# Glee 4/17: Saturday Night Fever tribute **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [April 18, 2012, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/glee-4-17-saturday-night-fever-tribute/619106 "2012-04-18T01:11:37Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2012, 1:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/glee-4-17-saturday-night-fever-tribute/619106/1 "2012-04-18T01:11:37Z")
I missed the first 15 minutes or so (came in during “Disco Inferno”) so I’m not sure WHY they were doing a _Saturday Night Fever_ tribute, but that’s what this was. While I was born after the disco era and have little affection for the genre in general or the Bee Gees in specific, I definitely preferred the music in this one to the Britney Spears episode. ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2012, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/glee-4-17-saturday-night-fever-tribute/619106/2 "2012-04-18T03:03:07Z")
I missed the introduction of the Wade character, but he was played by the last of the _Glee Project_ winners, Alex Newell. His musical number tonight was basically what I expected – he’s a good singer, and looks pretty good in drag. On the reality show he said he’d never done drag before but was interested in it, and wound up doing at least two of his performances on _The Glee Project_ in drag. While the sex tape subplot didn’t amount to much (it was presented as something mildly embarrassing that Santana was kind of annoyed about), I did like that – for what I believe was the first time ever on _Glee_ – there was some acknowledgement that Brittany’s lack of intelligence could present problems in her relationship with Santana. I don’t need the Santana/Brittany romance to be particularly serious or realistic (and I’d be watching the wrong show if I did), but all season I’ve felt like the writers have been trying to avoid addressing the fact that the character having a fairly serious arc about being a lesbian in a small town is dating the show’s dimwitted comedy relief. Thinking of comedy relief, I’m pretty sure Brittany’s list of reality shows had “Hoarders” spelled as “Whoreders” – a show that Santana would probably be better qualified for, if it existed. Brittany’s line about having an MRI was also great. And thinking of romantic relationships that I don’t think should be too serious, I’ve been tired of the Rachel/Finn drama since the 2010 Christmas episode. I am tired of hearing about how twoo their wuv is. This is a couple that I have never bought as being well-suited to each other in the long term and that has not yet even managed to stay together for a year without breaking up, so I found it rather disturbing that it was presented as a good and noble thing that Rachel was willing to [offer to] give up her dream of college in New York for a guy she’s on track to have both married and divorced before she’s old enough to legally buy alcohol. ---
**Author:** ![randwill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a3d4f5/32.png) [@randwill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/randwill)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2012, 3:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/glee-4-17-saturday-night-fever-tribute/619106/3 "2012-04-18T03:30:38Z")
I thought this episode was pretty good. One thing I notice about Glee is, I can understand the words to the songs. Songs whose words I had never understood before, even if the song is 30 years old. I never knew what the Bee Gees were singing in **You Should be Dancin’**. “Whatca’ doin’ on your back?” Really? How about that. The kid from other school sub-plot seemed shoe-horned in and didn’t really go anywhere outside of the usual Glee After School Special empowerment route, but I guess they had an obligation to give the winner of that contest some air time. I’m also having a hard time adjusting to kinder, gentler Sue, but otherwise I’d be complaining that here evil schtick was getting old, so they can’t win with me I guess. Yep, pretty good episode as these latter day Glee’s go. ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2012, 3:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/glee-4-17-saturday-night-fever-tribute/619106/4 "2012-04-18T03:52:30Z")
> [@randwill](#): > > The kid from other school sub-plot seemed shoe-horned in and didn’t really go anywhere outside of the usual Glee After School Special empowerment route, but I guess they had an obligation to give the winner of that contest some air time. I had wondered if it just seemed shoe-horned in to me because I missed the opening, but yeah, from what I saw I doubt that there would have been any subplot involving a Vocal Adrenaline member at this point had they not had another _Glee Project_ semi-finalist to work in. I was kind of surprised that Vocal Adrenaline is competing at their Regionals nearly two months after New Directions and the Warblers had theirs, and that Finn still had time left to apply to colleges this year. Maybe it’s still February in the Gleeverse? ---
