C oming out of the closet can take years, especially if you’re a fictional character on a long-running TV show. In an interview with Rolling Stone, Rob McElhenney – creator and star of dark comedy It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia – revealed more details about his character Mac’s journey towards accepting that he is gay. This plot twist, which was finally confirmed at the end of the show’s 11th season, was unexpected because of what McElhenney describes as Mac’s “intense, ultraconservative, right-leaning” principles.

“We were looking at Mac at one point, and I was like, ‘He is such an arch-arch Catholic conservative when it suits him, and when it doesn’t, he drops that,’” he told Rolling Stone. “And most of the people I know in that camp tend to be fairly homophobic. So we began going down that road: ‘Let’s satirise that hard Christian conservative who is also intensely homophobic.’”

Making Mac gay was seemingly a natural next step. McElhenney clarified that having the most outwardly homophobic character turn out to be a self-hating gay man was intended to be a comment on “hypocrisy”, rather than be “demeaning or offensive” to the LGBT+ community.

As a gay man, I agree that this storyline is a comment on hypocrisy – I just doubt that it’s the type that McElhenney was meaning to explore. Despite his good intentions, it’s a shame that this plot panders to the well-trodden myth that most homophobes are, deep down, just closeted gay men. The hypocrisy, then, is straight people dreaming up storylines which position gay people as the primary espousers of the homophobia that they (as a demographic) created, spread and continue to maintain.

The “gay homophobe” narrative massively predates It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. To McElhenney’s credit, the storyline does explore other influences, such as religion, which have contributed towards Mac’s self-loathing. Yet there’s no denying that, over the years, pop culture has fostered the idea that a significant number of homophobes are gay. From teen flicks The Perks of Being a Wallflower and Cruel Intentions, to Channel 4 soap Hollyoaks and Netflix’s 13 Reasons Why, the traditional “straight bro homophobe” who turns out to be gay is a recurring trope.

