Posted by Jim (206.79.177.145) on March 12, 2002 at 11:41:50:
In Reply to: In Defense of The Lightning God posted by m1s1n on March 09, 2002 at 15:21:15:
Yeah, dude, I was joking.
When you plumb the depths of the matter, though, and I know the geek community will fight to the last man rather than surrender their right to call everything gay, words that become tainted with hatred tend to slowly lose their original meaning until people who don't want to get angry looks just don't use them anymore. Eventually such words become solely the domain of those who would forward their hateful agenda or those who are beyond caring.
I'd say the comic is much more honest and free from scrutiny then when Bokeem says that. Though he may not actually mean homosexual when he says it, his statement makes sense only because he's referencing the negative connotations that would not exist save for a hatred of gays. So while the comic seeks to enlighten and break the ice, Bokeem's phrase is ultimately steeped in the quagmire of class warfare, unless it's truly, consciously, tongue-in-cheek every time he says it.