请喜欢我第一季

The reluctant activist stands up for himself

Giles Hardie
Apr 13, 2013

Josh Thomas has become an accidental icon for the gay community.



Josh Thomas is back doing stand-up. It's a relaxing change for the comedian, as he has finally stepped off the promotional circuit for Please Like Me, his first foray into writing and acting for television, and a show that has helped him become an accidental icon for the gay community.

On Monday he will appear in the Sydney Comedy Festival gala after a month-long run at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival.
"If I do the whole month [of comedy] then no one can take me to a different city," he says with relief.

"I get a whole month at home and I can just hang out with my dog and my chickens."


But it wasn't quite a perfect escape. On April Fool's Day he was flown to Sydney to appear on the ABC's Q&A on a panel that otherwise sounds like the perfect set-up for a joke: an archbishop, an imam, a Buddhist nun and a Jewish atheist. He soon found himself the presumed spokesman for homosexuality and atheism on topics ranging from gay marriage to creationism.

"It was such a divisive show, where you've got religious leaders that dedicate their life to the conversation we had, but to me it's a hobby," Thomas said.

He was also the default target for the religious leaders' comments on homosexuality.

"They were offensive," he said. "Like: gays are sinners. An imam compared gays to alcoholics. [The archbishop said] I was a warp in God's plan.

"It was just a bamboozling hour really, because I'm an atheist. So my response to everything everybody says is 'oh that's nonsense, that has no basis in reality'."

Thomas had agreed to appear on the show as an artist, hoping to provide an "everyman" opinion, but found himself berated on social media for not going on the attack.

"A lot of atheists were like, 'You represented us badly.' And I was like, 'Oh no, I don't represent atheists. I didn't represent you in the way I didn't represent people who don't do ballet. We're not a team.'"
It's not the only community now embracing Thomas. Though not quite biographical, Please Like Me, the show he wrote and starred in on ABC2, featured a central character, Josh, who came out at the start of the first episode.

"Since that show happened, gays have sort of realised that I'm gay," Thomas said.

"I don't get invited to do things during Mardi Gras or to talk at rallies. They always get Ruby Rose. They don't realise I'm a homo. Which is good. I often think with gayness, it's enough I have to deal with homophobia - do I really have to spend my weekends going on about it?"

His position is possibly best expressed through his approach to the development of the show.

"We had these meetings with the ABC where they'd talk about how we're dealing with homosexuality. I was like, 'That's just my life. I haven't thought about how my life plays out as a political statement.'"

The show had no gay themes to begin with, for one very simple reason. "Well, we started writing it when I was straight," Thomas said.

Once Thomas came out, so did his character Josh, and it was the ABC that pushed for the script to deal with the issue. "It became one of the over-arching themes, which I didn't really want, to be honest …

''I had such a dull coming out experience. I didn't know how interesting it was to straight people."

While the show didn't set ratings records, ranking 215th in its first week, it was critically well received. Thomas was happy with the numbers. "It tripled the ABC2 time slot," he said. "It's really popular overseas. My Tumblrs and my Twitter now has a lot of Spanish."
Having pitched a second series, Thomas is relying on DVD sales "so we can give the ABC some money back - and then hopefully they will make it again."


Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/entertainment/comedy/the-reluctant-activist-stands-up-for-himself-20130420-2i6u1.html#ixzz2RBqGCmIH

上班时间的罅隙，看完了一季的澳剧《Please Like Me》。很短，六集，且每集只有二十多分钟，这样算下来，全篇加起来也不过三个小时，真的只看了一下午就看完了。第一次看澳剧，没想到却很是惊艳。这不到三个小时的过程中，很温馨也很惬意，没有大悲大喜，但泪点和笑点都很丰富，消磨时间都能让人通体舒畅。

其实在一部六集的电视剧中，本篇的人物已经算很多了，但没想到编剧竟能把每个人物都表现丰满，不得不承认他是一个才华横溢的人，Josh Thomas。据说他还是主演之一，那个夹着胳膊一扭一扭“Josh”的扮演者。

而让我惊艳的除了剧中那个名叫Geoffrey的帅哥之外，还有它的故事。豆瓣在剧情的描述中写道：“Josh希望带Geoffrey回家和家人出柜，可偏偏姑妈是个虔诚的天主教徒、老妈有吞药的习惯、老爸另结新欢。Josh到底会不会收获幸福？”但看到最后，你会发现这个故事想表达的已经远远不止能不能收获幸福，而是怎么体会幸福……表达的很笼统，但细细想来是这样的。剧中的Geoffrey爱Josh爱到不行，可是也许是应了那句“爱也许是有时差的”老话，当Josh提了两次分手之后，想要重新复合，要面对的却是Geoffrey想做回好朋友的委婉拒绝。故事的结尾，Josh回到家，安抚嗑了药的妈妈，然后拖着床垫睡在母亲的床下，睡得安然。似乎是体会到了幸福，然后继续面对生活。

因为生活就是这个样子，就像故事中描述的老爸和老妈，离婚之后各自寻找幸福，但也许生活的并不十分如意，但却还要继续向前。看到这个结局似乎也能理解了编剧和导演的用意，即便是你认为应该要获得幸福的两个人没有最终走在一起，你也没办法左右它，毕竟生活还要继续。

最后，期待下一季。

Is Josh Thomas's show too gay for ABC1?

