This episode and the discussion of it here really interests me because I am a teacher and a former senior-class sponsor. One of my most stressful professional experiences was organizing and running the prom. Never again! Here are some of my thoughts:
Do many schools still do junior proms? My mom says she had one (50 years ago), but we didn’t have them when I was in school and in the 15 years I’ve been teaching we’ve never had one at my school or in any of the surrounding districts, AFAIK.
I liked that they addressed (sort of) the issue of some kids not having enough money to spend hundreds of dollars on new dresses, limos, etc. But they didn’t mention the cost of a ticket to the prom itself. Our senior prom costs ~90 per person.
Kurt’s “Braveheart” tux is actually not uncommon. Pretty much every year we have at least one male student (typically a straight guy of Irish or Scottish heritage) who wears a kilt to prom. This is in Texas.
We have had openly gay male students actively campaign for prom queen (or homecoming queen), but none of them have ever come close to winning. So when the principal announced that Kurt was the winner, I wasn’t initially sure whether it was going to be a good or a bad thing from Kurt’s POV.
We HAVE had students win as king or queen who were kind of “joke candidates.” As in, the class-clown types that other students vote for because “wouldn’t it be hilarious if *Scott *won!?” Scott is usually in on the joke.
When there is a large field of potential candidates who are all relatively popular, a student might win the title with only 10-15% of the vote.
If Sue was in charge of prom, she could have easily rigged the outcome to provoke a little drama.
My school had a combined junior-senior prom, but only seniors could run for and vote for prom king & queen. A couple junior girls were chosen somehow to serve as the queen’s “attendants”. I don’t remember how much our tickets cost, but everyone considered the dresses and tuxedos the bigger hardship (& lot’s of girls complained about how unfair it was that we guys could just rent our clothes when they had to go out and buy a dress). Unlike the other school dances our prom wasn’t held in the gym; it was at in the banquet room of a local waterfront restaurant/inn thingy (they also rented cabins). A buffet dinner was included, but no open punch bowl (according too our class advisor those went away before we were born).
And I don’t think Sue rigged the prom election. This doesn’t seem at all like something she’d do. She has something vaguely resembling a soft spot for Kurt. Come to think of it Sue was probally way too busy organizing the prom to have time to come up with an evil scheme.
We also had a Junior/Senior Prom (1992), with a King and Queen from the Senior class and a Prince and Princess from the Junior class, IIRC. The voting was done weeks before the actual Prom, during school hours, but not revealed until the night of.
We did it during homeroom the week of the prom (Monday morning I think). We also didn’t really have any campaign either. No posters or anything, just word of mouth. We certainly didn’t have an assembly were the candidates gave speeches saying why we should vote for them like we did for class elections.
I honestly don’t even remember voting for a King or Queen. I barely even remember who was selected. I seem to remember them having a float or something but it certainly wasn’t the centerpiece event of our prom (Junior or Senior.)
I liked this episode, but I was a little surprised by Kurt’s negative reaction to being elected Prom Queen. I mean, he is a total queen. My husband explained it was because they meant it in a nasty way, not a flattering one. I guess I see it, but it surprised me that Kurt wasn’t comfortable enough to just walk up there and accept the award at first. I definitely think that was one of those, ‘‘only understand if you’ve been through it’’ moments for me.
The choice of ‘‘first dance’’ song was hilarious to me because I was once watching a close friend of mine at a ballroom dance party. I turned to Sr. Olives and said, ‘‘Are you sure he’s not gay?’’ Sr. Olives said, “No, he’s not gay. Why are you so convinced he’s gay?”
And right on cue, Dancing Queen blared through the speakers, and my friend’s face lit up as he pranced gaily around to the music.
(He’s not gay. At least, I’m pretty sure. But damn that was funny. Talk about QED.)
I think that Kurt was more or less correct that the majority of the student body is indifferent to him and his sexual orientation. When he was announced as prom queen there wasn’t a bucket of pig’s blood ready, or even a lot of shouts and jeers, just a whoop or two and an attempt at a slow clap. When he returned to accept the crown then it didn’t take much to prompt some apparently genuine applause. This makes me think that most of the students present knew nothing about the prank and were genuinely surprised and unsure how to react. Depending on how voting was handled it may be that most of the people who voted for him didn’t even show up for prom.
I was also a little surprised that Kurt didn’t immediately say “I’ll show them!” and march up to take the crown, as he’s endured worse bullying in the past. But his conversation with Blaine out in the hall indicated that he saw this as a major slap in the face because he’d only recently convinced himself (and his father and Blaine) that McKinley was really safe for him. In previous episodes he’s also indicated that he’s not amused by being called “lady” or by jokes about how he supposedly likes to wear women’s clothing, so I don’t think he’d be flattered by being elected prom queen even if he thought it was supposed to be a harmless joke. He also had good reason to fear that the girls would be mad at him for “stealing” the crown.
