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The expectations theyre tasked with subverting change depending on the audience and venue.
Queer hack is therefore particularly difficult to define.
When it comes to the queer alt scene, I can see when someones cadence is likeKate BerlantorJohn Early.
When I first started, I think I was doingAli Wongdrag, doing her cadence.
It took me a while to figure out and carve out my own voice and what really excites me.
I think its overplayed, and its just boring to me.
Its also something Ive heard told in other ways too.
And the main people laughing were other white gays.
If I can see where a joke is going, I let go of that premise.
Judy Gold
Its funny, because the first queer comics were groundbreakers.
I didnt want to be pigeonholed as a gay comic or a lesbian comic.
I wanted to be a comic who happened to be gay, and I did that.
Its interesting that coming out doesnt have an effect on comedians careers anymore.
Theres no risk involved, or less risk, so they take the easy way out.
I just cant with the fucking anal jokes and the rimming, the bottom, the top.
I mean, if youre saying I just want to work for gay men, fine.
But theres a whole world out there.
Dont do the obvious.
Being an outsider can make you a great comic.
It lets the audience see the world through a different perspective.
The whole world was not set up for us.
Its about dignity, I think.
So sometimes when I see hack material, Im like,No, thats exactly what they want.
They want to hear that.
They want to be able to have an excuse.
Youre not calling someone a copycat.
Youre not even calling someone untalented.
The sweet spot is sometimes a second or third thought instead of a first thought.
I dont know why were still making anal-sex and poop jokes.
An anal-sex joke is an anal joke, but its also just a sex joke.
And a lot of times when people call people bottoms, what they want to say is faggot.
So the top-bottom dichotomy gets a little …
It is tough to be funny to queer audiences and straight audiences, but not impossible.
Ryan Leach
I think that hack is the lowest common denominator.
Theres this trend that I participate in actively, which is Im gay, but Im homophobic.
We came out of the Obama era, and then a feeling of solidarity under Trump.
I think it really comes down to: What is the message?
But I dont know if thats necessarily productive.
Honestly, I hope queer hack becomes a thing.
But to me, it feels like were pretty far away from that happening.
I dont use the word hack.
I use overdone and poor effort.
I take a stab at confirm Im seeing that so that I can work against it.
Im always trying to upset people rather than pander to them.
For example, it gets hack when Dave Chappelle makes fun of trans people, right?
Thats a hack thing.
These are almost cultural crutches that dont allow the group to evolve.
And that doesnt allow group thought to evolve and doesnt allow culture to evolve, and its very visible.
Whats overplayed with a queer audience is being queer saying Im gay or Im trans as a punch line.
Because I think thats playing into a job market.
I think the identifiers kill everything.
Thats where youll end up.
It really makes you silent and complicit in allowing this industry to feed off of our bodies.
So I hope people keep breaking thought.
Jes Tom
When I started out, almost anything I said would be very novel.
Now people are performing with people who understand and accept them, and I think thats wonderful and great.
But it does also mean sometimes you create kind of myopic material.
Seven years ago, I was on a show that was all trans masculine or afab nonbinary people.
you might seem hack to some audiences and not to the mainstream audience.
They want to hear jokes; they want to hear something theyve never heard before.
Personally, Im interested in queer comics talking about queer stuff that I havent heard before.
I just want to hear something that I havent heard before.
These responses have been edited and condensed for clarity.
All interviews were conducted prior to the WGA and SAG strikes.
