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Posts tagged as the dilemma

Excuses

Ron Howard's Weasely Defense of The Dilemma's Gay Joke

by | November 1st, 2010

After a bit of an outcry in response to a gay joke in the trailer to Ron Howard's upcoming The Dilemma, the joke was cut from the trailer. It's being kept in the movie itself, however. Now, Ron Howard has responded, defending his use of the joke. Here's a bit from his statement on it: Did you think it wasn't offensive? I don't strip my films of everything that I might personally find inappropriate. Comedy or drama, I'm always trying to make choices that stir the audience in all kinds of ways. This Ronny Valentine character can be offensive and inappropriate at times and those traits are [...]

Bad Jokes

Why Are Comedies Still Using Gay Jokes?

by | October 8th, 2010

I noted back when I first posted the trailer to Ron Howard's upcoming Vince Vaughn/Kevin James vehicle The Dilemma that it opened with a pretty clunky gay joke. Anderson Cooper noted the same thing today, prompting Universal to not only cut it from the trailer, but to possibly cut it out of the movie altogether. That's good, but why did it take Anderson Cooper shaming them to get rid of it? Why was a gay joke there in the first place?

I still remember how shocked I was when I was first seeing The Hangover in theaters at Bradley Cooper's character shouting "Paging Dr. Faggot!" to Ed [...]

Movies

Vince Vaughn Defends Controversial Gay Joke From The Dilemma

by | October 15th, 2010

Vince Vaughn has spoken out about the gay joke that was cut from the trailer for The Dilemma if not from the entire movie. Here's his statement: "Let me add my voice of support to the people outraged by the bullying and persecution of people for their differences, whatever those differences may be. Comedy and joking about our differences breaks tension and brings us together. Drawing dividing lines over what we can and cannot joke about does exactly that; it divides us. Most importantly, where does it stop."

On the one hand, he is right that it's difficult to put firm lines in the sand as to what you [...]

Trailers

The Dilemma Trailer Pairs Vince Vaughn with Kevin James and Also Clint Howard

by | September 17th, 2010

Ron Howard's new comedy is called The Dilemma. Starring Clint Howard, Vince Vaughn, Kevin James, Jennifer Connelly and Winona Ryder, it's about one best friend witnessing the wife of the other best friend cheating and then having to figure out what to do. I'm not sure about it! It has Clint Howard, yes, which is a plus, but the trailer also opens with a lame gay joke and closes with a lame pee joke, so. We'll see I guess. It opens in January. [via]

Gettin Serious

Are Gay Jokes Ever Acceptable?

by | October 12th, 2010

Since last week, when Universal bowed to pressure from Anderson Cooper and cut a gay joke from its trailer for The Dilemma, there's been a lot of talk about where the line is when it comes to gay jokes in comedy. As far as The Dilemma goes, its case wasn't made any stronger by the revelation that the joke as written in the script is much worse: In Allan Loeb's screenplay, dated a year ago, Vaughn's character goes on to say "Not homosexual gay … but soft gay, unmanly gay, quiet and small gay" (in the trailer, the line was "my-parents-are-chaperoning-the-dance gay") and that "if you're a [...]

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