Pillow Talk

One of the kids on Netflix’s puberty comedy ‘Big Mouth’ came out as bi

Big Mouth, Netflix

The second season of Big Mouth, Netflix’s cartoon comedy about the trials and tribulations of adolescence, is fixated on the same issues as the first: uncomfortably and entirely relatable gags about boobs, stray pubes and “rubbing fronts.” But this season includes an unexpected gem: Jay Bilzerian, the 13-year-old hornball who practices magic tricks and has sex with pillows, more or less comes out as bi.

In Big Mouth, the heartaches and desires of the pre-teen characters are personified by hairy, horned “hormone monsters” that serve as emotional, hilarious joke-cracking guides through the land of sexual maturation.

Related: Netflix is about to get even gayer

Although Bilzerian is a side-character, he’s also a close friend to the show’s main characters and is surprisingly complex. In the first season, we learn that his father is a shady divorce lawyer who regularly cheats on his mom. He also has two older abusive brothers and a curiously self-aware and depressed pet pit bull.

Spoiler Alert: In the second season’s ninth episode, Bilzerian makes out with Matthew, the show’s only openly gay pre-teen character (voiced by openly gay actor Andrew Rannells), during a spin-the-bottle game called “Smooch or Share.” While their initial kiss (with tongue) initially comes off as the two literally kissing and making up from a fight they had earlier in the show, the two meet up later on for more flirting and kissing during a debaucherous lock-in in the school gymnasium.

Previous to Season Two, Bilzerian had only expressed interest in girls and a female pillow named Pam. The show could have left his kiss with Matthew at that, giving its gay fans an unexpected moment of same-sex smooching. But then, in Season Two’s final episode, Bilzerian struggles with feeling attracted to both a male and female pillow.

Big Mouth, bisexual, Jay Bilzerian

The female pillow, Suzette, initially tells him that he has to decide which one he feels more attracted to. But by the episode’s end, Jay has a threesome with both of the pillows, pretty much establishing himself as attracted to more than just one gender. (Though considering his attraction to pillows, perhaps it’s more accurate to call him pansexual.)

Related: WATCH: Everyone’s soaking wet on Courtney Act’s new bisexual dating show

Big Mouth fans on Twitter were impressed with Bilzerian’s coming out story and shared their enthusiasm on Twitter:

While we’re happy to see Big Mouth feature a pansexual preteen, the show proved itself to be quite progressive in its queer and sexual views long before its final episodes. Season Two features an entire episode on how sexually transmitted infections aren’t moral failings and Season One had a coming out episode in which a young character questions his sexuality — during the episode, the show made no homophobic jokes at his expense.

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