I could also understand Kurt having a visceral reaction against being queen to Karofsky’s king. He’s not really afraid of Karofsky anymore, but this is the same guy who was not only his biggest bully but who also forcibly kissed him. I can easily see how his gut reaction might have been “Hell no, I am not getting up there to be crowned Karofsky’s bitch.”
I did wonder if the choice of song sealed Karofsky’s decision to bolt. “I’m gay, but I’m not THAT gay!”
I expected some type of Hunchback of Notre Dame imagery from when Quasimodo was crowned King of Fools, because that’s what it reminded me of a bit when Kurt accepted. Not sure what that would have been exactly- Rachel taking him water perhaps (though that was after a whipping, which probably didn’t happen til Blaine got him alone in the car later).
So do you think
1- he and Blaine are doing anything beyond kissing yet?
2- we’ll learn whether he and Blaine are doing anything beyond kissing yet?
I’m trying to think if there’s ever been a primetime network gay bedroom scene between two teenaged guys.
I can’t think of one. There would probably be some fallout in the media, but the production team has been pretty forward about gay characters so far, and I think it could happen. However, there haven’t been many bedroom scenes at all in Glee, have there? Finn and Santana’s is the only one I can think of.
IIRC the most graphic “bedroom scene” on the show has been between Mr & Mrs Shue in the pilot. Were a shirtless (& presumably naked) Shue came up with the name “New Direction” after having been denied sex by his wife.
I’ve been hating Glee this season but I loved this episodes. I used to like Sue but I’ve gotten bored with her, so keeping her to a minimum worked well for me. And I loved all the songs, even Friday.
I could go either way on #1. I think it’s quite plausible that Kurt is putting the brakes on things, but also plausible that he’s comfortable enough with Blaine now to go beyond kissing. (I assume Blaine would be happy to “go all the way tonight” anytime Kurt wanted to.) As for #2, I could easily see the show’s writers having Kurt make a fleeting reference to being ineligible for the celibacy club or something like that.
The big mystery to me at this point is how much Kurt knows about Santana. I think everyone in New Directions has known for some time that Santana and Brittany are “friends with benefits”, and more recently that Santana may have serious feelings for Brittany, but it’s unclear whether anyone but Brittany and Karofsky knows that Santana identifies as a lesbian and is struggling with whether or not to come out. I had assumed that Kurt was in on the secret, and when Santana asked to talk to him privately in this episode I thought she was going to say something about it, but she didn’t. I went back and checked “Born This Way” on Hulu and Karofsky doesn’t out Santana in his conversation with Kurt, he just says she wants to be prom queen. Santana may prefer that Kurt remain in the dark, as I have no doubt he’d be advising her to come out and she’s clearly not ready to take that step yet.
It didn’t hit me until Kurt said that line that his rich, preppie love interest has the same name as the rich, preppie love interest in Pretty in Pink. Now it seems so obvious! (I think Kurt’s homemade prom outfit looked a LOT better than the dress the Molly Ringwald character created for herself in PiP, though.) I vacillate between thinking that Glee’s Blaine is good boyfriend material for Kurt and thinking that he’s a smug jerk who needs to ease up on the hair products, but I think he’s a fantastic catch compared to the PiP character. I always hated that guy.
Much love. Mr. Horseshoe and I immediately noticed that it’s not the SAME camo, though - different patterns for different combat scenarios. I wondered if the costume designer did that on purpose: I could see Kurth thinking, “Hmm, I wanna be more manly … I know! Camo fabric!” but not being manly enough to know the difference between various kinds.
The cover of “Friday” is almost as good as the original is bad, and I have to admit that even Mr. Horseshoe sat up silently, eyes wide, waiting for Kurt’s line behind the microphone. We both clapped and cheered, too.
And I friggin’ LOVED Brit’s dress: the color, the pop of red, everything. Very flattering.
It looked like both were woodland camo prints to me, but his tie was definitely the old style camo and his shirt was one of the newer “pixellated” patterns. Maybe he just didn’t want to be too matchy-matchy. Kurt cares enough about fashion that I’m sure he’d notice the prints weren’t the same, although he’d probably have no clue that there are non-fashion-related reasons for the existence of different camo prints.
And I think a couple episodes ago there was what (I interpreted as) a Finn/Quinn non-graphic thing. It wasn’t stated explicitly, but fairly heavily subtexted.
Kurt cares enough about fashion that I’m sure he’d notice the prints weren’t the same, although he’d probably have no clue that there are non-fashion-related reasons for the existence of different camo prints.