A certain letter was brought to my attention that concerned WIRED 2008.
In this letter, two men, David Adams and Alex Seise, commented on the show, more specifically Dan Keyser and Vincent Scafuto's short titled "Suite!" Adams and Seise went on to say how the play had unnecessary and offensive remarks that demeaned the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) community and that these attacks on the LGBT community should be treated with sensitivity.
As a writer for WIRED, I was very ticked off after reading this, and while my play wasn't the one criticized, I'm still going to respond.
First off, grow up. It's all comedy. If they honestly believed for one second that Keyser and Scafuto were looking to perpetuate homosexual stereotypes and generalizations with a play that they only had six hours to write, Adams and Seise must be insane. Big deal. They had a fake commercial in which they advertised a condom that has a side effect of homosexuality.
I guess Adams and Seise completely missed that the condom was a slinky, that it could stretch to fit any size, be reused, enlarge and do all sorts of other outlandish things as well as cause some of the most ridiculous side effects. And they're upset with the fact that it caused homosexuality?
That's exactly why it was funny and why everyone in the audience laughed at it. People know that condoms can't do any of the things mentioned, especially cause homosexuality. Keyser and Scafuto never attacked the LGBT community at all.
This isn't an issue of a fine line between humor and bad taste. No, this is an issue of oversensitivity. I could easily step up and make a big deal out of the Rosa Parks joke in James Introcaso's WIRED short. I could say it was demeaning, insensitive and that it attacked the black community (or African-American community for those of you who must have things "correct," even though it's not) and gone on a tirade about it - I am black, by the way - especially since WIRED occurred during Black History Month.
I said nothing because, first off, it was funny as hell. I probably laughed the loudest when I heard that line.
Second off, it's not a big deal. It's comedy, and no one was being attacked during the shorts. Third, I'm not oversensitive to these matters and issues, and I don't look to call people out on it.
The final point I want to touch on (and if Adams and Seise had paid attention during the show, they would have known this) is that while we were up until 4 a.m. writing, we were given twists that we had to incorporate into the show, one of which was that we had to incorporate a racist, chauvinist or bigot element/character into the show, while keeping the show rated PG.
So, before you go off on Keyser and Scafuto, they had to incorporate this twist. Also, they were given the Lifetime network to write about.
The Lifetime network is probably the network that gets the most satirical stuff done to it, and I doubt anyone who received Lifetime would have been serious at all.
Ryan Yorke
