The Right Ear is the Gay Ear (with Vinny Thomas) RE-RELEASE

Summary

Podcast Summary: My Momma Told Me — "The Right Ear is the Gay Ear" (with Vinny Thomas) [Re-Release]

Main Theme & Purpose

In this episode of My Momma Told Me, comedians Langston Kerman and David Gborie, joined by special guest Vinny Thomas, take a hilarious yet genuine deep dive into a famous Black cultural conspiracy: “If your right ear is pierced, that means you’re gay.” The trio explores the origins, lived experiences, generational shifts, and eventual absurdity of this belief, using personal anecdotes, research, and plenty of sharp-witted banter to question and dissect how such signals functioned within Black communities (and beyond).

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Episode Breakdown & Key Insights

1. Introduction & Icebreakers (03:10–08:09)

• The show kicks off with the hosts joking around about adopting white babies, theorizing about which European children might be “worth more,” and the dangers of accidentally adopting a vampire.
• Memorable banter: Joking about “weaponizing” a vampire and referencing cultural stereotypes.

Quote (07:05–07:12, Vinny Thomas):
“I think you play a dangerous game. I think it’s a 50/50 chance if you adopt an Eastern European person, they’re going to be a vampire.”

Notable Moment:
Langston introduces Vinny Thomas properly after the gang falls deep into the adoption-tangent, setting the tone for a meandering but always funny and insightful discussion.

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2. The “Right Ear is Gay” Conspiracy (09:13–19:01)

The Ubiquity of the Ear-Piercing Signal

• Vinny introduces the episode’s main subject: “My mama told me, if your right ear is pierced, that means you’re gay.”
• All three reminisce about how prevalent (and anxiety-inducing) this idea was for Black kids growing up in the ‘90s and early 2000s.
• Even if they didn’t believe it, social pressure enforced conformity.

Quote (11:12–11:28, Langston Kerman):
“I didn’t believe it for a second, but I was like, all these niggas do. So who am I to jet against their own research? Yeah. I’m going to make sure I get the correct one, pierced, so that no associations are made.”

The Logic of Fear

• The hosts discuss how the fear wasn’t about being gay, but about being perceived as gay—especially by those “bigger and stronger than you.”
• Vinny recounts getting his left ear pierced while a friend got their right, “covering both bases.”
• Langston calls this “homophobic Russian roulette.”

Quote (14:19, Langston Kerman):
“That’s the closest thing to homophobic Russian roulette I’ve ever heard in my life.”

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3. Cultural Shifts & Parental Responses (19:01–32:23)

Generational Change

• The “signal” started to fade in importance; now, fashion-forward young men wear all manner of earrings regardless of connotation.
• Vinny reflects on the difference between his own ear-piercing anxiety and how “guys now” have mushroom cuts, dangly earrings, etc., without anxiety.

Parental Attitudes

• Vinny discusses his parents’ aversion to piercings/tattoos, calling his dad’s military background and mom’s immigrant Italian roots factors.
• Langston recalls his mom literally taking him to get pierced and consenting to a regrettable tattoo at 16.

Quote (31:43, Langston Kerman):
“My mom consented for me to get a tattoo when I was 16, which was a massive mistake and remains stupid on my arm to this day.”

Comic Relief:
Stories of botched home piercings and infected ears. Vinny’s class ring fiasco: He wanted it to say “Creavi” (“I create” in Latin), but the spacing made it look like “cream.”

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4. The Origins & Absurdity of the “Gay Ear” Signal (35:15–46:04)

Roots of the Myth and Code Language

• Langston shares research: the phrase “left is right and right is wrong.”
• Vinny references a Queerty article illustrating how mainstream coverage (like a 1991 NYT piece) brought a once “secret” code into broad daylight.
• All discuss the notion that these subtle signals were necessary forms of coded communication in less-safe times for queer people (e.g., the hanky code).

Quote (20:14, Vinny Thomas):
“Back then, every homosexual had to be like a Navajo code talker and to have like a secret breakdown, like some hidden dialogue. And now it’s like, oh, you guys aren’t hidden at all, you know?”

International Differences & Homophobia

• In Russia, the right ear is the “straight” ear, the reverse of America’s myth.
• In China, piercings are now banned outright.
• The “signal” goes from safety to dog-whistle to weaponization—often enforcing exclusion and fear.

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5. Jewelry, Gender, and Class (41:56–45:30)

• Historically, men (especially royalty) adorned themselves with jewelry—earrings, high heels, etc.—before American Christianity and Puritanism associated male adornment with femininity.
• Discussion about how modern “men are dirty” culture makes self-care and adornment suspect.

Quote (43:29, Vinny Thomas):
“I think it’s a part of men…if a man isn’t disgusting, he’s not a man. If you’re not, you know, bruised, filthy, and you don’t care at all what you look like, then you are actually a lady.”

• The ruling class has always been free to adorn itself, while “normal people” had to adhere to strict codes.

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6. The Absurdity and Aftermath (55:06–64:05)

Signals Get Lost

• Noting that overly subtle signals like earring sides and “hairpin dropping” eventually became confusing, outdated, and, once publicized, useless.

Quote (55:06, Vinny Thomas):
“At some point it must have been exhausting because you would have had to speak a whole different language, like in the 70s, 60s, to let people know, my God, just write your name on a bathroom stall, you know?”

Hysteria and Moral Panic

• The crew connects “gay ear” panic to broader ‘80s/‘90s cultural freakouts (satanic panic, fear of D&D, etc.), and how media amplification turned quiet signals into national “witch hunts.”

• George Michael, Prince, and other high femme male celebrities often “broke the code” and became sex symbols regardless of signaling.

