I was contacted by Penn & Teller last January, 2005, and asked if I conducted Reparative Therapy. I told them no and they asked if I knew of someone who did. Well I sent them to Richard Cohen of course knowing who Penn and Teller are and what they would do by featuring him.
Sure enough my partner and I watched Penn & Teller: Bullshit! on Showtime July 18. It featured Family Values and showcased Richard Cohen’s non-sexual MANLOVE advice!
They did not refer to Richard Cohen as Richard–but rather Dick. If you know anything about this show it very humorously illustrates things in our culture that do not make sense and they make fun of things very similar to the Daily Show with John Stewart.
If you can catch the show it is very entertaining. “Dick” really looked the part. It was very good exposure for the ridiculousness of Reparative Therapy.
In some weird way I feel proud of referring Penn and Teller to Dick Cohen.
Warmly, Joe Kort
A “Rich” source of humourous material, without doubt.But, darn it, cannot access the page from outside the U.S. Can we get a brief summary, anyone?ps love the Daily Show. The Sponge Bob monolog was a classic.
They did not refer to Richard Cohen as Richard–but rather Dick
ROTFLMAO. My handle is my initials and “r” stands for “Richard” I go by the nickname “Rick” and I have always literally hated it when someone would call me “Dick.” And that was before I knew I was gay.
Rick was best. Rich was OK. Dick was not OK.
Caught this show by accident in my hotel room the other night – and it was very well done. I loved when (Penn? Teller? – the one who speaks) asked, rhetorically, “why would people who know we will call them a**holes still come on this show” and were clearly referring to Cohen and other “pro-family” people. Nearly fell off the bed on that line.
Even with the irreverent attitude, this show did the best I’ve seen in really exploring the reasons for the resistance to gay relationships, and non-monogamous hetero relationships, as well, which included a “swinger” couple with two healthy grown children.
I caught this episode a few months back. And although it was basically a hit piece for Cohen to say something stupid and Penn to rail against him, it was funny as heck.
I came away thinking that for the ex-gay movement to be successful they need to add a new training course to their camps: How Not to Sound like the World’s Biggest Flaming Queen (that would be a nice break from Sports for Guys that Were Always Picked Last).
Now personally I like flaming queens. But when you put one on TV claiming that he isn’t gay anymore, the effect is just comical. It comes across as Nathan Lane’s character in Birdcage when he’s trying to play straight.
Timothy,
Re: “…for the ex-gay movement to be successful they need to add a new training course to their camps: How Not to Sound like the World’s Biggest Flaming Queen”
How would that training work? After all, as Robin Williams’s character pointed out, John Wayne really did walk like that! 😉
After all, as Robin Williams’s character pointed out, John Wayne really did walk like that!
Apparently the movie people were able to avoid showing the corn-cob up the you-know-where. 😉
Actually Marion Morrison (John Wayne) was a decent actor before he became a charicature who won WWII single-handedly. He was a man (Morrison) who came to play a character (Wayne), who in turn, was playing characters in war movies. It’s really sad, in a way. Now, you can only see his movies on AMC cable.
The episode in question seems to be available on via bittorrent from https://thepiratebay.org/details.php?id=3355910
sorry, wrong link. The correct one should be https://thepiratebay.org/details.php?id=3337175
Penn & Teller: Bullshit, Season 3 episode 2.
I’ll seed this one with 10 mbit/s for a few hours now.