20 years of Eating Out 2: Sloppy Seconds, the gay sex comedy that made Men.com look like the Oscars
Revisiting on its 20th anniversary, the raunchy college comedy does actually have something to say... amid all the dick jokes.
Mark
Credit where it’s due: Whoever named the sequel to Eating Out made sure they beat critics to the punch. But with its crass one-liners, flat visuals, and performances that make Men.com’s outlandish set-ups seem worthy of an Academy Award, Sloppy Seconds gave them plenty of ammunition elsewhere…
You can’t blame creator Q. Allan Brocka—who, second time around, serves as producer and screenwriter—for once again trying to beat the heteros at their own raunchy comedy game. The ’04 original had been a surprise hit (by limited release, gay-interest standards, anyway), grossing three times its admittedly measly $50,000 budget and winning a slew of film festival awards.
How about we take this to the next level?
Subscribe to our newsletter for a refreshing cocktail (or mocktail) of LGBTQ+ entertainment and pop culture, served up with a side of eye-candy.
Subscribe to our Newsletter today
However, rather than upping the ante, Sloppy Seconds—which celebrates its 20th anniversary this month– simply reverses what had gone before. Last time it was a “straight man” playing gay to get the girl, therefore, we now get a gay man playing straight to get the guy in another college farce whose absence of logic matches its grasp of sexual politics.
This time ’round, it’s Kyle (former American Idol contestant Jim Verraros) committing to the charade after falling head over heels for Troy (first-time actor Marco Dapper) a sexually confused hunk who, as the campus art class’ latest figure model, spends most of the film in a state of undress. And, yes, similarly smitten viewers will be pleased to learn he lets it all hang out on screen.
Troy reveals he’s previously swung both ways, but now wants to swing just one and convinces Kyle to accompany him to the conversion therapy sessions promising to “stop the spread of f*ggotry.” Sensing an opportunity to get up, close, and personal, the latter goes back into the closet with the help of returning airhead Tiffani (Rebekah Kochan) posing as his girlfriend, presenting himself as a full-blown ex-homo. “He’ll let me have sex with him if he knows I’m not gay,” comes the deranged reasoning.
However, Kyle isn’t the only man interested in tempting Troy back to the “dark side.” His ex-boyfriend Marc (Brett Chukerman substituting for Ryan Carnes, who’d since graduated to Desperate Housewives) strikes up a connection while also stripping off in the name of art. Instead of fabricating a lavender relationship, though, he tries the out-and-proud approach, resulting in a battle of the sexualities which becomes increasingly unhinged.
Related
Jim Verraros dishes on his hot new track, his ‘American Idol’ hook-up, and ‘Eating Out’ memories
Recognized as the first out, gay contestant on ‘American Idol,’ Verraros says he was supported by his co-stars—some more than others.
Indeed, one moment Troy is getting his nipples licked by Marc in a homoerotic—and it must be said: hot!—photo shoot staged by overenthusiastic ally Gwen (Emily Brooke Hands) that becomes downright homosexual. The next, he’s on the verge of a MMF threesome in which a bewildered Kyle goes down on Tiffani. “I ate p*ssy for nothing,” he cries after Troy, who’s vengefully engineered the ménage à trois after discovering all the seductive scheming, kills the mood.
It’s not just the blatant disdain for the female form and questionable understanding of consent that places Sloppy Seconds in the anything-goes era of the ‘00s. There are quips about domestic abuse (“I wanna hit that harder than Ike hit Tina”) and real-life celebrity addictions (“You think he’s gay? Does Whitney want crack?”) that certainly wouldn’t wash in the age of ‘woke.’
The flamboyant art teacher—whose constant references to his wife aren’t fooling anyone—is like a caricature from a ‘70s sitcom. And a literally climactic set-piece finds the conversion camp leader getting banged in a moving portable toilet, accidentally ejaculating over his homophobic mum. Yes, really!
When it stops trying to compete with the knockoffs of American Pie – whose franchise by this point had already slipped into straight-to-DVD irrelevance – for shock value, Sloppy Seconds is far more appealing. John Waters regular Mink Stole, for example, steals each of her scenes as Kyle’s mum Helen, her initial joy over her son’s new-found heterosexuality soon subsiding when she realizes gays are more fun. A standout line of hers? “And then that Britney Aguilera song came on. You know, that one about you’re beautiful, even if you’re ugly and gay? And I thought, ‘Who is gonna play me this sh*tty music?'”
Related
20 years ago, ‘Eating Out’ gave curious viewers a smutty crash course on gay life
Star and ‘American Idol’ alum Jim Verraros cringes at some of the jokes in ‘Eating Out’ today, but it still makes him proud.
It also cleverly skewers the self-righteousness of the ex-gay movement, with Brocka able to draw upon his own troubling experiences of the subject and director Phillip J. Bartell—who’d later write the three other Eating Out sequels—determined to “sneak a little political thoughts and ideas into what is basically known as gaysploitation.”
Foreshadowed by his opening salvo (“Introductions lead to conversations lead to invitations of intercourse with the wrong persuasion. I’ll do the introducing”), the villainous Jacob (Scott Vickaryous) was always going to be exposed as a raging hypocrite, obviously. Yet the classes, in which he insists on hearing about—and drooling over—every intimate detail of his students’ bedroom encounters, still amuse. “Well, I got fed up with the men. And the sex. And the fun,” explains one convert about his shift to the other side of the Kinsey scale.
Among all the dick jokes, quasi-softcore intimacy and outdated pop culture references (“Will And Grace this, Clay Aiken that”), Sloppy Seconds even serves up some words of wisdom. For instance, In a rare conversation where its characters act like rational human beings, Marc tries to convince Troy that queerness doesn’t equate loneliness: “It opens up a million new options as to how you can live your life.” Sure, no one’s watching a bargain-basement sex comedy for heartfelt life lessons. Nevertheless, its themes of self-acceptance and liberation, particularly for any similarly conflicted younger viewers, are still welcome.
Eating Out 2: Sloppy Seconds is more appetizing than the three stale leftover sequels that followed. But ultimately, it’s still the cinematic equivalent of reheated nachos.
Eating Out 2: Sloppy Seconds is currently available to stream on Tubi.
Related
Military cadets become star-crossed lovers in this queer spin on Romeo & Juliet
How ‘Private Romeo’ repurposed a Shakespeare classic as a Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell protest
Sign up for the Queerty newsletter to stay on top of the hottest stories in LGBTQ+ entertainment, politics, and culture.
