Comedian Jerrod Carmichael recently surprised audiences by coming out in his newly released HBO special Rothaniel. His announcement was met with thunderous applause, and followed up with a hosting gig during last weekend’s Saturday Night Live.
Carmichael is now part of a growing group of hilarious, out, male comedians who are making comedy a more welcoming place for queer men. While there are thankfully many to choose from, here are five who especially tickle our funny bone and who are staying active with upcoming projects.
Jaboukie Young-White
This 27-year-old comedian first came out as queer during his first appearance on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. However, he is perhaps best known for being a correspondent on The Daily Show with Trevor Noah, He quietly left the show in November 2021 and is working as a writer and executive producer on the upcoming HBO series adaptation of the book The Gang’s All Queer: The Lives of Gay Gang Members.
Joel Kim Booster
After breaking into the comedy scene, this South Korean-born comedian released their debut stand-up album, Model Minority, which covered racism in the gay community and his experiences defying stereotypes about Asian Americans. Booster has since worked as a writer for the queer-inclusive adult cartoon Big Mouth, served as a regular panelist on the NPR trivia show Wait, Wait… Don’t Tell Me! and will soon appear alongside fellow gay Asian comic Bowen Yang in the gay romantic comedy Fire Island.
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Julio Torres
The deadpan delivery and wry observations of this El Salvadorian comedian have made him an understated favorite. He has written iconic queer sketches on Saturday Night Live, such as “Wells for Boys” and “Cheques”, but he’s perhaps best known for his work on the Netflix comedy series Los Espookys (which just wrapped up filming its second season).
Mawaan Rizwan
This 29-year-old Pakistani-born comedian actually began making YouTube videos at age 16. He filmed the documentary How Gay Is Pakistan?, worked as a writer on the queer Netflix dreamed series Sex Education and opened for Queer Eye‘s nonbinary fashion maven Jonathan Van Ness on tour. Last year, the BBC’s Comedy Association awarded him as the first Young People’s Comedy Laureate.
Matteo Lane
The trained opera singer often throws attention-grabbing musical performances into his acts which cover dating, homophobia and his life in New York City. He has performed as a stand-up comedian since 2014 and has appeared on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, Late Night with Seth Meyers and a handful of comedy specials. While he has been recognized as an important contributor to the increasingly accepting comedy world, he has also acknowledged that gay comedians existed long before he and his peers came around.
Mr. Stadnick
Mawaan Rizwan is brilliant.
Donston
I do appreciate that Jerrod has handled his journey and struggles in a far more tactful way than many others. He hasn’t been publicly messy, hasn’t been publicly “problematic”, hasn’t used hetero-normalcy and hetero dynamics to build his image and brand, hasn’t indulged gay panic or been covertly anti-gay, didn’t ever really try to deny or lie or manipulate, didn’t wait until he was irrelevant to be unabashedly “out”, didn’t try to exploit his queerness for relevance and clout and money. All of this is borderline unusual for public figures (especially dudes) trying to be publicly “out” or trying to gain self-comfort or trying to understand the dimensions of their sexuality or where they are in the gender, sexual, affection, romantic attachment, emotional investment, commitment spectrum. So, there really is no angle to throw hate at him. I also imagine that if you’re a comedian that’s trying to use your life and experiences as comedy and trying to “keep it real”, it’s very difficult to feel as if you’re doing so if you’re also kinda shielding homosexuality/not having overall hetero leanings and ambitions/having serious gay love and commitments and investments.
Kangol2
Hmm. Well, if you go to YouTube you can see how at one point Jerrod Carmichael was kind of playing the toxic hetero comic role, with clips about how he was going to cheat on his wife, and how to be the “best” boyfriend for a woman, etc. He also made the announcement of dating White women (and in the new special, announces that he’s got a White boyfriend). With him there’s always been an undertone of something unacknowledged, something he was wrestling with but couldn’t share publicly, that came through even when he had The Carmichael Show, where he played a straight version of himself. I say this not to “throw hate” at him–I praise his finally coming out, and his earlier step of opening the door–but to say that with him it’s been a little more complex.
Donston
The standards are fairly low for male public figures. Very few can avoid being closeted without being messy. And often times, when they “come out” they’re even more messy or insecure or automatically become “queer pride” leeches. While let’s be honest, there’s another layer when you’re a “straight presenting”, successful black male and a lot of your fan base is made up of “straight presenting” black males, and you’re from a religious family. So, I’ll take a couple of hetero jokes in his stand-up acts compared to how messy and/or cringe-y and/or “problematic” some get.
Mister P
Those are very nice comments Donston.
JessPH
Matteo Lane is hilarious
Thad
It’s about time. I’ve been laughing at lesbian comics like Cara Connors (she’s great) and it’s time I added some guys to the humor mix.