Gay Bash

Infobox Television episode
Title=Gay Bash
Series=Drawn Together
Season=1
Episode=3
Airdate=November 10, 2004
Writer= Elijah Aron


Caption = Xandir attempts to take his own life.
Director= James Purdum
Production = 103
Guests = Chris Edgerly (as Elmer Fudd, Snagglepuss)
Prev=Clara's Dirty Little Secret
Next=Requiem for a Reality Show

:"For the practice of discrimination against gays, see gay bashing."

"Gay Bash" is the third episode of the animated series "Drawn Together".

Storyline

The housemates are given a new sewing machine, and no one is more excited about it than Xandir. Captain Hero suggests that Xandir is gay, which Xandir denies despite several "gay tests" confirming it. However, a bizarre ritual involving the ancient Wood Beast finally makes Xandir acknowledge that he is, in fact, a homosexual. To make him feel better, the other housemates throw him a party attended exclusively by homosexuals (a "gay bash", a play on the term gay bashing, meaning a violent attack against homosexuals), during which Xandir accepts that he's into kinky gay sex. Bizarro Captain Hero, with whom Captain Hero once had a gay affair in the men's room of a bus station, shows up, and Hero kills him when it becomes apparent that Bizarro Hero feels he is under no obligation to keep their encounter a secret. Pac-Man, to whom Xandir confesses his homosexuality, turns out to be Ms. Pac-Man in drag. Since Ms. Pac-Man is best friends with Xandir's girlfriend, Xandir realizes his girlfriend will find out his secret, and he's not sure he's ready to face the consequences. Foxxy convinces Xandir to call his girlfriend and tell her that he's gay because it is true and he loves her. He does, and even though she is in imminent danger of death, she refuses to let Xandir rescue her, telling him in no uncertain terms that it's over.

Xandir is unable to deal with the shock from this, so he decides to commit suicide, stabbing himself repeatedly. However, as a video game character he has many lives in reserve, and spends most of the night killing himself before the other housemates complain about being kept awake. Before Xandir exhausts his last life, Clara suggests that he could wish himself heterosexual, so with the help of a magic lamp, he sets out to do this. The genie of the lamp is offended by Xandir's wish and refuses to grant it, but after Xandir threatens to commit suicide again, the genie reveals that not only is he himself gay, but he is attracted to Xandir. The genie is then promptly kidnapped by Xandir's archnemesis, allowing Xandir to retain a sense of self-worth by replacing his neverending quest to save his girlfriend with a neverending quest to save his boyfriend. Clara is happy for Xandir, but in the same breath expresses certainty that he is going to Hell; God, however, disagrees, saying that he thinks homosexuals are adorable.

Meanwhile, Spanky, upon discovering that Ling-Ling is a master at sewing, puts the creature to work as a one-man sweatshop, sewing bootleg basketball shoes to sell to the NBA, whipping him and forcing him to work all night. This angers the child laborers of a real sweatshop in Vietnam, who show up and beg Spanky not to put them out of business. Spanky disregards both their emphatic pleas for him to stop and their threats against him, so they try to kill him by turning themselves into a giant robot and attacking him while Ling-Ling stands by. Spanky remembers just in the nick of time that the thing Asians crave above all else is honor, so he promises to give Ling-Ling honor in exchange for saving him. Ling-Ling uses his super powers to defeat the sweatshop workers, but not before he destroys all the crates of shoes. He and Spanky earn a substantial amount of money by selling the immobilized children as basketball shoes, and Spanky gives Ling-Ling a paper hat reading "Honor," for which he is very grateful.

Musical number: "Ling-Ling's Lament", sung by Ling-Ling in pseudo-Japanese (without subtitles) as he mourns for his carefree days running around a Pokémon-like fantasyland. As the song nears the end, Ling-Ling's reminiscences suddenly turn violent, and he envisions himself brutally murdering his trainer, then ripping off his face to reveal Spanky's. The song bears some resemblance to the song "Lament" from the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical "Evita".

