CHAPTER 117

Before that, Louis uploads a scene from his new show onto YouTube,

Louis: Rick does it offend you when I say that word?

Rick: What word, ‘hello’?

Louis: No, ‘faggot’.

Nick Di Paolo: Yeah, does it bother you when he says the word ‘faggot’?

Rick: No, it bothers me when you say it, because you mean it.

Louis: Yeah but really, as like, as a comedian and a gay guy, you’re the only gay comic I know, do you think I shouldn’t be using that word on stage?

Rick: I think you should use whatever words you want. When you use it on stage I can see it’s funny and I don’t care, but are you interested to know what it might mean to gay men?

Louis: Yeah, I am interested.

Rick: Well, the word ‘faggot’ really means a bundle of sticks used for kindling in a fire. Now in the Middle Ages when they used to burn people they thought were witches, they used to burn homosexuals too. And they used to burn the witches at a stake but they thought the homosexuals were too low and disgusting to be given a stake to be burned on. So they used to just throw them in with the kindling with the other faggots. So that’s how you get ‘flaming faggot’.

Louis: So what you’re saying is gay people are a good alternative fuel source.

Nick: That’s how they get the term ‘diesel dyke’.

Louis: I’m sorry, go ahead.

Rick: You might want to know that every gay man in America has probably had that word shouted at them when they’re being beaten up, sometimes many times, sometimes by a lot of people all at once, so when you say it, it kind of brings that all back up. But you know, by all means use it, get your laughs, but now you know what it means.