30 TV shows that jumped the shark Show all 30 1 /30 30 TV shows that jumped the shark 30 TV shows that jumped the shark Parks and Recreation Parks and Recreation’s sixth season was filmed while Chris Pratt was on the cusp of becoming a global megastar. To keep him involved, the crew had to head to where the actor was filming his other, bigger projects (hence the season begins with a double episode in London, where he was filming Guardians of the Galaxy). That season also saw Rob Lowe and Rashida Jones leave the show, leading to some patches that were never really covered over. Still, the final episode was still a delight, with Amy Poehler’s Leslie Knope meeting Michelle Obama and getting her dream job in Pawnee. But then they made a seventh, completely unnecessary season a few years later… which we should all forget exists. NBC 30 TV shows that jumped the shark Happy Days The show that birthed the phrase “jumping the shark”. Season five of Happy Days saw Fonzie literally jumping over a shark – a moment so absurd that critics were left asking whether the writers had run out of material. The moment became the turning point for Happy Days as the quality gradually began to decline, the inclination of which got steeper after Ron Howard left after season seven. ABC 30 TV shows that jumped the shark Heroes Thanks to stellar reviews and enticing advertising, Heroes quickly became one of the most-popular shows on television in 2006. However, while the charming first season – which centred on a group of people coming to terms with their super-human powers – was a fast-paced addictive ride, the second was a meandering mess. The first few episodes contained so much filler that viewers turned off in their droves. Season three fared no better, and by the conclusion of season four only 4.41 million people were still watching – down from the 16.97 million who watched the season two premiere. NBC Universal 30 TV shows that jumped the shark The X Factor There was once a time when every winner on The X Factor was pretty much guaranteed a Christmas number one. It became such a monotonous routine in the UK that music lovers protested by getting Rage Against the Machine’s “Killing in the Name Of” to the coveted top spot in 2009. Coincidentally, the following years have seen the X Factor’s ratings begin to dwindle, mainly thanks to viewers becoming bored of the same sob stories being wheeled out every year. To fix this, Simon Cowell attempted to switch up the judges at an increased rate, scraping the barrel in 2015 by bringing on Nick Grimshaw (the same year that Dermot O’Leary stepped down as presenter, to be replaced by television’s most awkward duo, Caroline Flack and Olly Murs). Despite Louis Walsh, Nicole Scherzinger and Sharon Osbourne (and Dermot) coming back the year after, the damage had already been done. ITV 30 TV shows that jumped the shark Community Stars often outgrow their shows. Midway through the fourth season of Community, Donald Glover, who played Troy, left to pursue a music career as the rapper Childish Gambino. Of course, that did not turn out too badly, with Glover now having a few Grammys on his mantelpiece. Unfortunately, Community was never the same without him, and the dominoes kept falling after that. Chevy Chase also left, while Dan Harmon stopped writing for the show. As a result, the final two seasons received awful reviews. NBC 30 TV shows that jumped the shark Big Brother Big Brother was a big deal. The first few seasons spawned celebrities and managed to attract millions of viewers. While originally a strange social experiment put on by Channel 4, the show devolved into a middling reality TV series where contestants would do anything to prolong their 15 minutes of fame. When the show moved to Channel 5, it was only another knock on the death knell. Channel 5 30 TV shows that jumped the shark Dallas The team behind Dallas were so desperate to bring back Patrick Duffy's character Bobby Ewing that they made the entire ninth season one long dream sequence. Of course, they had initially not known the entire season would be a dream, as Duffy had voluntarily left to pursue other acting jobs. Obviously, things did not go well for the actor, and the writing team put him back into the show – at the expense of viewers, who felt understandably short-changed by the events of 31 episodes being reversed. Note for TV writers: “It was all a dream” is not a good TV trope. CBS 30 TV shows that jumped the shark House of Cards Before Kevin Spacey was kicked off the cast following more than 40 allegations of sexual assault, House of Cards was feeling stuck in the mud. The Underwoods’ journey to power had been fascinating; their struggle to keep power, not so much. When Spacey was rightly dropped, the writers were forced to press on, with little time to rewrite the script as two episodes had already been filmed and needed completely redoing. Despite their best intentions, the final season was a mess – although the show’s legacy had already been tarnished by Spacey. Netflix 30 TV shows that jumped the shark Gogglebox Gogglebox’s premise is preposterously simple – film normal people watching television and capture their conversations. For such a basic recipe to work, all the ingredients need to be perfect, and, for a time, they were. Stephanie and Dominic Parker were the highlights for the first few seasons, and then the Moffatt family, with the quotable Scarlett, joined in the third series. However, fame soon caught up with both families, and they left the show one after the other. Their replacements have never been quite as good. Channel 4 30 TV shows that jumped the shark Top Gear The quality of Top Gear had long dwindled before Matt LeBlanc and Chris Evans took over from Jeremy Clarkson and co. It wasn’t until the trio finally left, though, that fans realised just how awful Top Gear could potentially be. LeBlanc and Evans had no chemistry, the pair awkwardly jostling with each other for screen-time. By the time their first series together had ended, Evans had received so much flack he decided to leave. Top Gear has not yet recovered – although everyone’s fingers are crossed in the hope that Chris Harris, Sabine Schmitz, Paddy McGuinness and Andrew Flintoff can return the show to its former glory. BBC 30 TV shows that jumped the shark Sherlock Sherlock made Benedict Cumberbatch a household name and had three stellar seasons before turning downhill. What great television those seasons were, with the modern take on the classic detective story proving a thrilling watch. Come the Christmas special and the writers had become too enthralled by their own mythos; what was sold as a special episode, set in Victorian England, was actually modern-day Sherlock using drugs to dive into his own subconscious. The episode was a mess – as was the following fourth season. BBC 30 TV shows that jumped the shark Downton Abbey Initially an addictive period drama, Downton Abbey slowly became more and more soapy. The point of no return came during the Christmas day episode “A Journey to the Highlands”, when – just moments after the birth of his child – Matthew Crawley was run over by a milk truck. Some fans were reportedly so outraged that they Tweeted how their Christmases were ruined. ITV 30 TV shows that jumped the shark That 70s Show That 70s Show arguably had multiple “jump the shark” moments throughout its run. One such moment was when the writers introduced Brooke, who fell pregnant after a one-night stand with Ashton Kutcher’s Michael Kelso. The setup was merely a ploy to enable Kutcher to leave the show at the end of the season. Then there was the surprising revelation that Danny Masterson’s Steven Hyde had two fathers. But perhaps the moment that best signals the show’s downward spiral is when they decided to switch the actor who played Laurie Forman. After Lisa Robin Kelly had played Forman for five seasons, the showrunners unexpectedly – and without explanation – brought in Christina Moore to take over the character. FOX 30 TV shows that jumped the shark Buffy the Vampire Slayer Buffy has legions of fans, and for good reason. The first few seasons mesh funny quips and lovelorn lust to perfection, while it’s all strung together by a high-school story about a vampire-killing badass. Things started to waver slightly at the beginning of season six, when the series resolved their “is Buffy dead?” cliffhanger with the Scoobie gang resurrecting her. From there, the characters became shadows of their former selves, the story going to much darker places than before, including one controversial storyline about attempted rape. The show was never the same again UPN 30 TV shows that jumped the shark The Brady Bunch Struggling to keep viewers watching, the writers of The Brady Bunch decided something needed to change. Rather than work with already-established characters, they decided to introduce a new child: Cousin Oliver, played by Robbie Rist, who was the show’s youngest actor (nine-years-old) at the time. This decision may have been intended to make The Brady Bunch “adorable” again, but viewers turned away at the obvious attempt to shoehorn something new into the show. The show was cancelled five episodes later and it sparked the phrase “Cousin Oliver Syndrome” – a trope where a show introduces a child character to boost ratings but fails. (Some fans believe the late introduction of Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s sister Dawn is an example of this.) ABC 30 TV shows that jumped the shark Two and a Half Men Two and a Half Men was, for a long time, one of the most-watched TV series in the United States. Why exactly? Well, that would likely be down to Charlie Sheen, whose obnoxious, heightened version of himself (his character’s also named Charlie) charmed the nation. Sheen’s private life, though, soon outdid his fictional counterpart, with the actor going into rehab and making headlines with his bizarre rants (winning!). The network took notice and replaced Sheen with Ashton Kutcher, whose naïve-shtick never quite worked. CBS 30 TV shows that jumped the shark Battlestar Galactica The first seasons of Battlestar Galactica (the updated series) were phenomenal television, but that did not stop the science fiction show having some slightly questionable moments. Perhaps the most famous came towards the season three finale, when the five remaining Cylons (human replicas) are outed. They are discovered (or discover themselves) when the Final Five – Tory, Colonel Tigh, Tyrol, and Anders – all come together after hearing a version of Bob Dylan’s “All Along the Watchtower”. It’s cumbersome, silly, and the tipping point for the once great show. Sci-Fi 30 TV shows that jumped the shark The Simpsons The famous British poet John Cooper Clarke has argued many times that The Simpsons was one of best shows on television. “There is no better spokesperson for the modern proletarian male than Homer J Simpson,” he once said. Clarke was likely referring to only the first dozen or so seasons of The Simpsons as, since then, the animated show about the eponymous blue-collar family has suffered in its attempts to remain quite as relevant and funny. Season 30, as a result, contains the least-watched episode of The Simpsons ever: less than two million tuned in to the episode “I'm Dancing as Fat as I Can”, guest starring Netflix boss Ted Sarandos. Fox 30 TV shows that jumped the shark Arrested Development Despite stellar reviews and an adoring (if somewhat small) fanbase, Arrested Development was cancelled after its third season. Arrested Development should probably have stayed cancelled. Netflix brought back the acclaimed series for a fourth season in 2013, changing the format so each episode centred on a different character. Critics called the new approach awkward, saying it missed the character interactions that made the show so great. The showrunners seemingly agreed as they later released a remixed version of season four that followed the classic formula. That release came just before season five which has, to put it lightly, been decimated by critics. As Michael Bluth would say: “I don’t know what I expected.” Netflix 30 TV shows that jumped the shark American Horror Story