Animation for adults
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See also: List of animated series with LGBT characters: 2000–2004 and List of animated series with LGBT characters: 2005–2009 |
The 2000s saw various animated series targeted primarily to adults on Fox, FXX, Comedy Central, Adult Swim, and other platforms.
Fox and FX
A gay pedophile named Herbert was first introduced in the 2001 Family Guy episode "To Love and Die in Dixie". He was described by his voice actor Mike Henry as an "old man who likes Chris" and often makes "inappropriate, sexually tinged comments to teenage boys."[15][16]
From June 2001 to September 2004, Braceface aired on Teletoon and the Fox Family Channel. The show included a secondary canon gay character named Mark "Dion" Jones.[17][18]
In January 2002, The Simpsons continued teasing of the sexual orientation of Smithers as he rode a float called "Stayin’ in the Closet!" during the annual gay pride parade in Springfield in the episode "Jaws Wired Shut".[19]
In April 2002, the King of the Hill episode "My Own Private Rodeo" featured gay characters who are a couple: Bug Gribble and Juan Pedro. The show also had Bobby Hill as a character interested in high-camp show business while Bill Dauterive wears "pretty dresses."[20] The episode with Gribble and Pedro, entitled "My Own Private Rodeo", which was nominated for a GLAAD Media Award.[21]
In April 2003, The Simpsons episode, "Three Gays of the Condo" aired. It introduced a stereotypical on-and-off-again gay couple, Grady and Julio.[22] Homer meets them when he moves into Springfield's gay district, after an argument with Marge. Later, after Springfield legalized gay marriage, Homer becomes ordained as a minister and marries Grady and Julio, in the episode "There's Something About Marrying", and talks about the segmented state of gay marriage in America in his speech as minister.[23] Grady even tries to date Smithers as shown in the 2016 episode "The Burns Cage."[24] At another point,
In July 2003, the Futurama episode "Bend Her" would air on FOX. While some praised this episode, Bender cross-dresses as a female robot under the name of Coilette to participate in the fembot league of the Earth 3004 Olympic Games where he claims five gold medals in the competition, other criticized it. [18] Critics argued hat the episode furthered the narrative that trans women are deceptive, coupled with the hurtful language and imagery" which surrounds the physical transition process Bender undergoes.[25] The show also had one-time LGBTQ+ characters like Enos Fry and Old Man Waterfall who were killed off before the end of their respective episodes.[26][27]
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On February 6, 2005, the series American Dad! began airing on FOX. The series introduced Roger, a protagonist said to be pansexual,[28] due to the fact he assumed different aliases[29] and a carousel of seemingly-endless lives.[30] A June 2005 episode, titled "Homeland Insecurity", of the same show introduced Linda Memari, an Iranian-American neighbor of the Smith family. She would later be shown to be a bisexual woman.[31] The same year, the episode "Threat Levels" would introduce Greg Corbin and Terry Bates. They would be shown to be a gay couple and would be regular characters for many years during the show's run.[32][33][34]
On February 20, 2005, Patty Maleficent, the sister of Marge Simpson, came out as lesbian in the Simpsons episode "There's Something About Marrying". She was described by animation and popular culture scholar Jo Johnson as a character, considered by the show, as a "better candidate for 'outing' than Wayland Smithers," and that her lesbianism is explained by her "inability to find an eligible man in Springfield."[35] At the end of the episode, she declares, after finding out the person she had been trying to enter a relationship with is a man, that she likes girls, which Johnson described as "subversive" move by the show.[36] However, in the episode, when she came out as lesbian, her family initially didn't support her but they eventually came around and supported her.[37] Some criticized her character as a "background gay character," but not like characters such as Ren and Stimpy in the cartoon of the same name which were confirmed as gay outside the show's universe.[38]
In January 2006, a Family Guy episode, "Brian Sings and Swings", would feature featured a one-time lesbian character named Sarah who mistakes Meg's sentences as invitations to have sex.[39][40]
In February 2006, in "My Fair Laddy", an episode of The Simpsons, Brunella Pommelhorst announces she is getting sex reassignment surgery.[22]
In April 2006, in the Family Guy episode "You May Now Kiss the... Uh... Guy Who Receives", Jasper, the gay cousin of the series protagonist, Brian Griffin, is prominently featured.[41]
From April to November 2009, Sit Down, Shut Up aired on FOX. In the show, one character, Andrew, is a flamboyant, and bisexual, Latino drama teacher whose last name in Spanish roughly translates to "he likes both", a reference to his sexual orientation.[42] He is in love with Larry Littlejunk and Miracle Grohe, with whom he hopes to get into a relationship should they become a couple.
