The Simpsons' 10 Most Desperate Attempts To Boost Ratings
1. The Gay Card - 'There's Something About Marrying' - S16, E10
Due to Bart and Milhouse pranking a town reviewer, Springfield receives negative publicity. As an attempt to boost tourism and prove to the rest of the world that the town isn’t all that bad, Mayor Quimby agrees to legalise same-sex marriage.
With same-sex ceremonies being rejected by Reverend Lovejoy (naturally), Homer decides to cash in on the opportunity and becomes ordained, marrying anyone and everyone. Feeling that now is the time to make it public, Patty comes out as a lesbian and is planning on marrying her pro-golfer partner.
Marge isn’t exactly all onboard with the idea and the tension between the two rises. Suspicious of her soon to be sister-in-law, Marge discovers that Veronica is a man. For some reason, this makes Marge more accepting of the marriage between her sister and the golfer.
During the ceremony, Marge gets Veronica to confess. Patty’s betrothed claims that he pretended to be a woman so he could make it on the Women’s golf circuit. Despite Patty’s fiancé claiming to still be in love with her, and Marge still encouraging the union, Patty calls off the wedding, making it loud and clear that she ‘likes women.’
In terms of some of the themes, this episode is ahead of its time and confidently discusses the right to be open and accepted regardless of an individual’s sexuality. However, the song ‘gay-o, it’s okay-o’ doesn’t make it seem as if the writers are being as sensitive to it as they could.
What this episode really fails with, and comes across as unaccepting and bigoted, is the depiction of trans people. When Marge discovers Veronica’s secret, Patty’s fiancé is shaving whilst singing ‘Dude Looks Like a Lady.’
Around the time of this episode’s original transmission in 2005, Canada had legalised same-sex marriage, and the discussion for this was also happening across several states in the US. While on one hand, this episode’s topic was a way of making The Simpsons topical. On the other, the show didn’t present it in the best way, coming across as just a cash-in, while disparaging another section of marginalised people.