**Author:** ![notfrommensa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/f14d63/32.png) [@notfrommensa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/notfrommensa)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2012, 3:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/glee-4-17-saturday-night-fever-tribute/619106/5 "2012-04-18T03:54:18Z")
I like Glee better when they don’t attempt to be serious. I thought the opening number was hilarious. the first five minutes was great. the rest of the show, not so much. Quinn must have been rehabbing this week. ---
**Author:** ![Noelq](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/noelq/32/16438_2.png) [@Noelq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Noelq)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2012, 5:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/glee-4-17-saturday-night-fever-tribute/619106/6 "2012-04-18T05:54:24Z")
Awful. Truly awful. Hated all the songs, and Finn needs a throat-slitting to prevent that godsawful falsetto from ever emerging again. NO song integration with the plot, and not even an attempt to try. They did so good last week, but now ha e returned to levels of suck heretofore only reached by “Cop Rock”. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2012, 10:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/glee-4-17-saturday-night-fever-tribute/619106/7 "2012-04-18T10:17:05Z")
They might as well have put on _South Pacific_ and kept singing “You’ve got to have a dream / If you don’t have a dream / How you gonna have a dream come true?” ---
**Author:** ![ASanders](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asanders/32/3367_2.png) [@ASanders](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ASanders)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2012, 11:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/glee-4-17-saturday-night-fever-tribute/619106/8 "2012-04-18T11:24:42Z")
I enjoyed it but am just as happy that disco is dead. My kids thought it was hilarious. ---
**Author:** ![Uncle\_Jocko](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/uncle_jocko/32/2932_2.png) [@Uncle\_Jocko](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Uncle_Jocko)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2012, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/glee-4-17-saturday-night-fever-tribute/619106/9 "2012-04-18T14:43:55Z")
> [@Lamia](#): > > Thinking of comedy relief, I’m pretty sure Brittany’s list of reality shows had “Hoarders” spelled as “Whoreders” – a show that Santana would probably be better qualified for, if it existed. Brittany’s line about having an MRI was also great. This is definitely true. I paused the DVR to confirm. “Whoreders.” Ha! Also, any Glee episode that includes Lord Tubbington footage automatically goes up a notch. > [@notfrommensa](#): > > Quinn must have been rehabbing this week. Yeah, what was up with her absence this week? I counted two quick shots of her in the background (one at the beginning during “Night Fever” and one jamming to Santana’s number, I think), and that was it. Artie was able to get his chair on the dance floor, why not Quinn? I really enjoyed the music. And I agree, it was kind of odd to actually understand the lyrics. The BeeGees weren’t actually singing about getting higher in Milwaukee and blowing in the door in New Orleans? Weird. ---
**Author:** ![twickster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ec9cab/32.png) [@twickster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/twickster)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2012, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/glee-4-17-saturday-night-fever-tribute/619106/10 "2012-04-18T15:19:59Z")
> [@Lamia](#): > > I missed the introduction of the Wade character, but he was played by the last of the _Glee Project_ winners, Alex Newell. His musical number tonight was basically what I expected – he’s a good singer, and looks pretty good in drag. On the reality show he said he’d never done drag before but was interested in it, and wound up doing at least two of his performances on _The Glee Project_ in drag. I didn’t see _Glee Project_, so I’m not clear – was everyone doing drag at some point, or was this something specific that only he did? Were there theme weeks or similar, and if so, what was the theme the week he did drag and no one else did? ---
**Author:** ![CyclopticXander](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/59ef9b/32.png) [@CyclopticXander](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CyclopticXander)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2012, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/glee-4-17-saturday-night-fever-tribute/619106/11 "2012-04-18T21:23:46Z")
> [@twickster](#): > > I didn’t see _Glee Project_, so I’m not clear – was everyone doing drag at some point, or was this something specific that only he did? Were there theme weeks or similar, and if so, what was the theme the week he did drag and no one else did? He was the only one to do it, it’s how he chose to perform two songs from Dreamgirls. The themes those weeks were “tenacity” and “glee-ality”, so they were pretty broad. ---
