Classic Clip:Schmitt's Gay Beer

(Getty Images) Growing up as I did, that is, basically tethered to the TV, I really didn't think it was going to be all that big of a deal that I was gay. Just one rotation of the dial back in those days, and you'd find Billy Crystal on "Soap", Paul Lynde and Charles Nelson Reilly having the times of their lives on various game shows, Liberace...granted, no one called them out on it. It was just kind of, known, and seemingly tolerated, if just for the greater good of entertainment.

tThen all of a sudden, no more fun gay people on TV. Perhaps it was the death of Rock Hudson (who my Aunt Shar always "knew was a queeah..." - but somehow she didn't know that her husband was cheating on her...) that stifled the progression of gay characters and celebrities on TV. When a gay character did show up, chances are it was shrouded in drama, like Stephen Carrington on "Dynasty" or Ricky Vasquez on "My So-Called Life". There was nothing fun about them (and Ellen wasn't out yet). At that point in my life, I didn't feel like coming out would be quite so "gay", in the fun way, as it had seemed before.

Fast forward to 1998. Still a TV addict, I find myself watching "Saturday Night Live" with my family, for some odd reason. I have no recollection why I'm home, but I do know that I'd barely peeked a toe out of the closet door. And perhaps that's for the best, because had I been out, what transpired next could've taken on a whole different tone.

What happened next?  "Schmitt's Gay Beer", that's what. Hear me out. The "Gay Beer" skit, performed by frat-boy faves Adam Sandler and Chris Farley, was a perfectly executed satire of the millions of stale, overly-hetero beer commercials, and made it ok once again to laugh at gay people. It was a revelation, and sitting there with my family, our mouths open in disbelief at what we were watching, I actually felt a smidgen closer to living a more truthful life. I mean, my family was sitting there watching a screen full of male crotches! It was like they could see inside my head for the first time! Nobody was yelling, "ugh, gross" (though they may have been thinking it), they were just cracking up. And when Adam Sandler is sitting down crotch-level with a group of bikini-clad studs, we lost it. It had been a long time since gay humor, of any sort, had been let out of television's closet.

You may think I'm overstating the power of this skit, and perhaps so.  But I'm a firm believer that no cause can progress until you can laugh at it, and no person can be taken seriously until they can laugh at themselves. Take Al Gore, for example. He didn't hit his stride until he started showing up on variety shows mocking himself. And frankly I think Howard Stern does they gay community a great service by talking and laughing so openly about gays and gay sex; I mean, c'mon, blow jobs CAN be funny. But I will go to my grave remembering how much of an impact "Gay Beer" made on me. And besides, the skit is just plain funny...and HOT. Watch it here and remember, "if you've got a big thirst, and you're gay, reach for a cold, tall bottle of Schmitt's Gay Beer"!