“RICK AND STEVE: THE HAPPIEST GAY COUPLE IN ALL THE WORLD: THE COMPLETE FIRST SEASON”–downright raunchy

 

 

 

“Rick and Steve: The Happiest Gay Couple in All the World: The Complete First Season”

Downright Raunchy

Amos Lassen

It’s hard to imagine the level of raunch this movie has and what makes it even more unbelievable is that the cast is composed of puppets–yet the raunch is very funny and the idea is very clever.

Rick and Steve live in West Lahunga Beach in what must be the gayest of all gay ghettoes. Their home is, of course, fabulous and they are stereotypical to the nth degree. They live a happy life except that Rick’s best friend, Kristen, a lesbian, asks him to be the father of his baby. The problem here is that Rick’s partner, Steve, and Kristen’s partner, Dana, are sworn enemies. Very quickly the insults begin and nothing is held back. The words “domestic bliss” take on an entirely different meaning.

This is one of the most subversive and risqué movies I have ever seen but I laughed all the way through. I had no idea what to expect from plastic puppets but even with the really bitter humor, the movie is amazingly funny. Q. Allan Brocka who directed both “Eating Out” movies as well as “Boy Culture” directed “Rick and Steve” as a series of animated shorts for Logo TV. And what results is a pastiche of plastic toys saying the wildest things and doing unbelievable actins that real actors would probably never attempt.

Rick and Steve are the perfect gay couple and they live a blissful life until Rick wants to have a three-way and when his lesbian friends ask for his sperm so they can have a child. When the girls are turned down, they begin to look elsewhere for a donor but what they find is another lesbian also looking for sperm. Finally Steve concedes but the semen accidentally spills on Dana, his arch enemy, and she becomes pregnant.

The ghetto also has a wild group of residents, including a twink named Evan and HIV positive Chuck and when these characters interact with the others political correctness is done away with and the unbelievable begins to happen.

This is not a film for the sensitive or the sensible. It is so offensively funny that you find yourself laughing at your own foibles and if nothing else, you learn not to take live so seriously.

The five episodes on the DVD are “Guess Who’s Coming for Quiche”, “Bush Baby”, “Damn Straights”, “Save our Seamen” and “Hormonally Yours”. The special features include a behind the scenes featurette, on the guys who make the puppets and another on those who animate them. Interviews with the cast members, 12 digisodes and a section entitled “And More Gay Crap” which includes deleted scenes. Let me add that the movie is rated for mature audiences only and the special features are unrated.