The Ambiguously Gay Duo

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Image:Tv snl ambiguously flying.jpg The Ambiguously Gay Duo is the name of an infamous animated sketch that debuted on The Dana Carvey Show before moving to its permanent home on Saturday Night Live. It is produced by Robert Smigel as part of the TV Funhouse series of skits. It follows the adventures of Ace and Gary, two superheroes who may or may not be gay. Ace and Gary's initials, A and G, appear on their shirts, and could also stand for "ambiguously gay".

The scenario is to some degree a parody of the comic book superheroes Batman and Robin, who in their secret identities as a rich man and his young ward have been suggested by some to be a homosexual couple. This charge was most famously leveled by Fredric Wertham in his 1954 book Seduction of the Innocent.

Similar Saturday Night Live recurring skits feature Pat, about an individual of ambiguous gender and the short-lived Lyle the Effeminate Heterosexual, about a straight man who has flamboyantly gay mannerisms.

Standard episode plot

A villain is informing his associates of a plan to perform a dastardly deed. The villain states that he cannot be stopped, not even by the duo of Ace and Gary.

Upon mentioning Ace and Gary, the villain and his associates begin to debate if Ace and Gary are homosexual.

Ace and Gary get called by the police commissioner and the chief of police. Ace and Gary go to the villain's lair and foil the plan. Along the way, they exhibit behavior that usually is not exhibited by someone who is heterosexual. A scene that appears more than once follows:

Ace: (patting Gary on the rear end): Good job, Gary!
Villains: (suspiciously look at Ace and Gary)
Ace: What's everybody looking at?
Villains: NOTHING!

The quote above is a running gag.

Episodes which do not follow this general plot tend to have no antagonist. They tend to feature Ace and Gary answering fan mail, and giving safety tips. One episode features the adventures of Ace and Gary when they were in high school.

Characters

• Ace is the leader of the duo. He is a mentor to Gary, and calls him "friend of friends". He is played by Stephen Colbert, currently of The Colbert Report.
• Gary is the other member of the duo. He is younger and less experienced than Ace. He is played by Steve Carell, currently of The Office.
• Police Commissioner calls Ace and Gary whenever trouble occurs. He tends to call them when Ace is bench-pressing weights without a shirt on. The commissioner thinks that Ace and Gary might not be gay.
• The Chief of Police tends to hang out with the mayor, wanting to see what Ace and Gary are doing. He is confident that Ace and Gary are gay, which is a subject he and the commissioner debate about.
• Bighead is an evil villain. He is bald, and has a large head, hence his name. He is a scientist, and employs thugs to fight for him. He is the person that most often tries to fight against Ace and Gary. He eventually gave up on evil deeds and was just interested in outing Ace and Gary.
• Santa Claus was once kidnapped by space aliens, and rescued by Ace and Gary.

Ambiguously Gay

Underlying every episode is the debate on whether Ace and Gary are gay or not. There is no dearth of reasons to think that they are gay, but giving them the benefit of the doubt that they are heterosexual doesn't really work either. Some examples:

• Their car is shaped like a huge penis and can fire white, semen-like rays.
• The letters on their shirts, "G" and "A" for Gary and Ace, spell "GA" or "AG", part of "GAY" or "FAG", respectively.
• Ace pats Gary on the rear quite often.
• Their dialogue is full of homosexual innuendo; they have said to "stick it in the hole, don't play with it" when talking about electric plugs, to name just one example.
• Their X-ray vision is used to see if men are concealing weapons in their crotches.
• Their fighting techniques are questionable for heterosexual superheroes. Gary sits and thrusts on Ace while Ace flies and shoots lasers, they attack a gigantic monster by flying into its rear, and they very often use sexual-looking positions as fighting techniques like Gary's "sucking off".
• Gary is always bare chested while he is bench-pressing or lifting weights.
• They disguise themselves as the Village People while entering a "Hetero" Bar.
• They do not have wives, and are never shown with girls, or showing any kind of interest in girls.
• Their clothing tends to contain thongs and shorts which are too small and tight for them.
• In the high school segment, Ace and Gary were "playing" together while getting their costumes on in the same toilet stall.

Despite this, it is still not certain whether Ace and Gary are gay or not. They seem to think that their behavior is completely normal, and get confused when people look at them strangely. On the rare occasions when they were directly confronted whether they were gay, they either misunderstood the question and said that everyone should be happy and gay, or replied that they were "gay like a fox".

It might also be noted that the title of the cartoon itself refers to the duo as, in fact, gay, and the descriptor "ambiguously" simply implies that it may be difficult to ascertain their sexual preferences from their behavior and appearances alone.