Character Study: Why I Love Big, Gay, and Orange

Oh boy. What kind of blog traffic am I going to get with THAT post title?

The New York Times does this every once in a while, and I thought I'd do it too because it's a format I really like. I was watching old eps of How I Met Your Mother on DVD the other week, and it really struck me how at sea that show would be without Barney. Neil Patrick Harris really does sell that character so well. It's a perfect blending of character and scripting, probably the best I've seen since early O.C. Seth Cohen.
But there's another set of characters that have kind of stolen my heart.

Why do Steve and Brian, (Steve Agee and Brian Posehn) Sarah Silverman's "neighbors" on her eponymously-titled program, work so well?

Well, there's the obvious. On a simply visual level, these guys as gay men are just funny. The way Silverman describes them in the first episode of The Sarah Silverman Program (and which I cribbed for my post title above) perfectly encapsulates the base, grade school reaction one has when you see them together. I read my Dan Savage. I know all about bears, and obviously the prevailing gay esthetic of chiseled and super-buff isn't any more representative than trussing up supermodels to play the girl-next-door -- but you never see that on TV except as a punchline to what is inevitably a somewhat homophobic joke.

To see these two on screen together just puts you in a good mood. Because they fit. They do. I totally buy these two as a couple. They seem real. The way they act, and especially the way they bicker with affection.

I love the way Steve busts Brian for saying he's "bi" when he isn't, and the hilarious sight gag of Steve getting repeatedly knocked around while his karate-knowing BF stands by -- it works. It works so much better than it would if these two were your standard TV gay men.

It's worth noting, too, that though it's safe to assume that Sarah Silverman wouldn't go conventional with anything -- one of the most subversive things about Steve and Brian is that they're part of the ensemble at all. You can have the gay best friend on a sitcom, of course...that's been okay for years. But like the magic black person, there are rules -- time honored rules, for deploying them. Woe betide you if you violate those rules.

(Hint: the rules have to do with them being sexless so you never have to contemplate one of those icky man kisses. Corollary to this rule: Lesbian kisses are A-OK, but only if your characters look like Mischa Barton.)

Silverman just bruises right past all of that. You have a pairing here of two guys who have a good energy, and the status of their "relationship" is never a major point. Who cares? It's just woven as part of the fabric. If you believe the press, the two actors didn't even know they were supposed to be a gay couple until after they were cast. Whether or not that's true, the fact of the matter is, that's how it's played.

If you're agitating for gay acceptance, I say you surf the big gay orange wave coming through on Comedy Central each week. (In Canada, The Sarah Silverman Program starts on The Comedy Network in a few weeks. It has already been picked up for a 2nd season by Comedy Central.)

On the performer front, it helps that Agee (big, glasses, orange, and ...um...hair) wrote for Kimmel and Posehn (big, glasses, orange, balding) was part of the much-missed Mr. Show with Bob and David, but mostly, the thing I like about these guys is just that: I like these guys. I would love to hang out with them. You know you could have a great conversation with them. They're not stereotypes of anything. They are big, gay, and orange. Hear them roar.

What characters are doing it for you right now, and why? Let have it in the posts below.