Dennis Day's gay double-entendres?

[BT]

In the Wikipedia entry on Jack Benny, I see where someone recently deleted a description that Dennis Day's "double-entendre's coyly suggested homosexuality" (or something close to that).

I agree with earlier version--it always has seemed to me that there was a sort of coded gay humor in Dennis' role: he would do things like wolf-whistle at Benny wearing shorts, then have Benny dismiss him as "silly." But the person who edited the wikipedia listing (wikipedia is an online enyclopedia that literally anybody can freely add to or edit) claimed to be a veteran Benny show listener and viewer, and he or she never perceived any hint of double-entendre in Day's performance.

What do you all think?

[BT]

50+ "views" and no comments? I thought folks would have an opinion about this...

[Jack Benny]

I don't think you have gotten any relpies because there was no gay subtext. Dennis was a red blooded american boy. No subtext. Goofy yes, gay no.

[mjacobs]

In the Wikipedia entry on Jack Benny, I see where someone recently deleted a description that Dennis Day's "double-entendre's coyly suggested homosexuality" (or something close to that).

I agree with earlier version--it always has seemed to me that there was a sort of coded gay humor in Dennis' role: he would do things like wolf-whistle at Benny wearing shorts, then have Benny dismiss him as "silly." But the person who edited the wikipedia listing (wikipedia is an online enyclopedia that literally anybody can freely add to or edit) claimed to be a veteran Benny show listener and viewer, and he or she never perceived any hint of double-entendre in Day's performance.

What do you all think?

I'm not sure. However, you brought to mind a TV episode guest starring Mamie Van Doren. In one scene, Mamie tried to coax Dennis to let her sing in his place, using her sex appeal as persuasion. Dennis' response was: "Get this crazy dame away from me before I belt her one!"

Might this have been indicative of his sexual orientation or was he just acting like a prepubescent boy?

[Brad]

. Dennis' response was: "Get this crazy dame away from me before I belt her one!"

Might this have been indicative of his sexual orientation or was he just acting like a prepubescent boy?

Prepubescent boy.

[shimp scrampi]

There's a difference between mining the humor at the edges of traditional gender roles and an actor's (or even character's) sexual orientation! I think it is naive to assume that Jack's writers & cast were totally ignorant of some double-meanings here and there. These folks were living in Hollywood, after all! It's not just Dennis, either. Jack was often mocked for his effeminate walk or hand gestures; throwing Don into a ballerina outfit was done a couple of times on the TV show. It's a LONG tradition in comedy.

Watching an episode of the TV show with Bob Hope, he and Jack are on Safari in Africa. They are carrying a dead tiger along that is seen from one side. When Jack mentions there aren't any tigers in Africa, the prop flips around and is a leopard on the other side. Jack mentions he'd been seeing a "Veterinarian in Denmark". Bob ad-libs,"I wondered why he had his hand on his hip when I shot him!", which breaks Jack up.

So Dennis got a lot of laughs by not reacting like the stereotypical "straight macho man" to certain situations. Dennis' legion of real-life children, however, argue that the actor himself had more than a passing interest in women!

[mjacobs]

Yes, of course. I remember on the 1970 TV special, we got to see Dennis' "legion of children." ha ha

When I was referring to Dennis' sexual orientation, I was thinking in terms of Dennis Day the CHARACTER, not Dennis Day the ACTOR.

[BT]

When I was referring to Dennis' sexual orientation, I was thinking in terms of Dennis Day the CHARACTER, not Dennis Day the ACTOR.