**Author:** ![Spice\_Weasel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/spice_weasel/32/5435_2.png) [@Spice\_Weasel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spice_Weasel)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2012, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/glee-4-17-saturday-night-fever-tribute/619106/12 "2012-04-18T22:17:58Z")
I just couldn’t get past the disco. I did enjoy the drag performance, though. There is still a lot of prejudice, even in the gay community, against people who are not gender normative, and I’m glad they addressed that. I like to imagine all the social conservatives seething on their sofas. ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [April 18, 2012, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/glee-4-17-saturday-night-fever-tribute/619106/13 "2012-04-18T23:34:43Z")
> [@twickster](#): > > I didn’t see _Glee Project_, so I’m not clear – was everyone doing drag at some point, or was this something specific that only he did? Were there theme weeks or similar, and if so, what was the theme the week he did drag and no one else did? He was the only one to do drag. Every week the contestants did a music video shoot in addition to their elimination round performances, and IIRC Alex first expressed an interest in doing drag when he was working on a duet video for “Nowadays” from _Chicago_ with another contestant named Hannah. There’s a clip on YouTube at [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pwp1W6XVd5g](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pwp1W6XVd5g) He then did an elimination round live performance _not_ in drag, and it’s my recollection that judge Ryan Murphy seemed a little disappointed. Alex did one or two performances in drag after that, perhaps (correctly, it seems) guessing that this would get more attention. > [@olivesmarch4th](#): > > I did enjoy the drag performance, though. There is still a lot of prejudice, even in the gay community, against people who are not gender normative, and I’m glad they addressed that. This may simply have been a consequence of the whole Wade storyline being rushed, but by the standards of _Glee_ it was treated with a remarkable lack of heavyhandedness. Kurt made some assumptions about Wade, Wade corrected him, then Wade went out in a dress and was fabulous. If this character returns then there’s still room to do heavier stuff if the writers want to – being applauded after doing a musical number in drag isn’t the same thing as coming out as genderqueer or transgender and being accepted – but I think that would have felt really forced, preachy, and ultimately insincere if they’d tried to cram all that into a couple of scenes with a character who may never be seen again. ---
**Author:** ![Sleeps\_With\_Butterflies](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bb73d2/32.png) [@Sleeps\_With\_Butterflies](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sleeps_With_Butterflies)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2012, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/glee-4-17-saturday-night-fever-tribute/619106/14 "2012-04-19T00:30:13Z")
I liked it better than recent episodes. They finally broke my suspension of disbelief though and for that show it is _really_ saying something. A video was posted to YouTube and had almost 500 comments with only one being negative? THE HELL YOU SAY! You could post a picture of a puppy popping bubbles with his nose. Bubbles blown by a baby! You’d still have 25% of the comments being awful. ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2012, 1:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/glee-4-17-saturday-night-fever-tribute/619106/15 "2012-04-19T01:13:25Z")
> [@Sleeps\_With\_Butterflies](#): > > A video was posted to YouTube and had almost 500 comments with only one being negative? THE HELL YOU SAY! You could post a picture of a puppy popping bubbles with his nose. Bubbles blown by a baby! You’d still have 25% of the comments being awful. Yeah, in the real world that plan to boost Mercedes’s confidence would have backfired horribly. And aside from all (but one) of the comments being positive, the number of comments apparently matched the number of _views_, which is also extremely unlikely. ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2012, 8:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/glee-4-17-saturday-night-fever-tribute/619106/16 "2012-04-19T20:16:22Z")
