In the middle of the summer TV lull, Bravo duped many of us into watching “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy,” an occasionally witty reality show that poked fun at messy straight guys by filling four days of their lives with four stereotypical gay men and a worthless “culture expert.”
But thanks to the first of three episodes of Comedy Central’s “Straight Plan for the Gay Man,” debuting at 10 tonight, “Queer Eye” will finally be put in its place.
Comedians Billy Merritt (“appearance”), Curtis Gwinn (“environment”), Kyle Grooms (“information”) and Rob Riggle (“culture”) – the “Flab Four” – attempt to straighten up the “fabulous” life of fashion sales manager Jonathan Schneider.
While it seems like this may be a GLBT disaster waiting to happen, the show is more of a lampoon on the stereotypical lives of straight rather than gay men. With “straight” tips like “No brain = no pain” and “If it don’t float, don’t drain the moat,” the show forces us to see it as a lighthearted spoof, not an attack on gay men.
The show is really just all about good, wholesome comedy. Gwinn, the show’s standout, does a brilliant job at parodying the decorating habits of typical straight men. Gwinn takes Schneider’s “‘The Great Gatsby’ meets ‘The Golden Girls'” apartment and alters it by losing the teacup collection and replacing it with a beer tap in the sink.
There are a few less-than-stellar moments though. A trip to the shooting range – complete with tough- guy movie quotes from “Die Hard” – is boring and unnecessary.
Overall the show is funny and harmless. Even Schneider seems to be enjoying himself as the guys clad him in plaid from the thrift store and pass him off as a straight worker in a meatpacking plant – one of the most subtle, but most hysterical, jokes of the show. If he can enjoy himself, there should be no reason the rest of us can’t enjoy ourselves along with him.
