It's Not Irony; You're Just an Asshole

So, Spudsy and Deeky and I have already parsed the megafail that is the premise of Sacha Baron-Cohen's upcoming trainwreck Brüno, in which the straight actor purports to expose homophobia by portraying a mincing gay stereotype, without a trace of irony.

Now that the marketing for the film is in full-swing, the collection of idiots that is the American media is playing along, with MTV giving Baron-Cohen the opportunity to do his predatory gay shtick at the MTV Movie Awards, and various outlets allowing him to do interviews as Brüno, complete with all the gays-are-funny double entendres that are a hallmark of the character.

Today I see that GQ is featuring Brüno on its July cover:

[Click to embiggen.]
My first thought was: When was the last time they featured an actual out gay man on their cover?

The answer is possibly never. I went back through every cover since Jan. 1990, and among the hundreds of actors, singers, athletes, politicians, and other famous men pictured, not a single one of them is gay and out.

It would rock my world if, on July 10, the day Brüno was scheduled to open, Sacha Baron-Cohen instead announced that the entire thing was a scam, designed to reveal the depth of the American media's hostility toward real, ordinary gay people, and every scheduled showing of Brüno would actually be a screening of The Celluloid Closet.

But somehow I don't think that's going to happen.

Instead, it will just be another straight dude being a hugely offensive wanker and calling it edgy, dismissing his critics as humorless losers. Rinse. Repeat.