I think it would be easier for me to buy Chris Colfer as straight than Jonathan Groff; every time he’s on I think of him as “Rachel’s gay boyfriend”, which is why I was surprised at how ballistic he went over the appearance of Unique. (Not that all gay guys are cool with transgender people, but generally speaking they are cooler than straight guys due to a sort of natural alliance.) OTOH, I thought it unbelievable how cool Wade’s classmates _were_ with Unique (the audience I could believe because most probably just thought Unique was a talented diva)- even outside the south I’m pretty sure you’d have at least a couple of kids freaking out and refusing to perform. That said, I didn’t watch _The Glee Project_ so I’d never seen that performer, but as a guy or as a woman, either way he or she is great. (I honestly don’t know the etiquette for gender nouns in this case since he’s transgender but doesn’t live as the opposite gender yet.) Wade’s also a LOT more interesting and 20 times edgier than most of the Glee cast and would be a great addition, but I doubt we’ll see it as he would p.o. a lot more fans than ‘garden variety gays’ (who most of middle America is more willing to accept for an hour once a week so long as they don’t actually tongue kiss or make references to sex). Chord Overstreet is beautiful to look at, but I couldn’t care less about Sam (or Puck anymore, or most of them really) and we’ve already seen him as naked as primetime will allow, so they need some new blood. Aside from Wade/Unique, the show was usual forgettable GLEE dreck. And I totally understand the “Sue as adversary was boring but Sue as friend is too jarring” camp. Didn’t miss Whitney in the least, and can only assume Santana and Britney are both 18 or over or that would be a crime (as, in fact, mentioned when Puck and Lauren were going to make one [did she change schools? Or abduct Quinn?]). But, as I stated in another thread, this is my Statler & Waldorf show- I’ll keep bitching but for now I’ll also keep watching. ---
**Author:** ![Yookeroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yookeroo/32/323_2.png) [@Yookeroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yookeroo)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2012, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/glee-4-17-saturday-night-fever-tribute/619106/17 "2012-04-19T21:12:02Z")
Are teenagers today really that passionately anti-disco? This isn’t 1978 any more. ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [April 19, 2012, 11:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/glee-4-17-saturday-night-fever-tribute/619106/18 "2012-04-19T23:29:46Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > I think it would be easier for me to buy Chris Colfer as straight than Jonathan Groff; every time he’s on I think of him as “Rachel’s gay boyfriend”, which is why I was surprised at how ballistic he went over the appearance of Unique. (Not that all gay guys are cool with transgender people, but generally speaking they are cooler than straight guys due to a sort of natural alliance.) OTOH, I thought it unbelievable how cool Wade’s classmates _were_ with Unique (the audience I could believe because most probably just thought Unique was a talented diva)- even outside the south I’m pretty sure you’d have at least a couple of kids freaking out and refusing to perform. Since I didn’t see the early part of this episode I may be totally wrong here, but it was my impression that Jesse St. James didn’t care much about Wade’s sexual orientation or gender identity but flipped out because he does care a lot about _winning_ and was afraid that Wade-as-Unique was going to blow their chances of victory at Regionals. Did the other Vocal Adrenaline members know that Wade is genderqueer or transgender, or did they just think he wanted to perform in drag to be funny/different? I could see them being a lot more comfortable with the latter than the former, especially if they thought it would generate buzz for their group or somehow impress the judges. ---
**Author:** ![MaxTheVool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc29f/32.png) [@MaxTheVool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaxTheVool)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2012, 5:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/glee-4-17-saturday-night-fever-tribute/619106/19 "2012-04-20T05:28:31Z")
I thought this was a pretty solid episode. [The Onion AV Club review](http://www.avclub.com/articles/saturday-night-gleever,72240/) said one thing that puzzled me, though… was there a one-line cameo from Neal Patrick Harris that I missed? ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [April 20, 2012, 6:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/glee-4-17-saturday-night-fever-tribute/619106/20 "2012-04-20T06:19:14Z")
> [@MaxTheVool](#): > > I thought this was a pretty solid episode. [The Onion AV Club review](http://www.avclub.com/articles/saturday-night-gleever,72240/) said one thing that puzzled me, though… was there a one-line cameo from Neal Patrick Harris that I missed? I didn’t spot it, but my guess would be it was in the flashback to Will’s high school Glee Club (where NPH’s character was his nemesis). [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/glee-4-17-saturday-night-fever-tribute/619106.md?page=2)