In August 2009, Stewie Griffin would be described by the creator of Family Guy Seth MacFarlane as "gay or a very unhappy repressed heterosexual."[43] [14] A few years earlier, the Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story direct-to-DVD film, broadcast on the FOX network in May 2006, would have Stewie explore his identity.[44] Some media critics noted the "cross-species marriage" between Brian's Cousin and a human lover, but stated that Stewie is the "most interesting" portrayal of homosexuality in the series.[45]
In September 2009, Archer would begin airing on FX, and later FXX, beginning in 2017. In the first episode, Pam Poovey, the director of human resources, would first appear. She would later be shown as bisexual, with her voice actress, Amber Nash, in May 2019, in a behind-the-scenes feature calling Pam "a sturdy bisexual".[46][47][48] The first episode also introduced Arthur Henry Woodhouse, Sterling Archer's personal valet, who is of ambiguous sexuality. He had a romantic and sexual attraction to another man, Reggie Thistleton, during the First World War, but it has not been specified whether he has ever had any sexual feelings for anyone since Reggie's death.[49] Later his voice actor, George Coe passed away, the show did a tribute to Woodhouse,[50] who later had a funeral, becoming a plot thread followed up on in the show's eighth season.[51]
Adult Swim
From April 2001 to October 2002, The Oblongs, aired, first on The WB, then on Adult Swim. The series included a trans woman named Anna Bidet as a character.[18]
The Venture Bros. began airing on Adult Swim in August 2004. In the show, Colonel Horace Gentleman was openly, and proudly, gay.[52] However, he has an ex-wife, Mz. Quymn, as indicated in the episode "Dr. Quymn, Medicine Woman," and former a lover, Kiki, shown in the episode "Past Tense," who he lived with at his home in Tangiers, Morocco for years.
In December 2005, in the first episode of Moral Orel, premiered. One of the characters who appeared in that episode was Daniel Stopframe, a bisexual coach of Orel Puppington and the biological father of Shapey Puppington.[53] Stopframe would later lust after the father of Orel and Shapey, Clay,[54] and would even have sex with three women and a dog in the episode "The Blessed Union."
In February 2006, in the Moral Orel episode "The Blessed Union," Stephanie Foamwire-Putty first appeared. She would be a lesbian character in unrequited love with her old high school best friend, Kim Latchkey.[53]
In September 2006, The Alchemist first appeared in an episode of The Venture Bros., where he began his on-again, off-again relationship with Shore Leave. According to the show creators, The Alchemist is gay in a way that is "just incidental" while Shore Leave is a very "openly swishy queer proud guy."[52]
In the July 2008 episode of The Venture Bros., "Dr. Quymn, Medicine Woman," Virginia "Ginnie" Dunne, who is Dr. Quymn's bodyguard, is shown to be a lesbian[55] who is trying to convert Dr. Quymn. She is also very masculine and a reported "man-hater.".[56]
In September 2008, Superjail! first broadcast on Adult Swim. One of the protagonists would be Alice, a hulking and muscular head prison guard of Superjail and a trans woman[57] who regularly engages in sadomasochistic rituals with the prisoners. Other characters in the series included Jean Baptiste Le Ghei and Paul Guaye, inmates and a recurring couple as shown in the episode "Superbar" and others. In an interview with the creators of the show, co-creator Christy Karacas called them well-rounded characters, who are a couple, with Paul as more feminine and intelligent than Jean who is "the bad boy."[58]
Comedy Central
In the June 2001, the South Park episode "Cripple Fight" premiered. In the episode, Big Gay Al is removed as Boy Scout leader because he is gay. However, even though his replacement is a pedophile he rejects the opportunity to retake the role, citing the rights of parents to protect their children from those they expect as friends, which some say proves that he will not confirm to "masculinist expectations and assumptions" and will remain a "Big (Queer) Al without apology or compromise." It is also pointed out, though that Al channels ideas of his heterosexual creators, and he was described as a "round, effeminate, oversexed, and scrupulously manicured dance hall queen" who acquiesces to the abuses of heterosexism.[59]
In November 2002, in the South Park episode "The Death Camp of Tolerance," Mr. Slave would be introduced. The episode, which parodies enthusiastic support of minorities by "the heterosexual power structure," would be noted as implying that American culture has become "too liberal or too tolerant," and noted as treating a highly negative legend about gay people as true in order to justify "imposition of limitations on tolerance," even as the speech by Herbert Garrison could be interpreted as stating that the queer community shouldn't be accepted by the mainstream and should be left on its own to "ply its own music within a socio-political environment that does not discriminate or persecute."[60] Literature and queer studies scholar James Keller would argue that Mr. Slave, on the other hand, is a gay S&M cliche and "leather queen" for wearing chaps, a leather vest over his bear chest, and a biker's hat, with a personality and speech patterns like hyper-masculine men, even as he lips every expression and is "more effeminate than Big Gay Al." Keller would also state that his gender identity is incoherent, but that he rejects Garrison after Garrison transitions, and even describes himself as "born a whore."[61] He would be, for part of the series, Mr. Slave would be the boyfriend of Herbert Garrison.[62] Mr. Slave is married to Big Gay Al, as of the episode, "Follow That Egg".[63] The episode would be criticized for suggesting that politicians vote on their consciences rather than their constituency on controversial issues, that there is no scientific evidence on gay parenting, and the fact that Colorado does not recognize gender reassignment, as the sexually reassigned remain the gender of their birth.[64]
