The Big Gay Sketch Show

...you're simply not paying attention. Yes, many of the sketches center around LGBT topics, which makes perfect sense given that it's the Big GAY Sketch Show airing on a gay television network. But for every two or three sketches that revolve around an LGBT character or situation there is one that has nothing to do with sexuality. Rachael Ray trying to survive on $40 a day in New York, parodies of Star Jones, a raw food cooking show, Barbara Bush on QVC, a "Chicago style" exercise class and so on. And even if the show were 100% gay humor, so what? It's not like there's some mad overflow of gay sketch comedy shows on the air that this is some copycat show.

The show can be hit-and-miss, but when it hits it hits solidly. The Fitzwilliam sketches are consistently hilarious as are the Chicago style sketches, the Maya Angelou reads from craigslist bits, the sitcom parodies and so on. The cast is very talented and routinely deliver good performances. Definitely worth watching more than once.

This show plays to the lowest common denominator. Pretty much every punchline is a predictable stereotype about gays and lesbians. I'm not sure who told Amenda Bearse that a mullet, in and of itself, is high comedy. Or that a really queenie guy fawning over Madonna constitutes a comedy sketch, but the woman needs a reality check. THis is junk, pure and simple. Believe it or not, gay people like me find all sorts of things funny and interesting and witty...it doesn't always have to be about homosexuality or, well, *sexuality*, at all. How about a show with talented, funny, smart performers? Just being gay is not enough to make someone entertaining.

I am a gay college professor. I am intelligent, funny, and a host of many other good things. I find the show hysterical. I think it demonstrates how far we have come - something of a rite of passage. We are now strong and powerful enough in that we can make fun of ourselves - just like heterosexuals. I believe it also highlights the outright ignorance of stereotypes. Much can be learned through humor. Of course we still have a way to go, but this show is a big step along the way. Anybody who would watch this show and have it reinforce his or her negative beliefs about homosexuals is too moronic to be reached anyway. I give it 8 out of 10.

I must disagree with Tommy Nelson. This show is very funny, and I am a heterosexual. OK, not completely heterosexual, but mostly. OK, I've dabbled, but that is all. All right, my puki pal and I got drunk one night, and...oh, never mind.

The spoofs of television shows are the best. The Extreme Makeover Grey Gardens Edition is hilarious. But my favorite if the Facts of Life spoof. Christine Ebersole and Paul Vogt are dead on as the Grey Gardens matron and Mrs. Garret, respectively.

Chas Bono and Rosie O'Donnell are perfect as the hecklers from The Muppet Show.

Some of the writing does need to be improved, but overall it is a very funny sketch show.

This show is just not funny, and this is not just from the perspective of a straight male, but also from the perspective of someone who enjoys good humor, whether it be from a straight or gay person. This humor is not funny, and is actually too gay for it's own good. That may sound homophobic, but it isn't, and it will later be elaborated on.

In a Saturday Night Live/Madtv like sketch show, we are treated to may sketches featuring an all gay and lesbian cast. And to make matters even better, every sketch has something gay in it, making this show one of the gayest shows on television (this is not meant in a negative way, but instead a factual way).

Saturday Night Live has, for the most part, an all straight cast. The sketches can vary greatly, and every sketch isn't about a person being straight. With this show, every sketch is about guys being attracted to guys, or men in drag, or lesbian women. It's understood that this is a sketch show catering to homosexuals, but why must every sketch be about someone being gay. It's extremely repetitive. It would be like if every sketch on Madtv was about guys hitting on girls or trying to get with girls. This would be fine for one sketch, but there needs to be more. It's fine to have an all gay cast, but when every sketch relies on them giving over the top "gay" performances for it's humor, there's a problem with the writing. On top of that, the performers just aren't very funny, adding to the dismalness of this show.

Unfunny actors with repetitive material adds up to a pretty horrible sketch show.

My rating: BOMB out of ****. 30 mins. TV14DLS