Yet another gay man here. I liked the episode. And while I’m not always sure if the people using the “make it gay and lame” meme are laughing about the absurdity or laughing at gay people, I can’t control what they do. Ultimately, I was excited when Disney said we’d get some gay characters. It felt like a huge step, then we got an unnamed man (directors cameo) in Avengers: Endgame and two unnamed lesbians kissing in the background in Rise of Skywalker and honestly I became pretty frustrated. Eternals and Strange Worlds features a gay protagonist. And in both cases the gay character is in no way relatable to any gay person I know. Ultimately the queer representation feels like what straight people think gay people want. It isn’t authentic and I think in a lot of ways that’s what people are reacting to.

A gay character will always have their queerness be apart of their character. But it’s like Disney doesn’t know how to depict that without either making them the straightest couple in the movie (Eternals) or making their life so removed from the gay experience of being a youth (Strange Worlds) that they might as well not have even done it. I want gay characters who are complex and messy and all kinds of things. It’s one reason why South Park actually has solid queer representation. Tweak/Craig, Mr. Garrison, Mr. Slave, Big Gay Al. Most of those are wild stereotypes but they’re also their own characters some are just wholesome like Tweak and Craig some are sex weirdos and others are downright psychopaths (Garrison).

I saw someone say this in the box office subreddit but somewhere along the lines Disney decided they would make dour and depressing films for 20-30 year olds but kept the emotional maturity of their children’s films. Everything they make these days feels so grim, it lacks joy and they decide to use that to celebrate diversity? Wtf Disney.

Yes, the last two seasons have been mostly kind of bad imo.

Agreed, I’ve been really bored of South Park since the Pandemic specials this felt like a return to form tbh.