And That's The Word

Okay, serious characterization question here.

Up till now, almost all the "Stephen"-Jon innuendo has basically fallen into two groups: "generic/throwaway gay jokes" and "could also be read as intense BFFship." The "how can a man have a long-term intimate relationship with another man?" line pushed it, in that I feel like the most natural reading of the scene is "Stephen has romantic feelings for Jon, without recognizing that that's what they are." On the other hand, it's not necessarily an unnatural reading to see it as "Stephen has a long-term intimate friendly relationship with Jon, without recognizing that that's what it is."

(And then there's the curious coincidence of his past romance with a Jewish man named Jonathan...I'm not sure what the most natural interpretation is of that one. Again, though, it's not a stretch to see the romantic elements as unrelated to the present-day Jon.)

And then there was the post-Emmys "Beat you to [sleeping with Colbert] too, huh?" Came out of nowhere, seemed to go back into nowhere...until this Monday.

( Spoilers for Monday's shows under the cut )

Check it out, I wrote some actual organized meta :D

Okay, semi-organized. It's a collection of thoughts on liberal!"Stephen".

Background, for those of you just tuning in: On October 2, 2007, TCR flashed briefly into an alternate universe. The Wørd: Troops Out Now. The host: a pipe-smoking long-haired peacenik hippie version of the straightlaced conservative character we know and love.

There's obviously a wealth of possibility with this guy. (Fellow liberals, ILU, but you know we are totally mockable.) But there's only so much characterization you can get out of one short clip.

So this is where I get the rest.

( Geoffrey Jellineck, xkcd, Desperate Housewives, game theory, and Microsoft under the cut )