None of these performers occupy a niche because they don’t have to. Yang is the “S.N.L.” superstar and the guy on your favorite podcast and Awkwafina’s frenemy cousin on “ Nora From Queens.” And so on.
Young-White is the guy who cracked up Jimmy Fallon and the very young (now former) “ Daily Show With Trevor Noah” correspondent and the guy who keeps getting suspended from Twitter (once, memorably, for pretending his was the official account of the F.B.I.). It’s a lot of names, and one reason they can’t be subdivided into smaller groups is that most of them shuttle seamlessly from one medium to the next. Benny Drama), Drew Tarver, Julio Torres, Bowen Yang and Jaboukie Young-White. The list of guys populating this world is a long one - besides Perkins, a partial rundown would include Joel Kim Booster, John Early, Alex English, Michael Henry, Jay Jurden, Ryan O’Connell, Larry Owens, Matt Rogers, Benito Skinner (a.k.a. A fad is identified, a box is checked, a responsibility is fulfilled and the circus moves on. But the problem with a moment is that it passes a moment can become nothing more than an occasion for audiences to raise their eyebrows and notice something before the next moment, when a different breakthrough catches their attention.
Having a moment, in the late ’90s and early aughts, meant that, suddenly, a gay performer or character would appear in a space that had been previously dominated by straight people - say, at the center of a TV sitcom like “ Will & Grace” or a stand-up special, or as the voice of reason to the leading lady in a romantic comedy like “My Best Friend’s Wedding” - and everyone could applaud and say, “We solved it! Representation at last!” It was a pop-cultural phenomenon that started to surface when Perkins, who’s 31, and other gay comedians of his generation were in middle school. I don’t think it’s fun to be ‘the first.’”Įven as a kid, Perkins could vaguely perceive that gay entertainers were, in certain other realms of pop culture, “having a moment.” It didn’t feel great. “I remember Googling gay comics and nothing coming up, especially gay Black comics,” says Perkins, whose blazingly funny stand-up work ranges from sweet to goofy to raunchy. When using a search engine such as Google, Bing or Yahoo check the safe search settings where you can exclude adult content sites from your search results Īsk your internet service provider if they offer additional filters īe responsible, know what your children are doing online.WHEN DEWAYNE PERKINS was a teenager growing up on the South Side of Chicago, he would occasionally turn to Google in search of, if not himself, somebody who at least came close. Use family filters of your operating systems and/or browsers Other steps you can take to protect your children are: More information about the RTA Label and compatible services can be found here. Parental tools that are compatible with the RTA label will block access to this site. We use the "Restricted To Adults" (RTA) website label to better enable parental filtering. Protect your children from adult content and block access to this site by using parental controls. PARENTS, PLEASE BE ADVISED: If you are a parent, it is your responsibility to keep any age-restricted content from being displayed to your children or wards. Furthermore, you represent and warrant that you will not allow any minor access to this site or services. This website should only be accessed if you are at least 18 years old or of legal age to view such material in your local jurisdiction, whichever is greater. You are about to enter a website that contains explicit material (pornography).