No, American Idol‘s second most-famous gay hasn’t been banished to the back alleys of the industry! When NBC’s 30 Rock is looking for obvious pop culture punchlines, who else would they turn to?
Aiken represented the gays among Sheryl Crow (who gets paid in federal bank bailout money), Mary J. Blige, Moby, Elvis Costello, Mike D,
Adam Levine, Adam Horovitz, Sara Bareilles, Wyclef Jean, Norah Jones, Talib Kweli, Rachael Yamagata, and Cyndi Lauper, who all took part in a faux Live Aid-ish charity concert. (More on that here.)
They even let him sing a few lines!
First clip is at 11:28; the “concert” is at 17:40. (Yes, we know embedding the whole episode is annoying, but NBC yanks down all the clips from YouTube.)
ugh
clay aiken is SO fugly! i wish he’d never come out, now straights will associate the rest of us A-Gays as being fugly. Fuck off you stupid little ginger nerd! the gays DO NOT WANT YOU!
dellisonly
@ugh:
To each his own. Some of us like dork-cute. The country bumpkin accent adds to the cuteness. If YOU don’t want him I can think of a few thousand people who wouldn’t kick him out of bed.
Alexa
Oh right. Because it really helps our cause to make fun of openly gay people for no good reason. If they do something dumb that’s one thing, but you make fun of Clay for being on 30 Rock but not the straight singers? What the fuck is wrong with you?
Kirk
I thought Clay was great on 30 Rock. I loved the premise of him being Kenneth’s cousin! Perfect!
scott ny'er
@ugh: because being beautiful = gay people. Whatever? :rollseyes:
BradSA
Here we go again. Why attack an out gay singer with a sense of humor? I really want to know!
James P. P.
MJ Blige had the best line about her charitable foundation working for over 10 years to find the Loch Ness Monster.
Reny
@ UGH: “now straights will associate the rest of us A-Gays as being fugly”
That’s because you allow the human excrements like Perez Hilton, Harvey Levin and Queerty to represent the gay community.
You are doing it to yourselves.
Jim
@UGH – clay aiken is so fugly…..
I bet you’re one of the first to scream about homophobes when something in your life goes wrong.
Gay men are not all exclusively under 30 with an 8-pack, nice tans, making six-figure incomes and spending their every spare minute getting laid.
Despite the fact that a lot of my generation succumbed to AIDS in the early 80’s, there are still a lot of us around in our 50’s, 60’s, 70’s and even older.
When will the current X and Y (or whatever the latest crop of twenty-somethings is called) generation realize that sooner or later they too will get old – and, according to their own standards, will no longer be attractive?
We are short, tall, fat, old, young, handsome AND fugly. Just like everyone else. Being the object of hate from one of our own is something we just shouldn’t tolerate.
francoise
This is the most stupid and ignorant web-site I’ve ever seen. Total bullocks and waste of time.
Frunced
@Reny: While UGH’s comment was shallow, Reny, you seem to forget that there are negative (and positive) rolemodels for every orientation. You wouldn’t want us to think that Mel Gibson, Larry the Cable Guy or Joe the Plumber represent heterosexuality, would you?
BradSA
@Reny: and don’t forget the asshole that writes this kind of shit article at Queerty too. He gives us all a bad name.
ProfessorVP
It can’t be denied that Clay only came out after his career was more or less over, and he had no income to lose. In fact, I have a friend who was an usher at one of his appearances in California, the usual Christmas concert for suburban mall-dressed teenage girls and their mothers, and the large venue was about a third full. And that was before Clay Aiken came out as gay. Which is like the planet Jupiter coming out as large. Clay’s management saw the writing on the wall, and it is the same writing Adam Lambert will one day see. If he ever officially came out, it’s news to me.
terry
ProfessorVP – you make it sound like a gay man can’t be a successful entertainer….what about Geo Michaels and Freddie Mercury and Elton??? Clay’s career is fading because he just isn’t talented enough to keep his fans around….and the Claymate crap did plenty to prevent his fan base from growing.
GranDiva
@terry:
Hmmm. George Michael only came out after he got arrested for tearoom cruising, and hasn’t really found much success in the American pop charts since then. Freddie Mercury didn’t come out until weeks before he died, and (speaking subjectively) Elton John came out, not unlike Clay Aiken, when most of his best work was behind him, and now is mostly famous for acting out in public rather than for his continued musical efforts. Where’s your point?
jay
Forbes says Clay made 2.2 million last year, while spending 6 months in Spamalot, no touring. Wish I could say the same. Whatever. The man is talented even some don’t care for his style, he’s apparently relevant enough to have a spot on a highly coveted show, he seems damned happy in his life, he’s acknowledged he’s late to the party, so to speak, and honestly, I’ve never heard him speak derogatorily about the community, and he’s continuing to do his thing, including raising a shitload of money for Aids, UNICEF, autism/special needs issues. Can’t see where he’s the devil.
Good on him….
marie stellabuto
YOU BETTER WATCH YOUR LANGUAGE,WHY DONT YOU ALL LEAVE CLAY AIKEN ALONE AND GET A REAL LIFE AND ALL GROW UP.GOD BLESS. MARIE