a very good start for gay men ( the media or otherwise) would be by helpg Stt Thompson she as bright as he possibly n. But when me to the LGBTQ+ muny, a very polarized view was still reflected the Canada though, a gay sociale ma to the CBC airwav: the vehement "macho queen", Charl Budrick (Buddy) Cole — a character created by Stt Thompson jt before he joed the Kids the Hall troupe.

COLBERT SENDG FLAMBOYANTLY GAY CHARACTER TO SOCHI JT TO SEE WHAT HAPPENS

Canadian" and a keen observer, no nonsense monologist who addrs stereotyp, tells outrageo stori and shar his trigug life experienc — all the while pokg fun at everythg and everyone cludg his own sexualy and the gay muny. Kids the Hall st members, Stt Thompson and Bce McCulloch talk to CBC Comedy about Buddy Cole and what he did for Thompson (who himself intifi as gay), the impact of Buddy's unnny abily to nonchalantly brg important issu to light and how the character, that at the time of s ceptn was not endorsed by the general public, was actually All terviews were adjted for ntext, clary and watchg edi is 'important medice'Bce McCulloch: I had met Mark McKney Calgary and we had worked together a different edy troupe.

BM: He me about at the time when, the early '80s, wasn't that easy to talk about homosexualy and crazy gay stori. So he kd of took on a larger than life character and I thk part of was to not be aaid to be kd of a feme gay man wh crazy wild stori. For a gay man om my generatn, everythg was about hidg, everythg was about provg that you are a man and that you weren't a f-g.

I was workg very hard to hi all of the thgs si of me that gave away to the world that I was gay. Bee for my generatn, was absolutely adly to be known as gay.

LIBERACE'S EX-LOVER STT THORSON -- MATT DAMON IS A GAY SEX PRO

Particularly my generatn, all gay character were basilly the difference wh Buddy is, he ridiculed. ' He was talkg about gettg gay bashed and havg a lover and would be funny bee wasn't heavy.

He played fun, he played for the fun and I thk that's why even if people didn't realize that Stt Thompson (the actor) was gay, they me on board.

I thk we even won over some people who weren't that gay posive 1984 wh that character, you what I also liked is that he wasn't a gay man who was jt an terr signer. He didn't shy away om big topics and I thk gay characters often [at the time] were jt nsired fastid men.

20 YEARS LATER, GAY IN BUDDY COLE IS MORE RELEVANT THAN EVER

The backlash (CBC Comedy)Wrg and portrayg a character that was unapologetilly gay the early '80s was a bold move as the stigma and vlence agast the LGBTQ+ muty, which to this day has not fully dissipated, was prevalent. Most of the backlash me om the gay muny.

People reacted badly two ways: you have your typil homophobic people that jt didn't like that kd of a f-g and then you'd have the gay people who didn't like that beg reflected. They'd rather put out a more socially acceptable picture and Buddy Cole would turn over the rock and show some of the darkns of gay life.

I thk people have a very hard time unrstandg what was like for gay men back then. I was openly gay om day one and that was jt not done and my feelg was, 'I have to do this.