The Ambiguously Gay Duo

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Ambiguously Gay Duo
The Ambiguously Gay Duo title card
Genre	Animation
Created by	Robert Smigel J.J. Sedelmaier
Voices of	Stephen Colbert Steve Carell
Narrated by	Don Pardo
Country of origin	United States
Language(s)	English
No. of episodes	11 (List of episodes)
Production
Producer(s)	Robert Smigel J.J. Sedelmaier Tanya Ryno (line) Samantha Scharff (line)
Running time	~3 minutes
Production company(s)	J.J. Sedelmaier Productions, Inc.
Broadcast
Original channel	NBC
First shown in	28 September 1996

The Ambiguously Gay Duo is an American animated comedy sketch that debuted on The Dana Carvey Show before moving to its permanent home on Saturday Night Live.^[1] It is created and produced by Robert Smigel and J.J. Sedelmaier as part of the Saturday TV Funhouse series of sketches.^[2] It follows the adventures of Ace and Gary, voiced by Stephen Colbert and Steve Carell, two superheroes whose sexual orientation is a matter of dispute, and a cavalcade of characters preoccupied with the question.^[3]

Contents 1 Background 2 Characters 3 Episode guide 3.1 Other appearances 4 See also 5 References 6 External links

[edit] Background

The Ambiguously Gay Duo is a parody of the stereotypical comic book superhero duo, clad in matching pastel turqouise tights, dark blue domino masks, and bright yellow coordinated gauntlets and boots. The shorts were intended to satirize suggestions that early Batman comics implied a homosexual relationship between the title character and his sidekick Robin, a charge most infamously leveled by Fredric Wertham in his 1954 book, Seduction of the Innocent.^[4]

The typical episode usually begins with the duo's arch-nemesis Bighead, a criminal mastermind with an abnormally large cranium. Bighead is usually briefing his henchmen on a plot for some grandiose plan for world domination, interrupted by a debate as to whether or not Ace and Gary (The Ambiguously Gay Duo) are gay. Once the crime is in process, the police commissioner calls on the superheroes to save the day, often engaging in similar debates with the chief of police.

Ace and Gary set out to foil the evil plan, but not before calling attention to themselves with outrageous antics and innuendo, and behaving in ways perceived by other characters as profligately homosexual, such as this example conversation from the first episode:

Ace [patting Gary on the buttocks] : Good job, friend-of-friends!
Villains/Bystanders [gasps, and ghastly stares]
Ace: What's everybody looking at?
Villains/Bystanders [in unison]: Nothing!

This gag finds itself in almost every episode.

Episodes not following this general formula will feature Ace and Gary answering fan mail or offering child safety tips. One such episode follows the adventures of Ace and Gary giving children a ride home in their phallus shaped Duocar, where they give home decorating tips, making suggestive gestures and innuendo while completely unaware of how they are being perceived.

[edit] Characters

• Ace is the leader of the duo. He is mentor to Gary, refers to him as “friend of friends,” and has a wide array of superpowers reminiscent of Superman.
• Gary, Ace's sidekick, is the younger of the duo. Gary is less experienced, and has fewer superpowers than Ace. His powers include super strength, breath, stamina, and flexibility.
• The Police Commissioner is the duo's primary contact, and when trouble arises, he makes the call to their hangout. His calls tend to interrupt a workout of some kind, with one or the other of the duo shirtless. The commissioner, voiced by Steve Carell, believes Ace and Gary might not be gay.
• The Chief of Police hangs out with the commissioner, apparently waiting to find evidence in support of his confident belief that Ace and Gary are, in fact, gay. He and the commissioner are endlessly engaged in debate over their positions on this subject.
• Bighead, inspired by C.C. Beck's Doctor Sivana, as the name might suggest, sports a very large, bald head, and is usually the brains behind most of the evil schemes. Second only to his primary vocation of mad scientist is his obsession with outing the superheroes as gay, which tends to annoy his co-conspirators because they do not care about the duo's sexuality and only want to defeat them in order to rule the world. He is constantly criticized for the amount of energy he invests in this pursuit. Bighead is voiced by Robert Smigel
• Dr. Brainio is probably named for the auxiliary brain he has attached to his skull with cables and tubing. He occasionally partners with Bighead, but is quite a bit more undecided about Ace and Gary. Dr. Brainio is voiced by Stephen Colbert.
• Orbitrox is a small, green, free-floating droid who sides with Bighead on the question of Ace and Gary's sexual orientation. Orbitrox has proffered evidence of their having visited gay bars, but emphatically denies visiting himself, snapping in subtitled form, "Back off dickweed, it's research!"
• Kijoro, is the duo's mentor whose spirit resides in the Fortress of Privacy and offers advice from time to time when Ace and Gary seek counsel. Kijoro and the Fortress of Privacy are parodies of Superman's Jor-El and Fortress of Solitude.

[edit] Episode guide

#	Airdate	Title
1.	28 September 1996	It Takes Two To Tango
Ace and Gary foil Bighead's plan to take over Metroville.
2.	2 November 1996	Queen of Terror
Ace and Gary stop Queen Serena's evil scheme.
3.	14 December 1996	Don We Now... Or Never
Santa Claus has been kidnapped, and the Duo must save him with the help of the reindeer and free the elves, who have been held hostage.
4.	19 April 1997	Safety Tips
Ace and Gary demonstrate bicycle and home safety tips for local kids.
5.	15 November 1997	Blow Hot, Blow Cold
The Duo battles Bighead's ice monster creation.
6.	9 May 1998	A Hard One To Swallow
Ace and Gary question their origins as superheroes and why everybody regards them strangely.
7.	21 November 1998	The Ambiguously Gay Duo Fan Club
Ace and Gary are oblivious to the suggestiveness in letters from their fans, who are mostly criminal convicts.
8.	8 May 1999	AmbiguoBoys
Even before they were the Ambiguously Gay Duo, teenagers Ace and Gary fought evil. This episode shows that Bighead was in their class, and he is determined to win his classmates' respect and "out" the duo. When he reanimates and enlarges a giant frog, the Ambiguoboys must stop him
9.	13 May 2000	Trouble Coming Twice
Ace and Gary battle Bighead's evil schemes at the NBA finals.
10.	19 October 2002	The Third Leg Of Justice
Bighead is at it again, and redecorates his lair in another attempt to out Gary and Ace. The Duo is assisted by former GE chairman, and superhero, Jack Welch.
11.	29 September 2007	First Served, First Come [5]
Bighead enlists a Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport undercover policeman at a BBQ he orchestrates to out Ace and Gary with surprising results.

[edit] Other appearances

• 12 January 2002 (Josh Hartnett/Pink), The Ambiguously Gay Duo makes a surprise appearance in The X-Presidents – the Hunt for Osama.
• 29 April 2006, The Ambiguously Gay duo co-hosted Saturday Night Live: The Best of TV Funhouse. The hosting duties included the opening monologue performed by Ace and Gary, plus new animated/live-action material during the pre-commercial and post-commercial bumpers. It was revealed during these bumper segments that they seem to have an undying obsession with former cast member Jimmy Fallon. The show ended with the duo taking cast members Jason Sudeikis and Andy Samberg to their secret headquarters — both naked — in the penis-shaped car, with announcer Don Pardo begging to be taken with them and a spurned Fallon looking on from his apartment window with tears in his eyes.

[edit] See also

• List of SNL TV Funhouse

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• J.J. Sedelmaier Productions official website