"The Loud House" Features Married Male Gay Couple. I Damn Well Approve

Hey, Everybody.
Andrew here taking time off not posting and doing anything else (sorry for that) to publish an emergency post
in response to a growing epidemic in Western Animation:
open homosexuality in children's television.

It's been around for the past few years and has only strengthened ever since. We've seen in a lot here:
-the well-known and less-subtexty-as-time-went-on relationship of
Sheriff Blurbs and Deputy Durland on Gravity Falls,


-Korra and Asami becoming Korrasami on the final episode of The Legend of Korra


-Jeff revealed to have two moms on Clarence


-the couple seen in the background on We Bare Bears

-the lesbian couple in Finding Dory


-every gem character (fusion or no) on Steven Universe


-(other examples I didn't mention here)

-plus a rare example on live-action kid's TV, courtesy of Disney Channel's Good Luck Charlie--in which the titular character has a playdate with her friend of the week, with her parents being a little unconventional)



-and of course, a personal favorite I've discussed before,
the handsomely-dressed male gay couple from Clarence.


So now, today, we have another example finally coming out (;-)) in the open--and since you read the header, I'll get straight to it--another male gay couple brought to us by Nickelodeon's The Loud House.

Time to make history indeed! First married gay couple on a Nickelodeon cartoon!https://t.co/CI5NPmd7JU

— juno 🐓 (@harryetIouis) July 16, 2016

This couple, Harold McBride and Howard McBride, are the parents of main character (and best friend of MAIN main character Lincoln Loud) Clyde. And what makes this even more awesome is that the two in an interracial relationship. And...they're married. That's right; the McBride men are together hand-to-hold, sickness-and-health, death-do-they-part, ball-and-chain married. And it's a glorious thing.

When Lincoln said "History in the making", he really meant it. In a way different from expected.

Here are my thoughts. Quite a doozy here:
Throughout the series' infancy, I usually thought (subconsciously) that Clyde's parents were a black man and woman, meaning a mom and a dad. So this was a legit shock (as shown in the video above, and by extension, the article from Entertainment Weekly's website) for me to see two guys (and one of them even NOT black) in front of the Loud House door. Now, I'm not being racist or homophobic or anything (I really am not), but that's what I thought.
(I previously also have some similar thoughts about Lincoln's eldest sister Lori's boyfriend Bobby being white, only to learn later on that he's Latino). This show is really good at destroying subconscious expectations upon first contact, while at the same time, making a great multiracial community of characters that make me love this show twofold.

Now for the situation involving Mr. and Mr. McBride, this came out of nowhere to me. It would seem like Loud House is taking advantage of the newfound acceptance of gay characters on kids cartoons of the decade, but it's not. (Either way though, in that front, I'm really cool with that.) Yeah, it seems so forceful and jammed into your brain until you hemorrhage, but I'm enjoying what I see here. It's all part of the progression. (Believe or not, the general progression of kids cartoons has happened for the past couple decades. Gross-out humor, saying "pissed" casually, double entendres, open violence, characters undergarments being shown freely, suggestive humor and moments, and lots more have been found more increasingly in cartoons across North America and Europe for many decades (especially since the 80s), and most have found under the radar until the mid-90s. So it's no surprise that The Loud House is joining in with everyone else.) The scene also feels organic yet surprising. While this is their first appearance (and feels like we're meeting a new main character to hang with for a long while before he'll disappear forever), it feels like we've known them before (and shamed for not doing so). There's no big hip-hip-hooray, break-out-the-streamers-and-poppers, J. Fred Muggs-welcome-like thing. Just a simple scene progression to make the episode continue to what's important--Clyde sleeping over at Lincoln Log's, only for Lincoln to get screwed over and learn something meaningful yet again. Just something that just happened in part of the episode. And like everyone and everything else, I'm cool with it all, as long as it's tasteful and funny. And this here was very tasteful and funny.

Which leads me to Harold and Howard themselves. I like them a lot, and they've only appeared in under a minute in that clip alone. They're not too gay, which gives us all a sigh of relief from the jump. They're also funny, charming, classy and very loving and caring of their son Clyde (which, in another funny thought, gives me this--Clyde McBride. Clever, rhyming and funny). And in the case if White Mr. McBride, a bit too caring. And their voice actors Wayne Brady and Michael McDonald (you figure out which H. McBride they voice) add the humor, timing and charm to them and the scene. And it works amazingly. (Fun factoid, Brady also gave his talents to another gay character: Barney Stinson's black (don't ask, just read along) brother from-the-same-mother James on How I Met Your Mother. So this adds a bit of familiarity to this new role. Plus, the line about "letting go" was hilarious.

While not all-the-way groundbreaking, it's groundbreaking in that the couple in question here are a married couple, which has to be a HUGE deal, and all the more palpable and worth watching.
All of this makes Mr. Harold McBride and Mr. Howard McBride side characters I'll love to watch on The Loud House from here on out.

Their first episode, "Overnight Success" (heh) airs this Wednesday at 5pm on Nick. Please check that out, and by extension, The Loud House itself. It's worth watching, especially if you're in a large family.

Cheers to creator Chris Savino and the crew, along with with Nickelodeon for making this bold leap to pay off in positive responses and praise, and to the viewers and fans with a heart and open mind for accepting this development with open arms and love.

That's it for now. I'm Andrew. Good day!