Colin Vickery & Darren Devlyn From: National Features February 27, 2013 8:18AM

IS Please Like Me too gay? That is what Josh Thomas is asking as he prepares for the debut of his new TV comedy.



Please Like Me was originally set to screen on ABC1 last year but has been shunted into digital channel ABC2.

Thomas plays twentysomething Josh who lives with best mate Thomas (Thomas Ward) and, at first, is in a steady relationship with girlfriend Claire (Caitlin Stasey).

Claire splits with Josh, telling him that he is obviously gay. His despair is short-lived when young hunk Geoffrey (Wade Briggs) enters the scene.

Geoffrey wants to get physical with Josh. Cue lots of man-on-man kissing, bed scenes, and jokes about sex.

Later, Josh is forced to move back into the family home after his divorced mum Rose (Debra Lawrence) overdoses.

Please Like Me has a sweetness that sets it apart from other boundary-pushing comedies such as Chris Lilley's Angry Boys and Summer Heights High which happily found a home on ABC1.

The ABC insists the gay content isn't the reason Please Like Me was shunted to ABC2, where it is sure to attract a smaller audience.

"The tone of Please Like Me and the issues discussed are principally aimed at an audience in their early 20s," an ABC spokesperson says.

"Since ABC1 is largely a channel of mass appeal that tends to attract an audience with an average age the other side of 35, we decided the best home for Please Like Me was ABC2."

Thomas isn't convinced.

"They told me it (the switch to ABC2) was a compliment. I don't believe them," Thomas says. "I don't know if what they were really saying was, 'Josh the show is a bit s---' or, 'Josh the show has too much suicide and gay sex in it'.

"People have suggested to me that (too gay) is why they did it (put it on ABC2). I would be shocked if that's why but I also wouldn't be."

If Thomas is right, this wouldn't be the first time networks have become squeamish about gay content.

In 2009, Aussie Melissa George played bisexual intern Dr Sadie Harris on Grey's Anatomy.

There was speculation her character would have a full-blown screen romance with Callie Torres (Sara Ramirez). The show's creator, Shonda Rhimes, changed tack after George started filming. George initially signed for between eight and 11 episodes, but finished early.

Her exit followed that of Brooke Smith, who played lesbian Dr Erica Hahn in the medical drama. Smith was dropped after her character consummated her relationship with Callie.

Gay lobby group, the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, expressed its concern about the short-lived nature of the Callie-Erica storyline, which initially had been hailed as a breakthrough for mainstream American television.

That same year, Channel 7 censored a lesbian kiss between policewoman Charlie Buckton (Esther Anderson) and deckhand Joey Collins (Katie Bell) in Home and Away.

Seven's decision came after complaints about the lesbian storyline from conservative lobby groups.

"The plot lines that young kids and teenagers should be presented with should be about really authentic relationships that are not just sexualised," Pro-Family Perspectives director Angela Conway said.

Anderson had said she had no problem with the scene.

"I don't think it's like I'm lifting the lid on something they don't already know about," Anderson said. "To me, there's no difference love's love."

US producers have used the controversy surrounding lesbian kissing scenes to boost ratings in TV shows. First there was Amanda Donohoe and Michele Green in LA Law, then Jennifer Aniston's Rachel kissing Winona Ryder's Melissa on Friends and Mischa Barton going girl-on-girl in The O.C.

In the late '70s, Billy Crystal played gay son Jodie Dallas on Soap, but he later admitted to early misgivings about taking the role.

In 1997, comedian Ellen DeGeneres went public with her homosexuality on The Oprah Winfrey Show.

There was an early backlash but DeGeneres is now one of the most successful and admired women on American television.

Number 96's gay lawyer Don Finlayson (Joe Hasham) was a groundbreaking character on Australian TV. Water Rats featured another notable gay character, Sgt Helen Blakemore (Toni Scanlan).

Neighbours introduced gay character Chris Pappas (James Mason) in 2011. To its credit, the Ten soapie didn't use Chris's sexuality to shock.

This was no cynical ratings grab. Instead, the soapie dug deeper to show that Chris's sexuality was only one aspect of his personality.

"The good thing about Chris is that he is an ordinary person who is a mechanic and happens to be gay," Mason has said.


http://www.heraldsun.com.au/entertainment/tv-radio/is-joshs-show-too-gay-for-abc1/story-e6frf9ho-1226586521979