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naraburns  nihil supernum  2yr ago (text post)   36584 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of October 24, 2022

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Some questioned whether marketing the movie as an important milestone in gay cinema made it less enticing than marketing it as a funny comedy.

When I was watching the trailer, I was really enjoying it. I got a really 90s/early 00s feeling from the dialogue. But then it got to the blowjob scene, and that was extremely off-putting.

Anyways, I wouldn't describe this as a RomCom, but instead as a SexCom. It's produced by Judd Apatow, and most of Judd's work is SexComs labelled as RomComs. SexComs are raunchy, typically aimed at younger dudes, usually peppered with attractive women, lots of sex jokes and innuendo. You're getting horny guys to come out and see hot chicks and comedy. Judd Apatow has slowly blended more romance into his sexcoms, and let off the gas a bit on the sex, too, making them a bit more palatable for general audiences. But there's a reason we're seeing Megan Fox get her tits massaged by another woman, and it isn't 'romance'.

With Bros, this formula isn't going to work. You're not going to draw in horny straight guys. Your average woman isn't going to be sexually attracted to the idea of this. Horny gay guys don't need to see a movie, they can just go and get a blowjob. So there's no real audience here.

And it's not really a romcom. Not for a general audience. You could swap the sex of the leading person in most romcoms and have to do almost no rewrites to the plot or dialogue. Maybe the odd joke won't make sense. But for the most part RomComs are completely neutral on sexuality. But you can't even do this with Bros. The film would not make sense if the lead was a woman. The story is so tied to sexuality that it cannot be romantic for the majority of the population.

I can imagine why Eichner is so pissed about this. He's seen woke/gay shit getting pumped up and celebrated for the past few years, and he saw this as his ticket. Bet he had a piece of the pie on this and was expecting it to do $60+ million, and he'd be getting a chunk of that. Probably thought he'd be collecting awards, the media would be fawning over him, and he'd be the gay Apatow. And in one weekend that was blown out. Like getting 6 out of 7 numbers in the lottery, and then finding out a dozen other people did, as well. Birthday numbers. lol

As for the incest thing, I don't know how many would think that. I find the title a bit weird, but presumably it's based more on 'bros before hoes'. But even then I think many would be put off by it, as usually people see their 'bros' as being in the friend zone. Maybe Eichner, being a YouTuber, spent too much time online, and sees 'bros' in the context of "BROJOB BROJOB! CHOO CHOO"

I watched the trailer and it just seemed... tryhard? Like the intent is not telling a story or entertaining people, it's going through an assignment called "make a gay romcom that is clearly GAY but also clearly a ROMCOM". Like they're going through a TVTropes list that doesn't even exist, or something.

Also, the trailer seems to place politics front and center, right from the start, and I'd imagine someone who actually wants to watch a romcom (or a sexcom, or whatever) would be turned off by that.

Even from a gay porn perspectives, "bros" is more something that'd be tied to straight-to-gay or pay4gay muscleheads, mostly, hence the brojob joke (not-joke). Maybe some overlap with the wrestling-as-foreplay, which... uh, definitely popular for gay dudes. Though I'd still consider it more associated with weightlifting or gym bunnies.

(("Bros being bros" has 37 hits on e621; not a single one has incest in it, compared to multiple guys watching porn together. This is kinda cute, and at least SFW in the sense it doesn't have anyone's junk showing.))

Maybe some overlap with the wrestling-as-foreplay, which... uh, definitely popular for gay dudes.

I guess that explains Lords of the Locker Room?

That link was just a honeypot to find out who here has a furaffinity account to see loginwalled pics, wasn't it?

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