If there's anything Tom Brady's roast on Netflix taught us, it's that gay jokes are apparently back in style. Jennifer Lawrence obviously got the memo (which proves, at the very least, she can read), but unfortunately, her comedy routine has gone the way of Hillary Clinton: stuck in 2016.
[Warning: Language]
The main joke? That Mike Pence is secretly gay!
Here's her routine, dripping with what The Daily Beast defined as "zingers":
I love the gay community. In fact, I was in love with a homosexual. It was my first love. I tried to convert him for years, but now I know conversion therapy doesn't work. Did you hear me, Mike Pence? I said conversion therapy isn't real, even though I know you think it worked on you. You know, he's in New York tonight. I know, I know. He's receiving a Kid's Choice Award for weirdest d***.
Setting aside the child abuse "joke" ... she also made perhaps the most tone-deaf comment of all, saying "not to mention what it feels like to be in a room with this many men and not need mace."
(This is the same Jennifer Lawrence who kissed up to Harvey Weinstein right up until his not-so-secret secret behavior was uncovered...)
But back to the gay stuff.
I'm honestly a little confused. Sure, coming up with decent comedy material on Mike Pence is like getting O-positive blood out of a stone, but isn't calling someone homosexual as an insult ... homophobic?
Not only that, the conversion therapy accusations are basically all based on a random campaign website and comments from Pete Buttigieg, whose man-made sexuality-based feud with Pence happened to pop up soon after Mayor Pete announced his run for president of the United States.
Even The Washington Post wrote in a 2019 fact-check that they "can find no evidence that Pence ever expressed support for conversion therapy."
When assessing controversial stands by politicians, it's important to look for patterns. Pence has demonstrated a history of opposing expansion of gay rights, such as marriage or in the military. But there is no pattern of him promoting conversion therapy; there is just one oddly worded line in an almost two-decade-old Web page. Is it a dog whistle — or just sloppy language written one night by a low-level staffer?
Pence could certainly settle this conundrum if he has rejected such therapies in his own words, rather than through a spokesman. Then there would no longer be any question.
Nevertheless, we conclude there is little evidence that Pence supported conversion therapy, especially given the discussion concerning the Ryan White bill at the time. Media citations on this issue should be more careful in how they reference it.
Here's a comedy tip: Something can either be funny, or funny because it's true. Unfortunately for Jennifer Lawrence, her Mike Pence routine was neither.
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