Anthology series are hard to get right. On the one hand, each season can be completely different, allowing for creativity to flourish. On the other, writers need to somehow make sure that each season still feels like the same show, otherwise they risk alienating fans. For four seasons, American Horror story managed that balancing act better than most, with Murder House, Asylum, Coven and Freak Show all being widely praised. Hotel, the show’s fifth season, never quite clicked into place. The cast – including Lady Gaga, Sarah Paulson, Evan Peters and Angela Bassett – gave their all, but the interwoven stories proved too convoluted. Things further deteriorated when season seven, Cult, got political, with Trump’s election playing a key part. FX 30 TV shows that jumped the shark The Office US Unlike the UK Office, the American counterpart went on too long. Steve Carell as Michael Scott was the heart of the show, and his departure in season seven was a massive hit for the series. Even comedy heavyweight Will Ferrell couldn’t fill the void left by Carell. And while the show was certainly never awful, the final episodes could not compete with the glorious highs of previous seasons. NBC 30 TV shows that jumped the shark Smallville After eight seasons, Smallville was already losing fans, many of whom were desperately waiting for Superman to finally wear the suit (they would have to wait for the final episode). Romances were already growing too prolonged and then the superhero’s arch-nemesis, Lex Luthor, decided to leave. With his contract complete, actor Michael Rosenbaum decided to jump ship, and the show never found a villain that could match him. The WB 30 TV shows that jumped the shark Prison Break Where does Prison Break go when the inmates break out of prison? That was a question many were left asking following the season one finale, which saw the main gang escape Fox River State Penitentiary. There was still some gas left in the engine for season two as they went on the run, but the decision to send them back to prison for season three saw the story retreading already well-worn ground. FOX 30 TV shows that jumped the shark The X-Files The X-Files masterfully kept viewers enthralled by its science fiction mysteries for eight seasons. Mulder and Scully were key to that; David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson’s chemistry electrified the show while keeping everything grounded. Unfortunately, due to contract arrangements, Mulder was written out during the season eight finale. That left the show in the hands of two other agents, John Doggett (Robert Patrick), and Monica Reyes (Annabeth Gish), who were short-changed with an incoherent storyline. As a result, the show was cancelled in 2002 – only to be brought back, with Duchovny and Anderson on board, in 2016. FOX 30 TV shows that jumped the shark Seinfeld Although one of the most influential comedies of all time, Seinfeld was not without its faults. Season nine, the final one, marks a blemish on the iconic show’s history. Larry David, the highlight of season six through eight, was relegated to guest and only wrote the season finale. The other writers, meanwhile, were struggling to come up with new ideas – something that ironically proved the downfall for the show famously about nothing. NBC 30 TV shows that jumped the shark Glee Glee was a phenomenon. For a few years, Gleeks – fans of the show – were everywhere. That is until season three. The whimsy soon wore off as fans believed the show had become too overtly cheesy. Still, the Gleeks kept on singing, and the show continued for another three seasons. FOX 30 TV shows that jumped the shark Dexter The late Noughties were a wonderful time for anti-heroes on television. Following in the footsteps of Tony Soprano were Mad Men’s Don Draper, Breaking Bad’s Walter White, and Dexter’s Dexter Morgan. While Don and Walter have become unquestioned pop-culture icons thanks to their series being of such phenomenal quality, Dexter’s legacy has become mired by two dire seasons and an unsatisfying conclusion. Season six was the first time the fictional serial killer dropped the baton. And while Dexter recovered for season seven, the following final few episodes were so unanimously panned that even the leading actor, Michael C Hall, reportedly thought they were awful. Showtime 30 TV shows that jumped the shark Saturday Kitchen While Greg Wallace and Antony Worrall Thompson may have been the first two hosts of Saturday Kitchen, it was James Martin who really made the show a success. Under his steady guidance, viewership increased from 1.2 million to around 2.5 million and the cookery programme became a staple weekend watch. No replacement host has been brought on board since Martin left in 2016, and the show has suffered as a result. At least the Keith Floyd and Rick Stein repeats are as good as ever. BBC 30 TV shows that jumped the shark Angel What started as a critically adored Buff the Vampire Slayer spin-off soon became a run-of-the-mill drama. Angel started with its focus on the eponymous vampire-with-a-heart working as a private detective and saving humans from other demons. However, after Angel came to terms with his ongoing struggle between his human side and his vampire side, the show became a little stale. Season three was filled with filler episodes and shallow villains. Then came season four; a narrative mess that struggled to reconcile the characters Cordelia and Connor. Even with the stellar episode "Spin the Bottle" in the mix, many fans were unimpressed by the direction the show had gone in. UPN 30 TV shows that jumped the shark Twin Peaks David Lynch’s dreamy murder mystery has become a cult classic, and for good reason. The first season was wonderfully strange and melodramatic. Then the network began putting pressure on Lynch to reveal to the world who killed Laura Palmer. Lynch had not wanted to reveal the murderer but was forced to. The show lacked the same drive after the discovery. Considering the showrunner himself has said the second season “sucked” it’s no stretch to say that it jumped the shark. Showtime

