Cartoons That Made Us Gay: Dexter’s Laboratory
Added 2024-09-07 22:43:32 +0000 UTC“Dial M for Monkey: Barbequor” (May 18, 1996) and “Sun, Surf and Science” (April 1, 1998)
More often than not, our Cartoons That Made Us Gay episode have us reading against the grain to find LGBTQ representation on a show that wasn’t intended to have anything. That’s not always the case, however, an the first ever Cartoon Network cartoon, Dexter’s Laboratory, features two different segments in which the gayness is right there. In the first, a parody of the Silver Surfer, the Silver Spooner, is inexplicably queeny and femme. And in the second, the final moments hint that Mandark might get over his crush on Deedee by falling for a cute surfer boy.
Comments
Belatedly, I second your nomination of Time Squad. The implied homosexuality of one of its main characters is impressively, almost brazenly overt for a children's show from 2001.
Red Sauce
2024-09-20 03:56:19 +0000 UTCI'm sorry. It is pronounced with a hard G. I knew that but it slipped my mind in the recording of this
Drew Mackie
2024-09-12 19:30:46 +0000 UTCAs a huge Dexter's Lab fan, comic book afficionado, and Genndy lover, there were parts of this episode that were a little tough to get through. Particularly, I've only heard him pronounce his name with the G as in 'go', not with the 'j' sound. I know you put a lot of work into each episode, did you find a different source for pronunciation of his name? Regardless, watch Primal. It's very satisfying as a package and it's encouraging to see an artist get to tell a story in his own way. Unicorn: Warriors Eternal was interesting but ultimately fell flat for me. Worth a watch for visuals alone, though!
Joshua Corum
2024-09-12 17:02:34 +0000 UTCThis period of Cartoon Network was super formative for me and revisiting some of the original classic Cartoon Cartoons it's fun seeing episodes like these that have characters who're clearly gay or queer even though they can't explicitly say they are. I'm sure you guys'll cover Johnny Bravo, The Powerpuff Girls, and Cow & Chicken at some point, my recs for episodes of them to cover would include, respectively, El Bravo Magnifico - where Johnny has a gay panic moment while in drag and admits to having kissed boys before, Shotgun Wedding - where the Professor almost gets married to Fuzzy Lumpkins, and Buffalo Gals - where Cow is drawn to a female biker gang who "much carpet." Though with PPG and Cow & Chicken I'm sure any episode prominently featuring Him or The Red Guy would work just as well since those characters were very queer-coded. But a CN show of this era that I think you absolutely should cover that you might've missed/not be aware of is Time Squad, a show about a team of time-travelers who course-correct history when it goes awry, which has perhaps the most blatantly gay main character in a Cartoon Network show until Steven Universe. The character of Larry 3000, who is played by Mark Hamill doing an impression of Anthony Daniels' C3PO, is so incredibly effeminate and queeny and acts like he's in a domestic relationship with his Time Squad partner Thudrussel. Pretty much every episode of the series has a gay-reading worthy moment of Larry in it, but there are episodes that also blatantly about him being gay too. The episodes I'd most recommend checking out: https://archive.org/details/time-squad-s-01-e-22-kubla-khant-sdtv/Time+Squad/Season+01/Time+Squad Lewis and Clark and Larry - this episode portrays the famed western frontier explorers Lewis and Clark as basically being in a gay relationship (through "exploring" with each other) and breaking up, leading Lewis to go "exploring" with Larry instead, which resolves by Clark begging Lewis to take him back and punching out Larry which makes Lewis swoon. Day of the Larrys - Larry makes a bunch of copies of himself that take over the spaceship and turn it into a gay resort and club. During the club scene, one of the Larry's in a sexy cowboy costume basically hits on Thudrussel. Ex Marks the Spot - In this episode Larry acts like a full-on a domestic partner to Thudrussel, taking pride in making him his favorite meal and enjoying being called a crude nickname by him, and gets worried that Thudrussel will leave him for his old partner when they decide to catch-up, so he tries to sabotage their dinner together. The episode ends with an upset Larry telling Thudrussel he's going to be sleeping on the couch tonight, it's probably the most blatant episode of Larry being gay and in a domestic relationship with Thudrussel in the show. Revisiting the show I was amazed at just how obviously Larry was characterized as gay, there's not many kids show of this era where one of the lead characters was this blatantly gay-coded, so I think this show is really worth taking a look at on a future episode. Also, since you referenced it, I'd love to see you guys do an ep on Solar Opposites soon! I love how much they've committed to Terry and Korvo being husbands and how Korvo's insecurities about losing their relationship are explored in the honeymoon episode and the what-if device episode this season.
LumRanmaYasha
2024-09-09 23:04:20 +0000 UTC
