The fact that it came from The Advocate gives it less weight


by Ted Grant

Wikipedia, the on-line encyclopedia as accurate as asking Jimmy down at Hootch’s Bar for his expert opinion, isn’t the first place you’d expect to find raging debates over trivial matters…okay, no, it is exactly the place you’d expect to find pointless arguements. But some people’s devotion to refusing to acknowledge the obvious is downright touching.

Take the debate over whether or not the character of Jim Dangle on Reno 911! is meant to be gay or not:

Dangle’s orientation is never made clear, for a reason: it’s a running gag. To say outright that he is gay is simply wrong

The ongoing joke in the show is that he never reveals if he is or is not gay, hence it is ambiguous.

It never says that shw wanted the divorce because he was gay, and certainly was not flirting with the new husband. The joke of the scene is that they got along, despite the odd circumstances.

I suggest we fix the article. Dangle isn’t outright homosexual, and that’s the whole point.

Seems to me like Dangle is gay but he’s reluctant to admit it, possibly fearing the inevitable retribution he’d get from the rest of the cops. He tries to seduce Trudy thinking he’d never see her again and that she was infatuated with him.

The fact that he’s had a history with women yet behaves in a homosexual manner makes the viewer unsure of his sexuality, and that’s the entire point of it. He never openly has had a relationship or any sexual activity with a man, but he was married at one point. Even T.V. Guide’s show description refers to him as being sexually ambiguous.

It’s also important to keep in mind that the actors aren’t always as knowledgable of the characters they play as the creators are. Just because Thomas Lennon says Dangle is gay doesn’t mean the creators intend for Dangle to be an outright homosexual.

You’re making too hasty a conclusion without really thinking. Your “evidence” is based mainly on his outward behavior, which means that obviously you don’t know the definition of homosexual. Anything that points to him being gay and attempting to cover it up could also point to him being straight and attempting to appear gay.

As already mention, Lennon may play the part as gay but the show certainly makes it ambiguous. I also think that T.V. Guide holds enough weight to balance Lennon’s reference to him as being gay.

The fact that it came from The Advocate gives it less weight. Think for a moment: they’re discussing a character who is “ostensibly” (I think that that word sums up what all the reviews and insightful viewers of the show have arrived to) gay for a gay magazine.

So, to review: we can not describe a character clearly coded as gay, who displays an obvious attraction to other men, who participated in a gay marriage, whose creator explictly describes as gay because TV Guide said otherwise once. Gotcha.