Hi Honey, I'm Homo!: Sitcoms, Specials, and the Queering of American Culture

"If you’re interested in the modern history of queer folk, what better lens through which to examine it than the American sitcom – that omnipresent cultural object that so diligently reflects the prevailing sensibilities of its time? Hidebound by narrative formula, fueled by tropes and conventional wisdom, the sitcom itself is anything but queer, but Matt Baume reveals how sitcom creators have always found ways to engage with queer content in good ways and bad, directly and (until relatively recently) indirectly. He shows that queer representation in media – even the most cringeworthy variety, on the hackiest sitcom – can challenge stereotypes by making them part of the joke."