BY ROB SALERNO – I know I’ve been writing about whether or not gay public figures ought to come out quite a bit over the last week — enough to get labelled part of the “It Gets Better Police” by a National Post columnist — but there’ve been some updates worth discussing.
On Monday, I wrote about a bar brawl between an Irish footballer and a comedian in a pub in Dublin, which was apparently inspired by the comedian’s joke that the footballer might be gay.
After watching the show where Oliver Callan joked that Paul Galvin was “in the closet,” I called it “somewhat homophobic” in this space. I’m not humourless, but I found Callan’s high-camp portrayal of gay Irish presidential candidate David Norris borderline. 
Well, Callan has a response for everyone who thinks his jokes are homophobic: he’s gay himself.
Rewatching the video knowing that he’s gay, I actually thought the camp version of Norris was funnier. I can’t really explain why that is — perhaps because now he’s like an insider. Start at the seven-minute mark.
On the other hand, his joke about Galvin being in the closet struck me as a bit of the pot calling the kettle gay.
Callan came out publicly on The Saturday Show last night, saying he didn’t think being gay was a big deal and didn’t think people should be surprised that he is:
“I’m gay and I don’t really give a shit, to be honest,” he said, although he does go on to say that he hopes to normalize homosexuality a bit.
So readers, I put it to you: does a comedian being openly gay change how you hear his jokes?
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