In the media, too, gayness is often used to mock “alpha” men. We’ve all seen the cartoons of president Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump – two of the world’s most high-profile homophobic bullies – kissing. These jokes, which are lapped up by lots of so-called “liberals”, are predicated on the idea that the easiest way to remove power from a man, no matter how awful or dangerous he is, is to make him gay. Because, really, what could be worse than that?

The gay homophobe trope is complicated by the fact that some homophobes do turn out to be gay. Several high profile “conversion therapists” – a widely debunked form of torture which operates on the religious belief LGBT+ people can be “cured” of their sexuality or gender identity – have come out as gay in recent years. Conversion therapy affects around 80,000 American LGBT+ people a year and can have devastating consequences. Yet there is a particular glee (or thinly veiled relief) in the social media posts accompanying this news, as if a conversion therapist being gay absolves the outwardly heterosexual institutions that support the practice of responsibility.

Earlier this year, when gay magazine Attitude tweeted the news that 21 MPs (mostly older white men) had voted against introducing LGBT+ inclusive education in schools, model and activist Katie Piper replied: “50 per cent of them on Grinder [sic]”. Piper considers herself a supporter of the LGBT+ community, and I’m thankful for that, but these types of jokes – which simultaneously blame gay people for homophobia and shame people who are not out of the closet – are not the way to show allyship.

Recurring trope: Timothy Granaderos as a ‘gay homophobe’ in ‘13 Reasons Why’ (David Moir/Netflix/Kobal/Shutterstock)

Growing up, I had my own experience with a gay homophobe, when one of the very few people who bullied me eventually came out after we left school. Yet he represents a tiny proportion of the people who have ever made me feel inferior because of my sexuality. Both in and out of the closet, many LGBT+ people are corroded by shame and self-loathing. Some of us take this out on ourselves, but a small proportion do, like It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia’s Mac, direct their hatred towards the wider LGBT+ community.

I had a different route out of the closet to the boy who targeted me at school. As we move forward, we will both navigate our sexuality in different, ever-changing ways. Yet the internalised homophobia that caused him to bully me, and the hurt that his behaviour caused me, didn’t end or become less real when he came out of the closet.

For some LGBT+ people, it might be comforting to find humour in the gay homophobe trope, or to believe that homophobes are just like us – they just might not know it yet. But people don’t have to come out of the closet to be legitimately queer and the vast majority of homophobes – including people who’d kill us all if they could – are straight. In fact, they probably outnumber us.

In film and television, LGBT+ representation still leaves a lot to be desired. With a lack of LGBT+ roles and an ongoing debate over the ethics of straight actors nabbing most of them, it is depressing to see the same lazy tropes being used when there are so many more authentic queer stories to be told.