# Tarzan is Straight, right? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [May 23, 2008, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tarzan-is-straight-right/450310 "2008-05-23T00:53:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2008, 12:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tarzan-is-straight-right/450310/1 "2008-05-23T00:53:27Z")
See the 22 May [comic.](http://www.comics.com/comics/tarzan/index.html) ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2008, 1:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tarzan-is-straight-right/450310/2 "2008-05-23T01:09:01Z")
I’m not really seeing the gay subtext in that one. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2008, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tarzan-is-straight-right/450310/3 "2008-05-23T01:12:19Z")
[QUOTE=Miller] I’m not really seeing the gay subtext in that one. [/QUOTE] He’s been hanging out with this kid in some secret lost city the kid calls “Tarzan Land”. There are really weird overtones if you’ve been bored enough to read the strip for a few weeks. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2008, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tarzan-is-straight-right/450310/4 "2008-05-23T01:54:58Z")
I’ve seen Batman and Robin exchanges that were way gayer. Okay, all of them. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2008, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tarzan-is-straight-right/450310/5 "2008-05-23T02:05:45Z")
[Only I don’t want anybody here but us!](http://www.comics.com/comics/tarzan/archive/tarzan-20080426.html) Damn, they’ve spent a month on this old parachutist scientist guy. > [@Bryan Ekers](#): > > I’ve seen Batman and Robin exchanges that were way gayer Holy D cell Batman, is that a flashlight in your utility belt, or are you just glad to… ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2008, 2:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tarzan-is-straight-right/450310/6 "2008-05-23T02:12:16Z")
Gay or straight, he certainly speaks better than I’ve been accustomed to. ---
**Author:** ![Terrifel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c68b51/32.png) [@Terrifel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terrifel)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2008, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tarzan-is-straight-right/450310/7 "2008-05-23T02:13:00Z")
Man, Edgar Rice Burroughs really needs to hang it up. I’m not gay, but even I can appreciate how non-homoerotic this Tarzan is compared to pretty much any other incarnation of Tarzan. Where’s the vine-swinging, chest-beating, and wrestling with limber, sinewy, oiled gomangani? Instead he’s just aimlessly wandering the forest floor with Dondi. Tarzan wouldn’t have a haircut like that either. I can feel myself getting even less gay by the moment just by looking at it. ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2008, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tarzan-is-straight-right/450310/8 "2008-05-23T02:26:13Z")
Not getting it from that strip. But I always thought he was into bestiality. ---
**Author:** ![Manduck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/manduck/32/256_2.png) [@Manduck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Manduck)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2008, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tarzan-is-straight-right/450310/9 "2008-05-23T02:33:33Z")
Look, he can’t waste his time on gayness while **good people** all over the world are killed by **evil scientists** :mad: ---
**Author:** ![Chimera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/8e8cbc/32.png) [@Chimera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chimera)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2008, 2:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tarzan-is-straight-right/450310/10 "2008-05-23T02:36:28Z")
[QUOTE=Manduck] Look, he can’t waste his time on gayness while **good people** all over the world are killed by **evil scientists** :mad: [/QUOTE] You win the thread. I bow to your superior wit. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![jayjay](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jayjay/32/6765_2.png) [@jayjay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jayjay)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2008, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tarzan-is-straight-right/450310/11 "2008-05-23T03:11:43Z")
I can’t figure out why neither the Comics Curmudgeon nor the League of Amateur Mudges has never even mentioned this strip… ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2008, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tarzan-is-straight-right/450310/12 "2008-05-23T03:21:57Z")
[QUOTE=Chimera] You win the thread. I bow to your superior wit. 😛 [/QUOTE] I concur. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2008, 3:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tarzan-is-straight-right/450310/13 "2008-05-23T03:58:59Z")
Least gay homoerotic comic strip ever. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2008, 5:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tarzan-is-straight-right/450310/14 "2008-05-23T05:06:26Z")
Tarzan not gay! Tarzan _swinger!_ ---
**Author:** ![JThunder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/e95f7d/32.png) [@JThunder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JThunder)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2008, 6:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tarzan-is-straight-right/450310/15 "2008-05-23T06:16:05Z")
Dude, he swings both ways. ---
**Author:** ![outlierrn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/outlierrn/32/3005_2.png) [@outlierrn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/outlierrn)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2008, 6:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tarzan-is-straight-right/450310/16 "2008-05-23T06:16:54Z")
Tarzan put grr in swinger baby, yeah ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2008, 6:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tarzan-is-straight-right/450310/17 "2008-05-23T06:45:39Z")
He admitted that he was penetrated by a couple of bonobos once at a party when he was a teenager, but said it was just because of the time and a question over who was dominant, and that the bonobos who he later penetrated he did purely for male primacy reasons and “it mean not to Tarzan, Jane, I not enjoy at all! Your red engorged ass is one make Tarzan’s loin cloth rise even when not needing to prove me Tarzan worthy of best termites!” ---
**Author:** ![Baldwin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/baldwin/32/7264_2.png) [@Baldwin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baldwin)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2008, 10:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tarzan-is-straight-right/450310/18 "2008-05-23T10:25:44Z")
If this comic strip has anything to do with Burroughs’ Tarzan, he should speak perfectly good English (along with a number of other languages). It doesn’t seem homoerotic to me, just kind of dull and slow-moving. That boy is a little psycho, and doesn’t understand the danger posed by _ **EVIL SCIENTISTS** _. The Sunday strips seem to be carrying on a completely separate storyline; I remember Alley Oop used to do that. I’m old. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2008, 12:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tarzan-is-straight-right/450310/19 "2008-05-23T12:38:58Z")
[QUOTE=Baldwin] The Sunday strips seem to be carrying on a completely separate storyline; [/QUOTE] Looks like different artwork, too. Tarzan learned French first from a Belgian guy, did he not? ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [May 23, 2008, 3:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tarzan-is-straight-right/450310/20 "2008-05-23T15:43:39Z")
Correct. Of course, he taught himself to READ english from the books left behind in his parent’s cabin, he just didn’t know how to speak it. He learned english from a Belgian guy when he first left the jungle to track down Jane. This element was used in the “Greystoke” movie, which featured the amusing spectacle of a Belgian guy pointing to a razor and saying “Rrrraisor” in a thick Belgian French accent, and then Tarzan repeating “Ra-zor” in an American accent. See, I have no problem with the idea of Tarzan–who after all can perfectly mimic every sound in the jungle–easily learning english while traveling a few months across the jungle with a Belgian. Except, he should end up speaking english with a Belgian accent, and only learn to speak with an English or American accent when he could listen to some native speakers and mimic them. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/tarzan-is-straight-right/450310.md?page=2)