my love for the show “the family guy” is no big secret. in fact, i think lois is a very good mother.
so the other night, my husband and i were watching the “back to the woods” episode i tivoed, when the following conversation took place:
him: what are you laughing at?
me: that barry manilow calls quagmire up on stage and sings to him instead of a girl.
him: why is that funny?
me: seriously? because barry manilow is gay.
him: what? barry manilow is not gay. i mean, his SONGS are gay, but he’s not gay. is he married?
me: no. but what difference does that make? elton john was married to a woman in the 80s and now he’s the freaking queen of england.
him: i still think you’re wrong.
me: hello? MAN-dy? a shadow of a MAN, a face through a window? you came and you gave without taking? some dude is looking through his window, among other things. obviously a thinly veiled nod to his lover, and it’s not “mandy.” it’s a MAN, baby.
him: that’s crazy talk. next you’ll be telling me stewie is gay.
me: uhhh….are we watching the same show?
him: stewie is not gay. what about that episode when he tries to do it with the popular high school girl?
me: yeah, well he also tries to do it with the DOG, too. look, i read about this. stewie is gay and he was going to come out, but the writers decided it was funnier to just have stewie want to sleep with everyone. hell, he even thinks about doing it with jesus.
him: wha? i don’t believe it.
me: look, you have a gay brother. you’re supposed to know about this stuff. don’t you have any gaydar?
him: well, growing up, i knew my brother was different, i just thought he was a sissy. but he had me fooled because he always seemed to have these good looking girlfriends. anyway, so i when i finally figured out they were just beards, i slept with a couple of them.
me: so i guess, technically, that doesn’t make them sloppy seconds.
…
so, i’ve decided i’m taking a poll. what do you think?
barry manilow, stewie – gay or not gay? (not that there’s anything wrong with that)
they take all comers over at
Leigh Online 
Oy. Barry Manilow is the king of gay men! Now Stewie, I don’t know. Based on what you said he sounds try-sexual to me (not that there is anything wrong with that).
I used to take my husband to this gay bar in Atlanta called Backstreets. They had an awesome drag queen show but there was one entertainer who, I think, would confuse my husband. When she’d finish her song and dance Don would smile and nod his head like, “THAT is one classy lady! Daddy likes…” I would lean over and remind him that “she” was actually a “he” and he would argue. The whole next day he’d be like, “There is just NO way that is a man! She was 100% woman!” And I’d just shake my head and say, for the hundredth time, “It was a man, man.” Men can be so dumb.
Yep, Barry’s all about the dudes. Rickey knows it for a fact. As far as Stuey goes, well, Family guy started becoming legitimately funny when the writers ditched the “killing Lois” angle and made Stuey effeminate and odd.
bex – yeah, try as in he will “try anything.” personally i think straight men are gaydar deficient. it’s like they don’t really want to believe it.
rickey – thanks for the input (that’s what she said). anyway, stewie has got to be my favorite character, then brian. a talking dog who drinks martinis. if this creature actually existed, i’m finally let my kids have the puppy they’ve been begging me for.
Yes, sorry to be the one to break it to you, but Big Bear is gay.
And since Stewie has stopped trying to kill his mother, it seems he’ll try anything. But I think if they made him gay (yes, he’s a cartoon, they can do that) it would take away from the funny.
damon – i think my blonde is showing. who is big bear?
Erm, sorry but you’re all wrong. Barry’s not gay and has said this more than once and it’s in print. He doesn’t live with anybody of either sex. He’s extremely happy and at the top of his game right now.
Jut because he isn’t pictured falling out of bars with a different girl every night or seeing paying rent boys doesn’t make him sexually deviant or a homosexual. The man’s just got class.
MH
MH – tell it to jodie foster.
Actually Barry has said that while he is perfectly happy to share his music with us, what happens when he closes his front door is none of our business.
Personally, I don’t care. Gay, bi, straight. What he is, or is not is none of our business. He claims to be ‘married’ to music and is currently working on 3 separate albums to drop in 2008. Songs of the 80’s the one Clive Davis makes him do, then a follow up to ‘Mayflower’ and a third album that he is going to sell off the net, like REM did. He wants to see that become a viable option for people to take some of the power away from suits to decide what music will be.
Like he is not overly found of the decade albums, but he has to do them in order to be able to put out stuff like Mayflower, or Harmony.
**********
The song Mandy is not about a guy a girl or a dog. It was a song that had been a minor splash in England two years before as an uptempo rock song called ‘Brandy’ he slowed it down, turned it into a power ballad, and owned it.
As for Family Guy, Stewie has been ‘odd’ all along, even he does not know his sexuality. It is part of what makes him so funny. That and his amazing ability to be the only adult, but still no more sane than the rest of the family.
i do have to disagree about stewie being the adult, though i do agree he is probably the most popular character.
brian, however, has a vastly superior intellect to any of the other characters and seems to be the “straight man.” seth macfarlane uses his actual speaking voice to provide the voice of brian.
Sorry blondie! Big Bear is what I assume Barrys boyfriend calls him.
As in – Big Bear-y.
(Take your time. It’ll come to you!)
thanks for clearing that mystery up. actually, I KNOW that B is gay. it’s my husband that needs convincing. also, a few of my commenters from across the pond seem to have taken umbrage to my insinuations. oh well, when you blog, you’re bound to offend someone.
watch the blond stuff. i resemble that remark.
Seriously.
Mandy.
MANdy.
You know he just wanted to sing about MAN…but caved to the peer pressure.
..and, seriously…has any straight guy ever been to the Copacabana?
I rest my case.
Both gay and I love Family Guy.
When Barry Manilow sings to Q and he’s almost melting off the chair… hilarious.
Also, I think Yogi Bear and Boo Boo were doin’ it.
moooooooo35 – or frequent gay bath houses? thank you very much.
bee – cindy bear was totally a beard.