We love a good mismatched roommate story, but The Odd Couple is about to turn into The Odder Throuple when an Australian gay couple shacks up with a vehemently anti-gay preacher for ten days of arguing in circles.
It’s part of an especially manipulative reality documentary series called Living with the Enemy, wherein people on opposing polar sides of an issue are forced to share a roof. Well, forced is a strong word — they all did sign up for this public torture, after all.
Episode one features Michael Barnett and Gregory Storer of Melbourne as they go head to head with Anglican preacher David Ould, who thinks homosexuality is an abomination.
Because there’s no better way to evolve your worldview than by being cast based on your prejudices only to have cameras shoved in your face as you defend your position.
How about we take this to the next level?
Our newsletter is like a refreshing cocktail (or mocktail) of LGBTQ+ entertainment and pop culture, served up with a side of eye-candy.
That’s real progress.
It’s quite the novel concept. Except for the fact that the BBC did essentially the same thing when they sent two rugby-loving homophobes to live with a gay couple in London in 1998. The show was called — get this — Living with the Enenmy.
Here’s what that looked like. Note the excellent late 90s fashions:
And here’s a preview of the updated Australian version:
h/t Gay Star News
kevininbuffalo
Looks like the usual scripted and staged reality show bs to me.
Jonty Coppersmith
@kevininbuffalo:
Yeah, you’re exactly right. There’s no such thing as a reality show as long as the people know they’re on camera.
Merv
Nothing can ever compete with the God Warrior on Trading Spouses. She will always represent Christianity to me. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZ9MUycYD6Y
NoCagada
” Living with the Enenmy.”
HUH?
jd2222248
When is the American version airing?
Roan
Morgan Spurlock did this in 2005 in his 30 days series. The episode was “Straight Man in a Gay World”.
Stache99
I can’t understand half of what they’re saying. I’d say subtitles and interpretations would help.
SteveDenver
The British version is pretty interesting. I love it when the two straights were standing on the street pointing out the gays, when one of their gay hosts asks, “How do you know?” and one responds “I can just tell.” Then their gay host says, “People probably think you’re gay, because the two of you are wearing matching rugby jackets. Sure enough, they looked like “dyke-alikes,” two homosexuals who have grown to look so similar, even their clothing matches.
Documentarian Morgan Spurlock’s series “30 DAYS” did the best episodes I’ve seen. In one an anti-gay religious woman was sent to live with two gay dads and their children. She was resistant and belligerent the entire time, even to their friends. It only showed intransigence on her part, she was intensely miserable and always searching for an insult to hurl.
In another episode, a very homophobic mid-western Christian man is sent to live with a gay couple and develops real understanding. The cameras even followed him home — where he thought he didn’t know any gays or lesbians and it turns out he did. His friends asked questions and it almost sounded like he was defending homosexuals by saying, “It isn’t like that” or “That’s not true at all.”
Michael Barnett
@Stache99: Is it that we were mumbling or that you struggled with our Australian English accent?