Poly Trio on "The Daily Show"
Jon Stewart was voted most trusted newscaster in America in an unscientific online poll — except he's not a newscaster, he's a comedian. If you were watching "The Daily Show" Thursday night, you saw him host a snarky report on the anti-gay-marriage characters in Texas who want to keep gays from divorcing — and the scene cuts to a traditional MF married couple by contrast, but they turn out to be poly, and end up in bed as a threesome. Watch it here (SFW). (In Canada watch here.) The poly bit begins at 3:10.
The lights go down and by the end we see them in bed, groping and three-way kissing.
A discussion broke out on the LiveJournal Polyamory community. "I think there was some humorous poly-exploitation going on," wrote ambiguousex. "I'm just curious if other people found it funny or offensive or both or neither." Replied tantricaquarian, "Perhaps they need to laugh at us before they can accept us." And nonmonogamous wrote, "It pokes fun, but I don't think it's debasing or overtly negative. I'm happy thinking that just that little snippet might have planted the idea of the possibility of consensual nonmonogamy in the head of even just one person who never thought of it before."
Are we getting noticed or what?
See comments by Anita Wagner; by Robyn Trask.
Update! The married poly couple on the show, Joy and George Reagan, tell about their experiences being filmed. See comment #4 below.
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Reporter Jason Jones: What is the secret to marriage?
Joy Reagan, wife in traditional-looking couple: The secret to marriage is communication. Being able to tell your partner anything and everything and having total trust.
Jones: And what does your girlfriend think about all this?
Camera pans to include third hand-holder on the couch, who says: I'm completely comfortable with the whole thing. George and Joy have a great marriage, and I'm really happy to just be occasionally a part of that.
The lights go down and by the end we see them in bed, groping and three-way kissing.
A discussion broke out on the LiveJournal Polyamory community. "I think there was some humorous poly-exploitation going on," wrote ambiguousex. "I'm just curious if other people found it funny or offensive or both or neither." Replied tantricaquarian, "Perhaps they need to laugh at us before they can accept us." And nonmonogamous wrote, "It pokes fun, but I don't think it's debasing or overtly negative. I'm happy thinking that just that little snippet might have planted the idea of the possibility of consensual nonmonogamy in the head of even just one person who never thought of it before."
Are we getting noticed or what?
See comments by Anita Wagner; by Robyn Trask.
Update! The married poly couple on the show, Joy and George Reagan, tell about their experiences being filmed. See comment #4 below.
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Labels: humor
5 Comments:
Sure there's some sexploitation of poly in that bit. It's comedy, not documentary.
But, look closer. The interviewer was the sleaze bag there.
It's also a reminder that there's still some discomfort among most Americans talking about alternative sexual and relational realities -- indeed, talking about anything related to sex -- and how we resort to laughter to deal with that discomfort.
I totally agree with Desmond on this - it was the interviewer who was the sleezebag (but that's his character on the show anyway). :)
That said, I've had this exact experience, during a radio interview about a decade ago. My girlfriend at the time and I went on a local "morning show", all prepared for an intelligent discussion on polyamory, and all they wanted us to do was kiss so they could giggle. *sigh* AND did a bunch of creative editing on the fly (they were broadcasting the interview with a delay so they could cut and paste...BOY did we get some ugly feedback afterwards by friends who'd heard the show and heard the "spin" that we didn't while we were in the studio). Why I've been personally leary of doing this myself ever since. Still, I found the spot hilarious, mostly for that very reason. :) The very "typicalness" is what had me laughing.
Here's a link for people in Canada:
http://watch.thecomedynetwork.ca/the-daily-show-with-jon-stewart/full-episodes/#clip254125
When we were asked to do the show, they assured us that they were on our side.
We also watch the show almost every night so we had a pretty good idea that they
would be supportive, and not make us look like the bad ones.
We put about an hour on film but it was edited down to a few seconds, which they told us would happen.
Jason Jones and the crew were very cool and there was a lot of discussion about human rights,
and the everyday struggles of being Different.We had a big soapbox to stand on, and they had a
comedy skit to produce, so we met in the middle.
At first I was a little uncomfortable with the 3-way on camera, but when it comes to media,
if you don’t step out on a limb, the world probably won't even give you a second glance.
All around it was an awesome experience for us, and its really liberating to be Out.
We were hoping to make a splash for the LGBT and Poly community.
So far so good, thanks for the acceptance!
George and Joy Reagan
Actually when I saw that clip I figured it was just a group of actors hired to play poly people.
Nice to see it was a actual poly couple. I also think that anyone with a half a brain would see that the piece was very supportive of alt lifestyles.
Overall I enjoyed the show and sending out special thanks to the 3-some involved.
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