New Anti-Gay Ads: Can They Be Parodied?

Taking the internet by -- ha ha! -- "storm," are these hilarious ads from the National Organization for Marriage, which describes the organization's efforts in tracking gay tornadoes that are tearing marriages asunder. It's like someone took the plot of Twister, and multiplied it by homophobia and paranoia!

[WATCH.]

Obviously, I find the whole argument that gay marriage is going to do me any tangible harm to be ridiculous. Matt Yglesias puts it quite well: "It's not as if straight people are being asked to give anything up when gay and lesbian couples want to get married. The lives of heterosexuals will just continue as before." Frankly, I feel that the institution of marriage has already withstood so many socially sanctioned debasements from heterosexuals -- reality television couplings, game shows that reward the airing of infidelities, highways filled with Rock of Love Buses -- that I doubt gay marriage poses the institution a more dramatic threat.

But while I don't agree with NOM's beliefs or claims or worldview, I have to congratulate them for breaking new ground in the field of unintentional hilarity. Truly, this is an inspiration, and it's ripe for parody. And that's precisely what my friend, Air America's Ana Marie Cox, is calling on America to do, via Twitter:

OK: I will offer an TBD prize to the GAYEST (we can vote!) remix of @nomtweet's vile, lie-filled ad http://twurl.nl/uc54re #savenom (pls RT)

(Just to translate from the original Twitter, she will offer a prize to the "gayest...remix" of NOM's ad, winner to be determined by vote, and Twitter users should use the hashtag "#savenom." Ana Marie says the prize is "likely to be DVD of '300' or maybe Larry Craig poster.")

It's a worthy cause! But can it be done? As my colleague, Ryan Grim, points out, "When your own advertisement is treated by the media as a parody, you have problems." And so do those who would outdo the original. Nevertheless, I wish this mission luck!

[Would you like to follow me on Twitter? Because why not? Also, please send tips to [e-mail] -- learn more about our media monitoring project here.]

Comments

[daydreambeliever93]

01:26 PM on 04/23/2009

What a ridiculous ad. They can believe and do what they want. I just want the right to marry who I love. I hate how they act like they're the victims when we're the ones who can't get married to the people we love.

[Jen0141]

07:06 PM on 04/14/2009

Hahaha.. this video is hilarious - I can't believe it's actually a serious ad!

But anyway - I'm getting married next year, and I still don't see how allowing my gay friends to get married will invalidate mine. But then again, I'm probably one of the "bad guys" too because I'm cohabiting. Oh well. Sadly, we may have to wait 20 years until my generation becomes the dominant voter bloc, because we tend to be much more tolerant than previous generations have appeared to be.

[TomFox]

07:23 PM on 04/17/2009

Well, I'm a baby-boomer back in college.... yet again (actually I love being in school but I digress). Frankly I can't wait till you are the dominant voting block. Fortunately my three kids(21, 24, 27) share the same tolerant attitude as you so I know there really is hope for the future.

Good on you for having an open mind, it only works when it's open.

[PresidentRobertBooth]

11:41 AM on 04/12/2009

Again, the fundamental question remains.

If you are an opposite sex couple, how does same sex marriage affect you?

It doesn't stop you from marrying.


If any of those actors in the ad who sold their souls for such a bigoted job would care to explain this to me, I'd like to hear it.

[RButler]

05:44 AM on 04/12/2009

How's this?

"If you oppose gay marriage, the terrorists win"

That oughta keep them busy for a while. The terrorists would oppose gay marriage and therefore the wingnuts would be aligning themselves with the terrorists.

[DavidBlackburn]

02:10 AM on 04/12/2009

This ad doesn't even make sense. Oh, it's a Republican ad!

[MtDavid]

10:52 PM on 04/11/2009

I have heard that sexuality is a continuum, with some exclusively straight and some gay, but many somewhere in the middle. I suppose that those who have "stray" homoerotic thoughts must be terrified seeing two men or two women kiss. Suppressing any information about homosexuality makes them feel safe.
The ignorant bigots believe that homosexuality is a "lifestyle choice." They think that means lots of frivolous, random sex. So the idea that gay people could find love and commitment undermines their myth.
The "marriage sanctimonious" arguers always bring up children. Children are better off being brought up in a family where one parent is pretending to be straight, to honor societies need to reproduce, even though the secret will eventually revel itself. The child then learns adults aren't to be trusted.
As the song says, "The Bible says a man shouldn't lie with a man, only to his wife."
The last argument (always accompanied with, "studies show") that it takes a daddy and mommy to properly raise a kid, might mean that single mothers/fathers/widows should have to adopt out their
kids. These "studies" cannot possibly compare gay couples to straight couples, since gay couples are not allowed to marry, nor enjoy the benefits and social prestige that comes with formal recognition.