Garrison, himself, would be, in the series, originally presented as a closeted homosexual. Storylines would feature Garrison coming out as a gay man, then having a gender reassignment surgery to become female (known as Janet Garrison), becoming a lesbian, and then changing back to a man.[65][66] It is shown he still has feelings for his ex-boyfriend, Mr. Slave as shown in the episode "Follow That Egg!" One scholar argued that characters like Bugs Bunny and Mulan, who cross-dressed, paved the way for characters like Mr./Mrs. Garrison, described as a "post-op transgender character."[67] Keller would argue that after Garrison transitioned to a woman, after which Mr. Slave turned to Big Gay Al instead, Garrison could embrace and deny his incoherent sexuality, claiming to be a real woman, and experiencing gender dysphoria. However, he would state that Garrison would engage in "borderline neurotic" before the transition, and be in a relationship with his longtime companion, Mr. Hat,[68] who was chastised by Garrison for his "homosexual longings." He would also be noted as being viciously homophobia before coming out as gay, which some could see as dismissive of the reality of homophobia, and continuing to be homophobic after his transition, even leading a campaign to ban same-sex marriage in Colorado.[69] Furthermore, it was noted that in the episode "Mr. Garrison's Fancy Vagina," his misapprehensions ignore the counseling processes required before someone has sex reassignment surgery, and his breasts are a subject or ridicule, with the monstrosity trope associated with him. As such, Keller argued that episodes such as "Mr. Garrison's Fancy Vagina," "Go God Go," and "Go God Go XII" imply that when someone embraces sexual reassignment it is a "slippery slope" which will lead humanity away from a "divine plan and result in an incoherent and godless future of internecine warfare."[70] Garrison would also be described as "self-hating closet case who has a campy hand puppet named Mr. Hat."[71]
The October 2003 South Park episode "South Park Is Gay!" satirizes The Queer Eye for the Straight Guy. However, it was criticized for containing a "potentially violent homophobic subtext," with Keller noting that while South Park does not have any more stereotypes than "The Queer Eye for the Straight Guy", it takes the idea of the show seriously, spreading gay tastes through the straight population, says that while the homophobia is muted by the fact that assailants are gay, it evokes "the sexual predator trope of the gay man who aggressively pursues and seduces straight men without taking 'no' for an answer."[72] Even so, the episode was praised for rejecting sexual essentialism, and recognizing gender as a performance, not a biological inevitability.[73] Additionally, the April 2004 South Park episode "Goobacks" focused on homosexuality, like other episodes of the series. However, it would be criticized for having a "socially reductive vision of homosexuality" and with incorrect sexual politics which relishes the slur that "homosexuality is inimical to procreation and subsequently the future of humanity" ignoring the lesbian baby boom, in vitro fertilization, surrogate motherhood, and test tube babies and other solutions sought by gay and lesbian couples which would like children. It would also be said that arguing that homosexuality can address environmental and social crises, could legitimize the contrary, and criticized the slur embodied in the episode that "homoerotic activity arises from an excess of lust."[74]
In November 2004, in the Drawn Together episode "Xandir and Tim, Sitting in a Tree", Captain Leslie Hero forms a brief BDSM relationship with Foxxy Love.[75] Hero is a "brawny classic cartoon superhero" who is sexually aroused, due to his erectile dysfunction,[76] by an array of paraphilias and will have sex with anything and anyone. In a February 2006 episode, "Xandir and Tim, Sitting in a Tree," his gay alter ego Tim Tommerson, has an affair with Xandir.[77] This Comedy Central animation, which aired from November 2004 to November 2007, would feature other LGBTQ characters as well. This included Ling-Ling, an Asian trading-card mini-monster, who is identified as bisexual by a parody of The Terminator in the episode "Wooldoor Sockbat's Giggle-Wiggle Funny Tickle Non-Traditional Progressive Multicultural Roundtable!"[78][76][75] Some scholars criticized Ling-Ling for being a stereotypical Asian character.[75] Foxxy Love, a "sexy mystery-solver,"[78] has relations with both men and women,[76] but preferably with the former, including making out with Princess Clara in the show's first episode.[78] Xandir P. Wifflebottom, a "young video game warrior," is labeled as a "totally gay video game adventurer" during the show's first episode, and is on a never-ending quest to save his girlfriend.[78][79][76] In a November 2004 episode, "Gay Bash," he comes to terms with his homosexuality after having his arm bitten off by the Wood Beast, a creature that determines a person's sexuality by biting off the arms of homosexuals and keeping the arms of heterosexuals intact.[75] In February 2006, the Drawn Together episode, "Xandir and Tim, Sitting in a Tree" aired. In the episode, Xandir has an affair with Captain Hero's gay alter ego, Tim Tommerson.
