Wednesday, November 23, 2005

He's a she? No, She's a he. ABC's Wife Swap has pulled the old switcheroo.

We should have seen this coming. Apparently the wonderful hit show Wife Swap on ABC (read that line as if it were coated and deep-fried in sarcasm) has switched a wife for a gay man. The husband who got stuck with the dude is from Oklahoma (red state alert, red state alert) and is surprisingly upset about this whole deal. I can understand why. If I were to swap my wife, I expect to be able to sleep with a new female wife. This whole thing boils down to you get what you asked for. This idiot wanted to be on TV so he could be the most popular guy at the barber shop and he got got. Surely this crossed his mind. Why wouldn’t ABC take a gay couple and send one to Oklahoma, the heart of W.’s America?

ABC is just trying to capitalize on a (apparently true) stereotype and do not let them tell you different. I imagine they will play this up as a grand sociological experiment trying to bring two different lifestyles together in perfect harmony. ABC is now being sued by the dupe and he claims that if getting the old switcheroo wasn’t bad enough the producers kept telling the man his wife was leaving him. I assume that if this happens during the filming of Wife Swap you have to keep your new wife, so this had to be very frightening for the Oklahoma man.

The producers also would not let the man know his wife’s location unless he participated in the show. I guess this was in the contract too, if you do not participate in the show you will never see your significant other again. The Oklahoma man also claims that his new gay wife invited a gay group to his church’s bible study. I am surprised this happened. Who knew Haileyville, Oklahoma had such a big gay Christian community and how did the new gay wife find them? Want ad? Internet? (Not in Oklahoma.) Gun range?

ABC has no plans to air the episode, but I’ll tell you this, when they do I’m there. I have never watched a Wife Swap show or a Trading Spouses show because, well, they seem like total crap. This is the kind of sweeps stunt that could hook me for a week or two. In the end I hope we all get what we want. Cletus will get some money, ABC will get to show this episode on TV, and we will get to see the most uncomfortable hour of television history.

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