Kimmel video: More than just good fun?

You probably have seen the video(s). If not, you absolutely have to because they are thefunniest, if lowbrow, videos I’ve seen in a long time.

Late-night talk show host Jimmy Kimmel made a music video responding to his girlfriend, comedian Sarah Silverman, who made a video that she was “f**cking Matt Damon.”

Kimmel’s response? He told her and Damon he was having an affair with Damon’s pal Ben Affleck. The videos are all the rage on YouTube, and earn Kimmel and Silverman “People Magazine’s” Funniest Couple Alive title.

I love comedy. I like Silverman, and Kimmel is growing on me. But as much as Kimmel’s video had me laughing and hitting replay on my computer numerous times (and adding both to my MySpace page) I could not help but think of a few issues the video seemed to bring up.

I don’t want to rain on anyone’s parade and make an overly big deal out of a joke by a comedian and an actor, but I was reminded of a classroom discussion I was involved earlier this semester.

We were talking about how to serve as counselors to gay clients. The incredible speaker, a University professor, fielded all questions and talked openly about her experiences as a lesbian and teacher.

I am an extremely tolerant, gay-friendly, open-minded, liberal, heterosexual male who has had limited experiences with real-life gay people, so I asked a few off-the-wall questions, including what was so funny about gays to so many people. Also, was I wrong to laugh at, and somewhat participate in, a recent breakfast conversation with coworkers that consisted of nothing but gay sex jokes for about two hours?

I asked why it seemed to still be all right to make jokes about gays when you could never so blatantly make fun of minorities or women without being labeled racist or sexist. Somehow, homophobic did not seem to be such a bad label.

As an avid late-night TV watcher, the gay jokes are common – just ask Sen. Larry Craig, George Michael or Elton John. Or just think back to when there were all of the gay cowboy jokes about “Brokeback Mountain” – one of my all-time favorite movies.

One of my favorite TV shows, “How I Met Your Mother,” recently featured a scene in which a character makes overtly homoerotic comments in jest to the person in a bathroom stall who he thinks is his friend.

I have been totally guilty of laughing at these jokes. Even retold some of them. I know my friends and I always make gay jokes, some fairly crude and graphic, to each other. But I know for a fact nearly all of us have no problem politically or socially with gays.

Are we homophobic? Am I a hypocrite?

The speaker told me that I should have stood up and told my coworkers that I was not comfortable with their jokes and refused to participate. I agree I should have been more bold, but know that would have rocked the boat and probably gotten me labeled gay. And though I again have no political or social problems with that, it does not sit well with me. Kind of a like a “Seinfeld” not-that-there’s-anything-wrong-with-that thing.

I honestly do not think I have ever heard so many gay jokes on TV, in common conversation, anywhere, as I do now. I find this is ironic because I generally feel gays and lesbians are probably more accepted now than at any time in history.

A classmate pointed out that people who make gay jokes are the most insecure about their sexuality.

Is it insecurity? Are gays just an easy target because they cannot defend themselves without inciting more bashing? Is it even bashing, or just humor?

I tried to dig for reaction to the Kimmel video on the Internet and there was very little expressing concern about whether it was offensive to gays. There was a Christian woman appalled that it seemed to be promoting a deviant way of life.

Was I expecting both conservatives and liberals to be upset about the same thing?

Maybe this is progress – being able to laugh about something without fear of someone judging you for talking about it?

After all, two out-of-the- closet homosexuals were in Kimmel’s video: Joan Jett and former N’Sync-er Lance Bass. Affleck himself is a noted liberal Democrat. Other stars like Brad Pitt, Cameron Diaz, Don Cheadle, the guy who plays McLovin’ and even Harrison Ford appeared and did not seem to be anti-gay.

A University of Minnesota study found that the gay-oriented sitcom “Will ‘ Grace” greatly improved the image of gay males in people with limited exposure to real-life gays. However, I remember being crucified in one workplace for liking the show.

I might as well have been a Communist sympathizer in the 1950s.

Maybe the Kimmel video is pure comedy, but in everyday conversation we should all listen closely to what is being said and think twice about whether we want to be associated with the jokes going around.