The title is all you need to go on. I am guessing they are.
No, there just heterosexual life partners.
:smack: they’re not there.
I am thinking not.
The show never misses a chance to imply Smithers is gay, and I’ve never seen an episode with anything like that about Lenny and Carl.
There are at least a couple of references to Carl’s wife - and one episode where Lenny is seen shaving a leg with a female voice yellin at him.
On the episode where Homer and the gang go to the Superbowl, Carl mentions having a wife and that it’s their wedding anniversary.
I’d never heard an implication that Lenny & Carl are gay until last night. I’m sure someone will come along with the exact line, but it was something about, “You should give backrubs without being asked.” So they’re definitely toying with the idea of them being gay, but it may have just been a one-time shot.
I think the joke behind Lenny and Carl is that they’re supposed to be two straight guys who are such close friends that they almost function as a married couple. One of the ways the writers derive humor from them is to exagerate the friendship to the point where it is indistinguishable from a gay couple, without the characters actually being gay. Take the joke blowero mentioned: if they are a gay couple, it’s not actually very funny. But if they’re two straight guys who are such good friends that there’s an expectation of unsolicited backrubs, but with absolutely no sexual subtext to it… well, that’s pretty funny.
There was an episode which showed that Lenny carved a Mt Rushmore-type bust of Carl into a cliff.
Lenny is gay, and loves Carl. Carl is straight, he is flattered and amused by Lenny’s attention, but is not interested that way. He considers Lenny ha good friend, but no more.
On another episode Homer and Lenny were working on an oil rig in West Springfield and got trapped by a fire. Homer was saying that there was nothing left for him to live for, but then Marge showed up on a helicopter. Then Lenny remarks that there’s no reason for him to want to go on living. And needless to say, Carl then shows up on a helicopter.
I think that was the same episode.
< comic book guy>But in the “answer lady” episode where marge gives people advice, Lenny tells Marge that he’s been telling Carl his wife is a model, and now Carl is coming over for dinner but Lenny really isn’t married. </comic book guy>
Couple options:
Lenny was married, then got divorced.
It was just a girlfriend. Although if I had a girlfriend who made me shave her legs, I’d be out of that relationship pretty damn quick! (However, her forcing me to shave other parts of the body might not be so bad…)
I’m guessing they’re straight.
Aren’t Lenny and Carl just straight men to Homer at work and at Moe’s tavern? As in two pretty normal guys who woudn’t really stick out in the real world. There to underscore Homer’s oddballness. (Not that he really needs it.) I’m thinking this must have been the original purpose, but of course writers get bored and characters evolve.
I guess I need to draw on my hand like homer did… Carl = Black Lenny= White?
Yes… Carl’s black and Lenny’s white.
But Carl talks like a working-class white American – no trace of Black English. I always wondered about that.
Regarding Lenny:
A wizard did him.
As for “talking black”, does Dr. Hibbert count? Uh-huh-huh-huh-huh-huh-huh…
The only “black-talking” character I remember seeing on the Simpsons was “Bleeding Gums” Murphy, and he was only there for one or two episodes. What accounts for this blind spot, I wonder?
Well, the principal voice actors are all white, so to have a black character who “speaks black,” and voiced by a white actor could be considered racist. Of course, one could argue that having any black characters voiced by a white actor is racist. Then again, AFAIK, no one bitches about Apu.