Also the "Ling-Ling Battle Song", a montage of scenes from Episodes 1, 3, and 5, in which Ling-Ling leaps into battle, is presented during the end credits and - vocals inserted into the action - during his battle with the Vietnamese sweatshop children.

ong Lyrics

"Ling-Ling Battle Song"

:Ling-Ling into battle go, fulfill destiny of the soul;:Sever skull of adversary, shove it in the poopoo hole!:...All the children sing: "Kill kill kill kill, die die die; kill kill kill kill, die die die!"

"Ling-Ling Lament"

:Ling-Ling: Een kondira kon fa dinao:Meem Jewgoy don bim dim sum koi:Don King dao di cup of chong:Ahi Slurpee kung pao:Sowa karma Dick Clark:Ling Ling Ling dai yai ditchy gow:Yoda san

Notes and inside references

* Xandir officially comes out of the closet in this episode; however, the opening credits of the series premiere had already described Xandir as a "totally gay video game adventurer", which, while literally referring to his homosexuality, also plays on the word's slang meaning of being uncool.

* This episode reveals that Xandir's full name is Xandir P. Wifflebottom.

* In the scene directly after the discovery of the glory hole, Xandir is revealed to be uncircumcised.

* During the interrogation, Xandir puts a rubber glove on his left hand in anticipation of retrieving the lamp from Wooldoor's rear end, but uses his right hand to reach inside Wooldoor's rectum.

* Three of "Drawn Together"'s regular cast members also provide voices for additional characters in this episode.
** Captain Hero's voice actor Jess Harnell voices Bizarro Captain Hero.
** Cree Summer, the voice of Foxxy Love, provides the voice of Xandir's girlfriend.
** The leader of the sweatshop kids is voiced by Ling-Ling's voice actor Abbey McBride.

Animated cameos

* During the gay bash, two characters with blurred faces join Xandir: Elmer Fudd (with a brown moustache) and Snagglepuss (both voiced by Chris Edgerly).

* Another guest at the gay bash is Pac-Man who has been pretending to be Ms. Pac-Man. Both Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man are video game characters created by Namco; this episode spoofs the fact that the only real difference between the two visually is that Ms. Pac-Man wears a bow. The version of Pac-Man that appears in this episode comes from the 1980s animated "Pac-Man series.

Guests in the confessional

*Lord Slashstab: Flying through in front of the confessional camera after stealing the Genie in the lamp.
*God: Objecting to Clara's homophobic rhetorics.

Cultural references

* The sewing of the fake sneakers refers to the phenomenon of trademark piracy, which is common in East Asian countries (with Ling-Ling's participation in the activity serving as an in-joke reference).

* When Toot puts Xandir's ring in her breasts to force Xandir to put his hand between them, a close-up shot of Toot's cleavage reveals, in a realistic-looking painting, that her breasts are full of acne, dirt, and spider veins. This is an homage to the animated series "The Ren and Stimpy Show", where disgusting realistic close-up paintings like this were frequently shown.

* The pterodactyl-powered record player is a reference to TV's first animated sitcom, "The Flintstones", where many of the Flintstones' appliances were powered by miniature prehistoric animals, who frequently made wisecracks along the lines of the one the pterodactyl makes here. ("It's a living!") The fat woman that Captain Hero is shown having sex with later in the episode repeats the line.

* After Ling-Ling demonstrates his sewing skills, Spanky introduces himself to Ling-Ling and hands him his business card, then asks him his name. In Japan, it is customary to exchange business cards (if you have one) with a new acquaintance, especially on a professional basis. In this instance, the gesture annoys Ling-Ling because he and Spanky have been living in the house together for at least several weeks, and thus should be on familiar enough terms to make such a gesture unnecessary. Also in many East Asian countries it is considered impolite to hand over a business card using one hand, while using both hands shows humility and is much more polite.
**Ling-Ling's angry reply to Spanky ("My name is Ling-Ling, damnit! Me live here long time.") is a parody of the famous line from the movie "Full Metal Jacket", "Me so horny. Me love you long time."

