Are they supposed to be gay?
-
Platonic_Caveman — 4 years ago(July 10, 2021 06:28 PM)
Felix was definitely the bottom.
Actually, when Neil Simon was alive and writing, gay males would often pose as two bachelors who lived together, even dating women, often lesbians in need of a cover as well, who posed as their beards.
Administrator
"filmboards is a bold experiment in free speech and anarchy"
I GameBoy -
TheAdlerian — 4 years ago(July 10, 2021 06:32 PM)
No.
They were supposed to be "neurotic" people.
Alfred Adler gave a definition of "neurotic" which was a fully capable person who makes all kinds of excuses to not do what he knows makes sense, then feels bad that he didn't do the thing that makes sense.
So, Felix is precise, super organized, smart, and so on BUT he can't relative to people, so he can't stay married, and so his LIFE is a MESS.
His socks are perfectly organized but he has no life or love.
Thus, Felix is a neurotic failure who thinks he's perfect because his socks are organized.
The show was about two people who created a private hell for themselves through their personalities and can't get along with anyone.
The moral of the story is, don't be set in your ways. -
TheAdlerian — 4 years ago(July 10, 2021 06:50 PM)
See my answer below.
Felix has a similar personality as Sherlock Holmes who is a favorite character of mine.
It's based on the idea in psychology of a Perfectionist.
That's someone focused on details so much they don't really function well in life. That's because life is random and they can't take it. So, the "perfect person" ends up very imperfect because they can't deal with life. -
TheAdlerian — 4 years ago(July 10, 2021 06:47 PM)
Right but overtly on the show they did not see at all homosexual.
This is another example of the "that's gay" thing.
I actually watched The Odd Couple as a very little kid with my family. They and many others loved the characters.
The explanation was that their obsessions ruined their lives in a comical way.
Felix is also an example of a Perfectionist-Faliure from psychology. This type of person is talked about a lot in psychotherapy.
Sherlock Holmes is a Perfectionist-Failure also.
So, the gay thing wasn't thought of. However, NOW if you guys are friends and support each other they must want to ass ****.
That's a puerile message.
The Odd Couple is a whole huge psychological show. It's childish to assume it's just about two guys who want to ****.
If they are homosexuals, it would be because of their neurosis. -
Platonic_Caveman — 4 years ago(July 10, 2021 07:58 PM)
So ostensibly the two characters were not presented as homosexuals because in those times that would have been unacceptable and his play would never have been produced.
However, the fact that the author was popular in the gay community, and that gay men in those times often posed as heterosexual roommates as a professional cover, leads one to believe the story was based on a real life homosexual relationship. The true Odd Couple were gay. The inspiration was homosexual. Straight males didn't live like that.
And children should not be thinking about two guys ****ing.
Administrator
"filmboards is a bold experiment in free speech and anarchy"
I GameBoy -
Deluded Juice — 4 years ago(July 10, 2021 08:13 PM)
There are a lot of gays involved in theatre and Simon's productions all started out on the stage before they were movies so there ya go.
I never thought of Felix and Oscar as being gay until now but the more I think about it the more it sure seems like it is possible that they were.
I do not buy into the idea that a lot of buddy movies where they are like a lot of times I have seen posters suggest it for other movies.
It gets ridiculous.
But these two are fitting in with the typical signs of gayness for characters. -
Platonic_Caveman — 4 years ago(July 10, 2021 08:34 PM)
Adlerian is pretending this is similar to ridiculous charges that there is homosexual sublimation in everything, like Batman and Robin for example.
But you used the word "supposed". Of course as represented, the Odd Couple were heterosexuals. But I believe it was based on a homosexual relationship.
Administrator
"filmboards is a bold experiment in free speech and anarchy"
I GameBoy -
Deluded Juice — 4 years ago(July 10, 2021 07:12 PM)
In your opinion or have you ever heard that Tony Unger was a friend of Dorothy?
He was a breeder at a late age and some chick claims he was doing that to hide being gay.
I think that was just her speculation.
What do you think or what have you may have heard?
Wait.
Tony Unger?
LOL
I was combining two names and didn't mean to!
I mean Tony Randall!
Not Felix Unger. -
Platonic_Caveman — 4 years ago(July 11, 2021 04:43 AM)
Okay, my bad, the OP said Neil Simon was gay so I went with that. I googled a bit and I can't find any evidence that Simon was gay. However, Simon had a following in the gay community and the homosexual aura of
The Odd Couple
is widely discussed.
Tony Randal was not gay either. But he played a gay stereotype. And he did play a closeted gay man in a tv series,
Love, Sydney
.
What Neil Simon Gave His LGBTQ Audience
When considering what is there in Simon’s work for the LGBTQ community, one has to consider The Odd Couple. Though ostensibly the story of a pair of bachelor roommates, fussy Felix and outré Oscar, the play (which went on to become a film and television series) was, in many ways, a portrait of day-to-day male couplehood that one could describe as proto-gay. Also, without Felix and Oscar, we wouldn’t have had Bert and Ernie — the Sesame Street characters that gave many of us our first ideas of what a life could look like outside a traditional heterosexual-couple-as-heads-of-household paradigm.
https://metrosource.com/how-should-the-lgbtq-community-remember-neil-simon/
Administrator
"filmboards is a bold experiment in free speech and anarchy"
I GameBoy -
I love hutch — 4 years ago(July 11, 2021 05:10 AM)
I always thought that Tony Randall was gay. But regardless, he did come across as effeminate. Even in "Pillow Talk", I thought he was prissy.
In the movie version, Jack Lemmon does not seem gay or behave effeminately.
"My life is over. I might as well dance with Johnny Slash!" -
Platonic_Caveman — 4 years ago(July 11, 2021 06:25 AM)
Actually, while Tony Randall often plays a gay stereotype, Jack Lemmon tends to play characters more like gay men in real life. Just my observation.
Administrator
"filmboards is a bold experiment in free speech and anarchy"
I GameBoy