Not that there's anything wrong wth that

In what is likely a crushing blow to Sean, myself, and our large Chinese gay readership, we have some unfortunate news to report. The first annual Mr. Gay China pageant? The one we were all eagerly awaiting? It's shockingly been canceled. I know, I can't believe that a gay pageant wasn't allowed to be held in China either.

Now while the first impulse is to blame China's communist police state for it's bigotry and hostility towards anyone who is different or expresses a unique thought, that would be mistaken. It was just a wacky mix-up.

"They said the content, meaning homosexuality, there's nothing wrong with that, but you did not do things according to procedures," Zhang said.

He said police told him he needed official approval for events that included performances, in this case a stage show.

I didn't know they had translated the "Not that there's anything wrong with that" episode of Seinfeld into Mandarin. Good to know that it's not part of the Chinese government's long practice of shunning and intimidating gays, it's just a minor permit snafu. Like all the permit snafus that I bet public gay events run into. I'm sure they'll get this problem sorted out never and we'll be able to provide the sort of coverage of Mr. Gay China that we were going to provide as the world's #3 web destination for the Chinese gay community.

On the bright side, the irreverent comic stylings of classic American sitcoms are beginning to take hold across the Chinese mainland. They're up to Season 4 of Seinfeld now, soon we'll be able to crack Soup Nazi jokes together under total government surveillance. I can't wait until they start showing Curb Your Enthusiasm there.

Broken in Brief: ESPN promo man desperately trying to resist using "Poker Face" in upcoming ads

BRISTOL—Today during a morning ESPN staff meeting that was set to discuss final plans for the promotion and broadcasting of upcoming World Poker Tour events, veteran promo man and video editor Tom Sullivan announced to the room that he was having trouble creating any ad that didn’t strongly feature the Lady Gaga hit “Poker Face”.

“’Pa-pa-pa-poker face, pa-pa-poker face’, that’s all I can fucking hear inside my head now. I can’t think of anything else,” he was heard to exclaim in the meeting. “Shots of Phil Hellmuth and Doyle Brunson flipping over cards and grabbing larges tacks of chips while that woman sings about muffin bluffing and how you can’t ‘read-a her poker face’. I’m fucking losing my mind here.”

As the distraught man stood in the room, broken by this fact, programming director Mark Halpin asked, “What about 'The Gambler’ by Kenny Rogers?” before taking shelter as Sullivan heaved a chair at him.

Sullivan further noted that while he felt a deep sense of shame, cliché, and unoriginality over this revelation, unless they wanted weeks upon weeks worth of poker ads featuring “Poker Face” that someone “had better name another fucking song quickly” because the Lady Gaga track had finally worn down his will and he was hours away from basing an entire ad campaign around it.

When those in the room replied that because he had both mentioned the song and sung its chorus that it too was all they could think of, Sullivan was said to have visibly died inside as a single tear rolled down his cheek.

As of press time, no one had been able to think of an alternative song.

Art of the day

The pop-culture themed work of Jim Hance. He also has some real art on there, but it's safely hidden away. If you've ever wondered just how many different ways Laurel and Hardy can be depicted as famous killers, Jedi, and zombies, Hance is attempting to find out. Also: Wedge.