From October to November 2006, Freak Show, an adult animated series that centered on a superhero team called The Freak Squad, who also worked at a freak show, aired on Comedy Central. While the series only ran for one season, it featured a character named "Log Cabin Republican," a gay conservative whose superpower was called Burly Bear.[80]
In March 2007, the South Park episode "Cartman Sucks" premiered, introducing a one-time character, Bradley. He would have a crush on another male character, Butters.[81] It is also said that while this episode seems to be progressive, in that it shows that conversion therapy camps do more harm than good, its portrayal of this "essentializes sexuality and subsequently characterizes homosexuality as disorder or pathology," and as a genetic mistake and it suggests there is more injustice for non-gays than those in the conversion camps.[82]
Other adult animations
In 2000, Queer Duck premiered on Icebox. The show became relatively influential after its premiere and later streaming on Showtime. It was the first U.S. animated TV series to have homosexuality as a major theme[2][83] and was produced by Mike Reiss, a producer of Simpsons and The Critic.[1] Both The Simpsons and The Critic had gay characters, with the latter having a long-running gag that the boss of the title character thinks the protagonist is gay, while the former had a raft of LGBTQ characters.[84] It was received positively by some in the LGBTQ+ community since it had lesbian, gay, and bisexual characters. This included Adam Seymour Duckstein, the main character of the series, voiced by gay actor Jim J. Bullock. He is presented as a stereotypical gay duck[85] and has been a victim of gay bashing.[2] However, in the series finale, he wakes up to discover that he had sex with a woman. Steven Arlo Gator was Queer Duck's significant other,[2] and latter married Queer Duck in a Jewish Wedding in Vermont in one episode, "Wedding Bell Blues." Melissa Duckstein, is Adam's sister, is occasionally revealed to be lesbian throughout the series.[86] She is in a relationship with Yvette, in episodes such as "Homo for the Holidays," and the movie.
Clone High, which aired on MTV and Teletoon from 2002 to 2003, featured a gay couple: the foster dads of JFK, named Wally and Carl in Clone High.[87] Two other characters, Phil and Chris would say they are gay lovers if it was "convenient."[88]
From 2004 to 2009, Brother Ken appeared in bro'Town, which aired in New Zealand's TV3, principal of the school and is fa'afafine. The latter is a Samoan concept for a third gender,[89] a person who is born biologically male but is raised and sees themself as female. Because the concept does not readily translate, when the series was broadcast on Adult Swim Latin America, a decision was made not to translate Samoan words and just present them as part of the "cultural journey".[90]
In 2007, a friendly and flirtatious Vietnamese trans woman, who runs a salon, named Cherry Pie, debuted in The Nutshack, which aired on Myx TV.[91]
Also in 2007, GLAAD described Rick & Steve: The Happiest Gay Couple in All the World, a stop motion animated sitcom on Logo TV as featuring the "only Filipino-American and gay lead character on television" at the time.[92] The show would have a lesbian couple and two gay couples as characters. During the series, the gay couple Rick Brocka, a Filipino-American, and Steve Ball have a baby with the lesbian couple Dana and Kirsten.[93][94] Chuck Masters and Evan Martinez are a male gay couple as indicated in episodes like "Mom Fight," with Chuck helping Evan with his drug addiction.[95][96] Dana Bernstein and Kirsten Kellogg additionally have a baby with the gay couple, Rick and Steve.[93]
Two lesbian couples (Mo and Trish, Souki and Jenn) appeared in a June 19, 2009 episode of ABC's The Goode Family, "A Tale of Two Lesbians".[97][98] GLAAD praised this show, noting that Mo and Trish were recurring characters.[9]