I hope that distiction was clear in my original post. Dennis Day's sexual orientation is completely irrelevant to this topic. It's a question of whether his character "min[es] the humor at the edges of traditional gender roles," as mjacobs put it. I concur with mjacobs that there is a strata of humor about masculinity that runs through the show, and Jack's "effeminacy" is part of it. (If there's any doubt, I'm talking about the Jack Benny character--his offscreen life has nothing to do with this). I'd say the Don Wilson example has more to do with the endless humiliations that Don is subject to as Benny's underling than with any sexual desires, unless there was a bit about Don trying on the tutu and deciding he'd like to wear it home, or something. But it seems to me that the Dennis character goes further than Jack or any of the others toward representing a gay impulse, though of course such a thing is never made explicit, and it can always be presented as a result of the character's overwhelming naivite about the way the world is supposed to work. Anyway, nice to see that some others observed similar things.

[BT]

What's the "ha ha"-provoking story about Dennis' "legion of children"?--I'm not familiar with that.

Also, some younger readers might not understand that "Veterinarian from Denmark" joke: Denmark was famous as the one place where sex-change operations were performed.

[BT]

Oops--I see that I mistakenly attributed shimp scrampi's nice line about gender role humor to someone else. Sorry.

[mjacobs]

What's the "ha ha"-provoking story about Dennis' "legion of children"?--I'm not familiar with that.

Also, some younger readers might not understand that "Veterinarian from Denmark" joke: Denmark was famous as the one place where sex-change operations were performed.

Well, I hadn't seen the TV special in awhile, so the part with Dennis is a little fuzzy. I do remember him bringing out lots of children, presumably all his.

[Jack Benny]

In the "Johnny Ray" episode of the Jack Benny TV series, is the most over the top yet funny scene that I have seen so far. Jack is told that Johnny get s $10,000 for guest spots on shows because he drives women wild with his signing and some even start to rip their clothes off. Jack goes to Johnny's house to try and get him to perform for $250 instead. Johnny performs two of his songs for Jack, and Jack gets so worked up over Johnny's performance of the songs that Jack starts tearing his own clothes off, and in the end he crawls over to the original $10,000 dollar contract and signs it.

[shimp scrampi]

Yeah, I understood that the post was about the Dennis character, but darn it, these people who use their real-life names and so on lead to some confusion!

Anyway, just to restate, I think the writers were definitely aware of some vague gender-bending/gay-humor aspects to Dennis' character, but they are just a small part of Dennis' utterly surreal, detached-from-reality persona ("I broke my leg this morning but I'm all right now!"). Jack et. al were part of a creative community and undoubtedly had many friends and associates who were gay, they weren't ignorant of that kind of sensibility. As to Dennis, he's hardly confined by the laws of physics, let alone the norms of gender roles. But, I don't think he was specifically designed to be a continuous "wink wink" "gay" character sending subversive messages out to those who might get it.

Ironically, a lot of these examples of so called "gay" jokes seem so benevolent, certainly a lot less malicious than what comes out in our supposedly more enlightened age. Any of these kinds of jokes on a modern sitcom, done by a "straight" character would predictably involve lots of derisive innuendo about the character's sex habits.

[haverpopper]

I don't think you have gotten any relpies because there was no gay subtext. Dennis was a red blooded american boy. No subtext. Goofy yes, gay no.

I can totally see a gay subtext to Dennis's character. (Like others have said, the real Dennis Day was another matter, as testified by all his kids.) But there are plenty of examples of Dennis doing "gay" things, as the original poster pointed out. Nothing wrong with that, and even if Dennis was meant to be a type of gay figure doesn't mean he wasn't a "red blooded American boy" as well.

Not that I think Dennis was meant to be an exclusively gay character; there are just as many examples of him wolf whistling attractive ladies as well.

And don't forget, there were other almost explicitly gay characters on the show. Just yesterday I listened to a show where the gang are in Palm Springs, and Jack hires a very effiminate bodyguard. It's pretty clear the guy's supposed to be gay.

[Huxley]

I've listened to a ton of episodes recently and I think people are overlooking the fact that Dennis refers to his 'Girl' or 'Dame' on many episodes.. And Dennis also sang many love ballads, all aimed at the opposite sex. Honestly, Dennis was just a gangly kid that was a good foil for Jack's humour, that's all.