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Playing With / Gay Aesop

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Basic Trope: An Aesop that homosexuality isn't inherently bad.

  • Straight: When Alice comes out as a lesbian, Bob acts very homophobic, but then learns that "homosexuals are people too."
  • Exaggerated: The whole cast is gay, except Bob, who hates gays so much he wishes death on them, but then he turns out to be gay himself.
  • Downplayed: When Alice comes out as a lesbian, Bob doesn't mind, but does have to learn that using "gay" as a derogatory is not cool.
  • Justified:
    • Bob was raised as homophobic.
    • Bob is ignorant about homosexuality.
    • Bob is angry because he has a crush on Alice.
  • Inverted:
    • Everybody is gay but Alice.
    • Bob is heterophobic, and Alice comes out as straight.
    • It's Bob who teaches the anti-homophobic characters to oppose Alice's homosexuality.
  • Subverted:
    • Bob turns homophobic again.
    • It was All Just a Dream.
    • Alice turns out not to be a lesbian.
  • Double Subverted:
    • Bob learns his lesson about homophobia again.
    • The dreaming character wakes up and finds out Alice is gay and Bob is homophobic.
    • Another character turns out to be gay.
  • Parodied: Bob spends the entire episode learning to be accepting of Alice for being gay, despite the fact that Alice isn't gay at all. She just dyed her hair blue, and Bob thinks this automatically makes her a lesbian.
  • Zig-Zagged: There is a gay aesop every few episodes, due to Aesop Amnesia, but sometimes, it is subverted.
  • Averted:
  • Enforced: Writer on Board
  • Lampshaded: "Being gay is not a bad thing, Bob."
  • Invoked: Charlie, who is gay, moves in just to teach Bob not to be homophobic.
  • Exploited: Alice gets together with Betty as a result of Bob not being homophobic anymore.
  • Defied: Bob refuses to learn anything new.
  • Discussed: "Bob really needs to learn about not being homophobic. Maybe we can teach him."
  • Conversed: "It's a bit clichéd having An Aesop, but it's probably necessary, especially the one about homophobia: homophobia is out of the question!"
  • Deconstructed: It's not that easy to change prejudice. Bob doubles down on his homophobia and leaves Alice.
  • Reconstructed: The Aesop is delivered as a long Story Arc in which Bob gradually overcomes his prejudice rather than as a self-contained single-episode story.

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