[MoeB]

12:53 PM on 04/14/2009

Great post. And someone on another thread also stated that anyone who believes that homosexuality is a "choice" is bisexual by definition, as they actually DO have a choice.

[AmericasWarrior]

08:57 PM on 04/11/2009

Here's what this video had taught me. Blame EVERYTHING that goes wrong in your life on gay marriage.

Cant pay your mortgage - That gay couple moved in down the street.
Didn't get that promotion you were expecting at work - Your boss voted against Prop 8.
Your child getting failing grades - His/her teacher must have a live-in same sex partner.

EVERYTHING is gay marriage's fault.

[saynotocults]

05:24 PM on 04/11/2009

" I am AFRAID!!" LOL!!

[FightingTheRight]

04:28 PM on 04/11/2009

This orginization must not be aware that the divorce rate for married heterosexuals, hovers around 50%.

I would say that is a bigger threat to heterosexual marriage.

[SuesW]

04:24 PM on 04/11/2009

It's hard (or maybe really easy) to parody something so silly. The commercial seems like a parody to begin with.

We've had legal marital rights for homosexuals here in Canada for years - it hasn't changed anything for anyone except that now same sex couples are given the same legal rights the rest of us had. Not sure why so many in the US are freaked out by that.

[CJ1]

02:50 PM on 04/11/2009

Between the scary list of socialists(!) compiled by Bacchus, the teabagging parties, the excommunication of a 9 year old rape victim's mother, creationism, and now this, I think the republicans have shown us humans can DE-volve...hold on to your matches and your pitchforks, people!

[CJ1]

02:43 PM on 04/11/2009

The problem is thee christians feel they have to do something to earn their wings, but feeding the poor, volunteering with youth groups, joining the red cross, working in a soup kitchen, taking in foster kids, is all just too much work!! So picking on the gays is so much more convenient, even if it is mean-spirited, unAmerican, and plain dumb.

[FlamingLibrul]

12:09 PM on 04/11/2009

Have you heard the latest from this group of nutters? God bless Rachel Maddow and her inner-12 year old-

"Two Million for Marriage," is their new slogan, but they want people to call it 2MFM. ROFLMAO!!! YOU CAN'T -MAKE THIS STUFF UP!! For anyone scratching their heads, go to Craigslist and check out the Gay classifieds section.

[OtayPanky]

12:04 PM on 04/11/2009

The first time I heard it, the end is what stood out for me...the part about a "rainbow coalition" coming together for the cause. That's some pretty decent co-opting of language right there. I nominate these guys for an Orwell award.

As for suggestions, how about something with a Wizard of Oz motif? Hve that obviously gay Wicked Witch of the Left shrieking, "I'll get you, my little pretty - and your little spouse, too".

For a follow-up, do a bit with the Wizard of Oz giving those gay companions of Dorothy whatever it is they need ("a brain, a hearr, some noive") so they can finally become straight, and then Dorothy can go back home to Kansas where gay marriage will never happen.

Ana, in case I've won, you hereby have my permision to donate my Larry Craig poster to the Smithsonian. And as much as I'd enjoy a teabagging from you (that's an unannounced bonus prize), I'm already spoken for.

[MtDavid]

11:01 PM on 04/11/2009

Even their name is Orwellian!
Organization for Marriage when they are AGAINST marriage!

And that bad actress who plays the zombie doctor!
How is she going to lose her license?... For refusing to treat a gay man or lesbian
who has just been gay-bashed by some fearful paranoid who just saw this ad?
Or will she be fired for refusing to perform a sex-change operation even though she
is heart specialist?

What nonsense!

[OtayPanky]

11:16 AM on 04/12/2009

MtDavid: And that bad actress who plays the zombie doctor! How is she going to lose her license?

===

Cuz if gays are allowed to marry, she's going to be forced to perform abortions on all the lesbians who were inseminated with a turkey baster, and then changed their minds, because you know how women are!

Don't you read the papers?

[pfc1369]

09:03 AM on 04/11/2009

Why don't all these brave Americans just go with one sign that fits all:

THEY'RE COMING TO GET YOU! *


* (Just be sure to never say exactly who 'they' are.)

[Meadow1]

06:12 PM on 04/11/2009

But how come it looks like they are coming to get us and feast on our entrails, a la Night of the Living Dead????