What a difference a decade or two makes. Chelsea Handler dedicated an entire episode to explaining the new acronym LGBTQ, nee’ LGBT. Amusingly, Chelsea starts the show with a list of acronyms. She did, however, forget one, DUA (Don’t Use Acronyms) but let us discuss the newest letter added to the community organization that looks out for those who do not identify with being “straight.” It stands for “Queer” which until recently was considered a rather inflammatory word.
Being called “queer” was the less PC version of gay and apt to really annoy the person given this label. It was, in the day, considered derogatory slang for being the opposite of heterosexual and was often accompanied by the even more inflammatory word – faggot. Now, however, the LGBT community have embraced this term and added it to their banner. The mind boggles…
Chelsea had guests on her LGBTQ show apparently set up by which letter they represented. Glee’s Jane Lynch, talked about being lesbian and E.J. Johnson; television host and son of Magic Johnson fulfill the gay category. She also interviewed Carmen Carrera (the “T” in the acronym, aka trans) who married Adrien Torres.
Apparently the host of “Chelsea” identifies with either the “B” or the “Q” of the gay community’s supportive group. As there were guests on the show who represented each letter and no one was given the bisexual slot it makes sense that Handler opted to fill this one herself…
(On a sidenote, comedienne and actress Fortune Feimster counts as the second lesbian on the show – she identified herself as such at the episode’s opening sequence – giving the “L” word an unfair advantage…)
The other guest on this episode was trans doctor Marci Bowers who performs a huge amount of genital surgery to help those who need to change their genitalia to match their correct gender. This was, perhaps the most informative part of the show.
Bowers revealed that all fetuses are female and that children know, or identify with, their gender by the age of two or three. Of course no show focusing on LGBT, and now Q, would be complete without a reference to Caitlyn Jenner and Bowers fulfilled this function perfectly with her connection to Jenner.
Chelsea’s next episode featured Melissa McCarthy, as a nod to the Ghostbusters reboot and McCarthy’s clothing line, and Zachary Quinto. The show also poked at the open wound that is FOX News by dissecting the sexual harassment lawsuit facing Roger Ailes, the now former CEO of the network’s news section, launched by Gretchen Carlson.
One interesting observation revealed that female news anchors, or presenters, on FOX are all blonde, apparently. The whole story is still evolving so presumably Chelsea will return to Roger Ailes and his red balls…or not.
McCarthy spoke about the new Ghostbusters and the ridiculous reactions to the all female reboot. She revealed that the incredibly good looking and talented Chis Hemsworth is also sidesplittingly funny. Chelsea was wearing one of McCarthy’s clothing creations.
Keeping on the sexual harassment theme, Chelsea and her two assistants speak to her lawyer about what constitutes harassment. It was amusingly informative. Also keeping with the theme of guests with films opening, or just opening, saw Quinto showing up to tout his latest project, Star Trek Beyond.
The interview also follows the previous episode’s LGBT (Q) theme as the “Zulu being gay” is brought up. There is also a “Star Trek Four” in the works according to Quinto and they talk about his taking ayahuasca. (Chelsea experimented with this in another episode.) Quinto is, apparently, a huge fan of the hallucinogen and has gone back repeatedly to take the drug.
The final guest on the second episode was NFL Patriots player Nate Exner who will be playing Rugby on the American team at the Rio Olympics this year.
Chelsea finished the show by making fun of Melanie Trump’s plagiarized speech and her status as professional gold digger.
These two episodes were entertaining and funny, pretty much what we expect from Ms. Handler. On a sidenote, it will be interesting to see if Roger Ailes and Gretchen Carlson do get a revisit a’la Sumner Redstone.
Chelsea is on Netflix and new episodes stream weekly.
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