# What's the deal with gay men loving the Golden Girls? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 20, 2004, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-gay-men-loving-the-golden-girls/225339 "2004-01-20T16:30:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![plnnr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/7ea924/32.png) [@plnnr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/plnnr)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2004, 1:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-gay-men-loving-the-golden-girls/225339/21 "2004-01-21T13:39:55Z")
> [@gobear](#): > > Hmm, never noticed that, but then the guys I hang out with are much more into Monster Garage and American Chopper, partially because they’re into bikes, and partially because Jesse James and the muscle daddy on AC are hot! Preach it, brother. ---
**Author:** ![ElvisL1ves](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5daacb/32.png) [@ElvisL1ves](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ElvisL1ves)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2004, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-gay-men-loving-the-golden-girls/225339/22 "2004-01-21T17:14:46Z")
That’s it? Because Bea Arthur looks and sounds like a drag queen? This straight guy liked the show because the scripts were funny and because Betty White can keep a straight face while telling a story that cracked up the others out of character. That was part of the attraction of the Carol Burnett Show, too - Tim Conway’s ability to destroy Harvey Korman in a scene while maintaining perfect self-control. ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2004, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-gay-men-loving-the-golden-girls/225339/23 "2004-01-21T17:24:58Z")
Are there any links anywhere to Rose’s St. Olaf stories? I’d love to hear the one about [paraphrasing] Irma Steppe, the town’s hairdresser, and how she ran off with Otto Fetchit, the dance instructor. ---
**Author:** ![cuauhtemoc](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ecb155/32.png) [@cuauhtemoc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cuauhtemoc)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2004, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-gay-men-loving-the-golden-girls/225339/24 "2004-01-21T18:21:36Z")
I’m not gay and I loved _The Golden Girls!_ In fact, I’ve written a script, in case they ever decide to get back together: > [@](#): > > Rose: Hey girls! Do you think _\_? > > Dorothy: No, Rose. _\_. > > Sofia: Please! I’m eighty years old! _\_. > > Blanche: I have to go hump something now. Ha! That’s comedy gold, right there. Plus, it really makes you think. ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2004, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-gay-men-loving-the-golden-girls/225339/25 "2004-01-21T20:36:45Z")
Rose: “Between the Lindstroms and the Johanssens there was a great herring battle.The two families controlled the most fertille herring waters off the coast of Norway. The Johanssens wanted to pickle the herring but the Lindstroms wanted to train them for the circus.” Blanche: “Wouldn’t it be kind of hard to see the little herrings riding the elephants?” Rose: “No, it was a herring circus.” Dorothy: “Tell me something, Rose. Did they ever shoot a herring out of a cannon?” Rose: “Only once. But they shot him into a tree. After that, no other herring would do it!” Blanche: “You’re makin’ this up!” Rose: “I am not! My grandfather told me that story! Of course, he always used to call me by my sister’s name. And sometimes he’d wear his underwear on the outside of his pants. Guess he wasn’t a very reliable source . . .” ---
**Author:** ![Sampiro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/2acd7d/32.png) [@Sampiro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sampiro)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2004, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-gay-men-loving-the-golden-girls/225339/26 "2004-01-21T20:48:32Z")
> [@Eve](#): > > Are there any links anywhere to Rose’s St. Olaf stories? I’d love to hear the one about [paraphrasing] Irma Steppe, the town’s hairdresser, and how she ran off with Otto Fetchit, the dance instructor. I’ve always wondered if those were at least somewhat improvised, because unlike the rest of the show they maintained the same voice and remained funny throughout the run of the series (which I think was from 1954-1998; by the end Sophia had to have been older than Miss Jane Pittman). Never more than mediocre imo (especially when compared to _SOAP_ , Susan Harris’ other brainchild), Golden Girls evolved into what was probably the worst spinoff not associated with _The Jeffersons_ or _Dukes of Hazzard_. However, did anybody see the hysterical _Sunset Blvd._ episode of _The John Larroquette Show_? Betty White played a campy version of her post-Golden self, an insanely rich megalomaniacal intent on a comeback in “ST. OLAF THE MUSICAL” who falls in love with John Laroquette and gives him a gold cigarette case engraved “I was bought by Miss Betty White”; Rue and Estelle played themselves as the “waxworks”. (Bea sat this one out but was hysterical as Dewey’s babysitter in an episode of _Malcolm in the Middle_. (Supposedly she’s in talks to eventually reprise her role as Yenta the Matchmaker in the new Alfred Molina version of _Fiddler on the Roof_, though it’s a small role for a star of her magnitude.) ---
**Author:** ![cuauhtemoc](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ecb155/32.png) [@cuauhtemoc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cuauhtemoc)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2004, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-gay-men-loving-the-golden-girls/225339/27 "2004-01-21T21:22:55Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > …remained funny throughout the run of the series (which I think was from 1954-1998; Wow, that has to be some kind of record! Anybody remember the Saturday Night Live skit they did where Chris Kattan was a _Golden Girls_ fanboi, getting together with his friends to dress like the characters and reenact episodes until he succumbed to a tragic cheesecake accident? ---
**Author:** ![Eve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Eve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eve)\ **Post date:** [January 21, 2004, 9:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-gay-men-loving-the-golden-girls/225339/28 "2004-01-21T21:29:27Z")
> [@Sampiro](#): > > I’ve always wondered if those were at least somewhat improvised, because unlike the rest of the show they maintained the same voice and remained funny throughout the run of the series I’d think that would speak _against_ their having been improvised. Improv is never consistently funny (indeed, is rarely funny at all . . .) ---
**Author:** ![Hamish](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/a5b964/32.png) [@Hamish](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hamish)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2004, 2:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-gay-men-loving-the-golden-girls/225339/29 "2004-01-22T02:40:40Z")
I have been openly gay for almost exactly eleven years. In all that time, the gay men/_Golden Girls_ connection was never once mentioned to me until this week. Then it came up for a third time, at a gay men’s discussion group I went to tonight. What is that? Why was I the last to be informed? Oh, and for **Eve** , I found a few of the St. Olaf stories programmed into a very campy little game run out of Lifetime TV’s _Golden Girls_ [website](http://www.lifetimetv.com/shows/golden/). [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-the-deal-with-gay-men-loving-the-golden-girls/225339.md?page=1)