The Dilemma Director Ron Howard
agrees that a controversial gay joke delivered by Vince Vaughn in the
film is offensive when viewed out of context.
In October, the Gay & Lesbian
Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD) called on Universal Pictures to
cut the joke from the film, now in theaters.
Howard agreed to cut the joke from the
film's trailer but decided to leave it in the film.
In the movie, Vaughn's character says,
“Electric cars are gay. I mean not 'homosexual' gay, but 'my
parents are chaperoning the dance' gay.”
In an appearance Friday on ABC's The
View, the 56-year-old childhood actor turned director talked
about the controversy.
Howard said that he agreed with critics
who questioned the appropriateness of the joke's inclusion in the
trailer, saying the criticism was “valid.” But when host
Elisabeth Hasselbeck asked if the scene had been cut from the film,
Howard replied that the joke remained.
“No,” Howard said, “because
within the context the inappropriateness of the statement is both
sort of the nature of that character that Vince Vaughn plays. And
it's also not lost on anybody within the framework of the scene. So
that's part of why it's funny.” (The video is embedded in the
right panel of this page.)