A note on the newest episode of The Study

Hi, there!

If you haven’t seen it yet, there’s a new episode of The Study up on SourceFed. The response has been shockingly positive so far, as it’s the most insane episode yet. But I’d like to explain the idea behind the episode, because some peeps ain’t be gettin’ it at all.

First of all, the beginning features a story on the Tennessee House of Representatives issuing a statement to the supreme court disagreeing with same-sex marriage. The leader of this says that it’s more about telling the supreme court about the difference between the legislative and judicial branches of the government. Okay, sure.

“Elliott C. Morgan,” a character designed to exemplify horrible, horrible qualities (and occasional wisdom), picks up on this, and calls a spade a spade. He adds, “Also, butt sex is icky.” In other words, while there might be validity to the argument being made, there’s also just good old fashioned homophobia at play.



Now, because Elliott C. Morgan is a rich, homophobic, self-centered, didn’t-realize-I-was-making-a-character-inspired-by-Trump-until-it-was-too-late monster, he sits in his assertion that “butt sex is icky.” On the Internet, and god forbid, here on Tumblr–that’s a no no. It might be the single most offensive moment on The Study yet, because I added zero qualifiers. It felt awful to say, but I wanted to make a point.

Later in the video, as Elliott C. Morgan is rightfully suggesting that we talk to members of opposing political opinions, in order to learn from them, two sex slaves emerge from his back room and attempt to flee his estate. So, we have a rich, white, homophobic man, asserting that politicians are good at their core, only to find that he has, almost literally, some skeletons in his closet. This is a metaphor, and it’s intended to convey a few points:

1) Ignorance is at the core of anti-gay legislation. Those who oppose same-sex marriage, no matter what their arguments against it are, are ultimately doing so because they got a touch a’ the ol’ h-phobia.

2) Those who oppose the LGBT community are, at times, not wanting to deal with very real feelings within themselves. (For example, a man saying “butt sex is icky” may not want to confront certain truths within himself, or in the case of Elliott C. Morgan, within his own back room).

3) Actions speak louder than words. While the host is assuring the audience that people are, at their core, good, it’s revealed that he has a dark, dark secret. His words, in no way, match his actions. He goes from being flippant about having killed three children in his G-wagon to freaking out when his sex slaves escape. There’s no goodness there, even if what he’s saying sounds true and honest and wise. #Trump2016

4) Hypocrisy does not invalidate other truths. The monologue at the end has a lot of truth to it. I do believe we should speak to members of opposing world views, and we should open ourselves up to different opinions. Actions might speak louder than words, but that doesn’t mean words should be muted.

5) Steve looks hilarious in a gimp mask, and Peter Gilroy is a comedic genius.

I’ll be the first to admit that The Study does not quite live up to the grandiose goals I have for it. The idea is to convey news in a way that is jarring, and, yes, satirical. But good satire makes a point, and dragging the point(s) I was making across the entire video is risky and honestly, not very tight from a writing perspective. It also didn’t help that Peter and Steve are so hilarious that I got lost in the absurdity of it all. Hell, I’d watch a spin-off show that was just them. Maybe with a Fuller House style intro?

All that said, honestly, I don’t know of any other news show that does what The Study does. It literally combines news with jokes into an actual metaphorical package. Like it or not, it’s at least original. I’ve been watching a lot of Stewart Lee lately, who is a champion of self-referential, meta comedy. I’m nowhere near that, but The Study, as a prototype, is doing something very good, I think.

OR MAYBE NOT LOL WHO KNOWS! I mean, gosh, Elliott, look at all those paragraphs! SO MANY PARAGRAPHS! YOU MUST BE RIGHT SINCE YOU SAID SO MANY WORDS.

Maybe I’m not.