I watched Straight Plan For The Gay Man last night. It’s a pretty cool show. Basically, it’s a spoof of Queer Eye in which four straight men, dubbed the “Flab Four”, take a gay man, and attempt to make him pass for straight in a very heterosexual environment. Episode 1 sent a fashion designer to a meat-packing plant, and Episode 2 sent a yoga instructor to a game of pick-up basketball. In both cases, once the event had been completed, the hosts revealed themselves to the unwitting show participants, telling them that one of the people (working at the plant or playing the game) was gay, and asked them to pick out who it was. In both episodes thus far, the gay man was able to pass as straight.

One the one hand, I like the show, because it tightly makes fun of Queer Eye, which is about a stupid a show as it comes. On the other hand, the Flab Four are clearly actors, and there are times as if the show looks way too rehearsed. At one point in the basketball episode, the gay man comes home and notices that his entire house is decorated in Rolling Rock paraphernalia. He asks if they’re a sponsor, to which the entire crew says, “Well, I don’t know about that, but I do know it’s a delicious beer…” only to be followed by a commercial break featuring Rolling Rock.

But the strangest thing to me is the very premise of the show. It’s as if they’re trying to shove out gay men back into the closet. Of course, it’s all in jest, but there’s still something a little weird about watching it.

Overall, the show is good and has its moments. It’ll probably last a season or two before people get bored, probably much like Queer Eye.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 9th, 2004 at 10:00 am and is filed under Humor & Culture. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.