* The gay test that Foxxy administers to Xandir is produced by the Acme Corporation, the fictitious company that supplies Wile E. Coyote with all his devices for capturing the Road Runner.

* During the gay test, Foxxy presents a series of Rorschach images to Xandir, whose responses are all slang terms for penis. Among these images is a bearded man with a bandanna; Xandir's response is "Willie", referring to Willie Nelson. Later, Xandir is shown three identical images of Woody Woodpecker, the popular cartoon character created by Walter Lantz.

* Ling-Ling has a flashback of being released from a red and white pyramid by a black-haired teenage boy, a reference to the way Ash Ketchum of the Pokémon anime would use a Poké Ball to release Pokémon to battle.

* The ritual in which Xandir is found to be gay is a parody of a scene in the 1980 film adaptation of "Flash Gordon".
** The Wood Beast from that ritual can be seen later in the episode with the houseguests when they confront Xandir about making too much noise while using up his extra lives.

* Foxxy's line "Everything the light touches is gay!" is taken almost verbatim from Disney's "The Lion King". The line is accompanied by the word "homo" being sung by an African choir in a manner reminiscent of the movie.

* When Spanky puts Ling-Ling to work in the sweatshop he tells him that they will be as successful a duo as Fat Man and Little Boy. "Fat Man" and "Little Boy" were the code names of the atomic bombs dropped on Nagasaki and Hiroshima, respectively. This also subtly foreshadows the devastating effect Spanky's operation will have on "real" Asian sweatshops.

* Spanky tells Ling-Ling they will make sneakers for huge NBA players, not "those midget girl feet you Asianics get off on", a reference to the practice of foot binding, a Chinese tradition for over a thousand years. The practice of foot-binding was banned in China in 1902.

* The character of Bizarro Captain Hero is an homage to the Bizarro characters (primarily Superman and Lois Lane) of DC Comics fame, who were grotesque, distorted versions of the originals, and who had a tendency to speak in ungrammatical sentences ("I not seen you since initiation into League of Hero's").

* Captain Hero's line to Bizarro Captain Hero, "Hey, what happened on Bizarro World, stays on Bizarro World", is a reference to Las Vegas's marketing campaign, "What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas."

* The glory hole Xandir discovers outside the house reads, "Glory Glory Hallelujah", quoting a line from the patriotic song "The Battle Hymn of the Republic" by Julia Ward Howe.

* While Spanky is giving Ling-Ling "positive reinforcement" (while whipping him), he says, "There are two I's in Ling-Ling," parodying the expression, "There's no 'I' in 'team'," a trope used in business and sports as a rejoinder against selfishness.

* Xandir's nemesis, Lord Slashstab, is based on Venger, the antagonist from the animated "Dungeons & Dragons" TV series.

* Xandir's girlfriend is modeled after Princess Zelda from the "Legend of Zelda" video games.

* When the Asian boy talks about his 47 brothers and one sister, it's a reference to the high rate of infanticide of girl babies in certain overpopulated parts of Asia.

* Xandir's new boyfriend is a parody of the genie from Disney's "Aladdin", a movie which was previously parodied in the first episode. The voice actor providing the genie's voice is imitating Robin Williams, who provided the voice for the genie in the titular film. The genie first imitates Groucho Marx (whom Williams imitated as the genie in "Aladdin"), then references a number of other movies starring Williams, including "Popeye", "Patch Adams", "Jumanji", and "Mrs. Doubtfire". At one point, he also says "Nanu nanu," repeating the catchphrase Williams used as Mork on the TV series "Mork and Mindy".

* When the sweatshop kids show up to confront Spanky, one of them is holding a sign that says "Peepee in cola funny" while another holds a sign that says "Sending jobs overseas serious". The first of these signs refers to the Chinese stereotype joke, "Me Chinese, me play joke, me put peepee in your Coke". The second refers to the controversial practice of offshoring, the outsourcing of jobs to overseas nations.