What officer, I was just tying my shoe!

This made me laugh incredibly hard. It is a clip and review (via, videogum) about the new "reality show", the "Principal's Office". The clip shows two young men who have been called into the principal's office due to their "dirty dancing" and "grinding", with female students, at the school dance.

Playing out like a freshman's version of "The Office", the two students go to towwwn leading the Steve Carell-like principal through a series of "whatifs" (ie, what if he was bending over, while I was stretching behind him?) that escalate to the point that they are literally grinding in the principal's office. The perfected innocence of these two young men are worthy of at least a couple of golden globe nods. And the principal's naivete is either the handiwork of some clever editors, or a genuine vacancy of common sense. Either makes for entertaining television.

But this is a queer blog, so I have to admit that the underlying homophobia is pretty obvious. The humour is somewhat dependent on the ridiculousness of two men "dirty dancing". And given the current history of gay students at school dances, we know that dancing with your same-sex/queer partner is often not a luxury that is afforded to many queer students.

But this actually raises interesting questions about humour, and making fun. When is it okay--if ever--to make fun of someone's sexual orientation? My queer friends and I do it all the time, but for two hetero guys to jokingly poke fun at their principal, do we allow that same flexibility? Is making fun of sexuality, like "re-claiming" offensive words?