Rick & Steve

NYPress.com

BOY TOYS
Rick & Steve come together, no batteries required

Attention, heterosexuals. If you have been searching for societal permission to check out Logo, the MTV-owned lesbian and gay network, look no further than Tuesdays at 10 p.m. Not only might you find an actual Subaru commercial wherein the owner of the restaurant Florent refers to himself as the “queen of the Meatpacking District,” you will also be transported to the immaculate town of West Lahunga Beach, home to the brutally funny “Rick and Steve: The Happiest Gay Couple In All The World.” Even though there’s plenty of man-on-man action in this series, the men (as well as the women, pets, club kids, marriage counselors, etc.) are all plastic figurines with animated mouths filmed in stop-action animation. If the boys of “South Park” grew up to be queer, with hinged elbows and knees, the results would be a lot like this.

The benefits of being plastic include the ability to wear a “snap on,” but it’s still a world where love and porn addiction go hand in hand, and lesbian couples must barter their home-repair skills for a cup of sperm in order to reproduce.

Stereotyping is at the heart of nearly all the jokes, but from the mouths of dolls it’s dead-on humor. When inseminated lesbian Kirsten wonders why it is taking so long to get pregnant, even the semen cannot escape notice as she is reminded, “These are Rick’s tadpoles. They’ll have to completely redecorate your uterus before committing to a nine-month lease.”

Characters occasionally break into song and luckily Jeff Marx and Robert Lopez, creators of Avenue Q, are there to provide material, as is Bob Esty (“It’s Raining Men”) and series creator Q. Allan Brocka. “Love Song For Three,” their ode to the joys of a three-way begins, “Love can be so lonely when there’s just two of us.”

Another familiar name in the credits, Alan Cumming, voices Chuck, an older, wheelchair-bound, HIV victim with a chip on his shoulder. “You married me when it was cool to have a boyfriend with AIDS,” he tells his 19-year-old boyfriend. These folks might be artificial, but they draw blood for real.

- Stan Friedman   September 19, 2007