American Puritan Influence

• The taboo against men’s jewelry is traced back to American Christian and Puritan roots.

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Notable Quotes & Moments

• “If your ear looks like it makes a Ninja Turtle, you did something wrong.” (16:46, Langston Kerman)
• “Being ashy is what she’d be upset about. Not the gay ear.” (29:51, Langston Kerman to David)
• “You know what pop my butt meant to Harriet Tubman? ...It meant a whip.” (52:32, Vinny Thomas)
• “…the signaling was probably necessary at a point, but certainly absurd for us as children to buy into.” (64:01, Langston Kerman, wrapping up the discussion)

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• 03:10 — Gen Alpha jokes, TV nostalgia, and speculation about adopting white babies
• 09:13 — Introduction of the “right ear is gay” conspiracy
• 11:12 — Social belief vs. personal belief in the conspiracy
• 14:13 — Vinny & friend gamble on right vs. left ear—“homophobic Russian roulette”
• 17:01 — Did the theory slow anyone’s journey to coming out? Vinny reflects
• 19:01 — The decline of the “gay ear” panic and changing fashion norms
• 31:43 — Langston’s terrible first tattoo story
• 35:15 — “Left is right and right is wrong” slogan; where did this come from?
• 41:56 — Jewelry, class, and masculinity across history
• 46:04 — International “ear” signals and policy
• 55:06 — The coded language of queerness before mainstreaming
• 57:40 — Media’s role in exposing and amplifying “signals”
• 64:05 — Wrap-up: cultural necessity turns to absurdity

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Conclusion

The episode deftly balances vulnerability, humor, and sociocultural commentary, ultimately arguing that the “gay ear” myth was both a tool for covert identification in unsafe eras and, once mainstreamed, a mechanism for enforcing rigid, homophobic norms. The hosts and Vinny agree: what began as a subtle code became oppressive and is, for younger generations at least, increasingly meaningless.

Follow & Connect:

• Vinny Thomas: @vinn_ayy (Instagram, Twitter, TikTok), "Platonic" on Apple TV+
• David Gborie: @coolguyjokes87 (Instagram, TikTok), Patreon, special Birth of a Nation
• Langston Kerman: @langstonkerman (all platforms)

Next up: More live shows, more conspiracies, and more irreverent excavations of Black cultural folklore.

Transcript

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[David Bore]

Alton, Texas.

[Vinny Thomas]

A legacy is a beautiful thing, but only if it survives.

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[Langston Kerman]

My Mama Told Me Presents the Start the Steal Tour. We're very excited about it. I'm not about to bite my tongue. We want to sell it out and the dates are coming up fast and so if you live in one of these areas, we want you to buy your tickets now. It's all available on our Instagrams, on our websites, on our link tree. But October 17th, we're in LA, in Hollywood, we'll be in Atlanta on Halloween. October 31st, November 1st we're in Houston. November 2nd, Austin. November 3rd, 3rd, Dallas, we're in Brooklyn. On November 7th, we're in Somerville, Massachusetts. It's Boston, bitch. Get over it. November 8th, November 10th, we're in Philly. November 17th we're in San Francisco. We want y' all to come out. We want y' all to kick it. We will be doing our coveted live show with special guests with just me and David depending on the city. It'll be a great time.

[David Bore]

All that meet and Greets. You think Chris Brown has a good meet and greetings, bro.

[Langston Kerman]

Let's be clear. I'll take a weird picture with you for free. You don't gotta be cool with me, Vinny. A fellow gen alpha myself.

[David Bore]

Yeah, look at me.

[Langston Kerman]

Me and my friend David, we also hit that woe with the best of them, you know.

[David Bore]

TikTok

[Vinny Thomas]

goes the clock. Amen, fellas. And I'm just like you, you know what I mean? I watched. I watched Monk, right? I was right there with you watching. Watching Law and Order.

[Langston Kerman]

Monk was a great fucking show. Let's.

[David Bore]

Let's have our fun boot.

[Langston Kerman]

Monk was a great fucking show.

[Vinny Thomas]

I'm not stepping on Monk. I fucking love Monk.

[Langston Kerman]

You kids would do well to watch a little Monk. Maybe you wouldn't that way if you watch the little Monk.

[David Bore]

The government growing babies. Microchips in your 80s.

[Langston Kerman]

All koala bears are racist.

[David Bore]

The ozone layer owes me money. Marshall's invented turkey stuffing. Y' all can't tell me nothing.

[Langston Kerman]

Gold all in my chain Gold all in my ring Gold all in my watch. Don't believe me, just watch. Nigga, nigga, nigga don't believe me, just watch. There it is. There it is. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to another phenomenal episode of My Mama Told Me the

[David Bore]

podcast where we dive deep into the pockets of black conspiracy theories and we

[Langston Kerman]

finally work to prove that Lionel Richie was only a allowed out of his Commodore's contract if he agreed to adopt a white child. You think they were letting that. That, that brilliant man's money go back to a black baby, to the black community? Absolutely not.

[David Bore]

We're.

[Langston Kerman]

We're making that white money again. It's the only way you're getting out of this Commodore's is make this some white money. And that's what they did. I'm Lexington Kerman.

[David Bore]

I'm David Boy. And I've never been more proud to call you my co host.

[Langston Kerman]

It's truly. What other explanation is there? Just two black people adopting a white baby and being like, yep, this is what we got going.

[David Bore]

I've only ever even heard of it on your television show Southside. I've never even heard of it. It's that and I know a lot of fucking freaks.

[Langston Kerman]

It's a bold choice even for a very rich black man to be like, I'm gonna get a little white girl and keep her.

[David Bore]

Is it. Oh, man. Okay, here's. Would you do it? That's. I think how we need to open this. Would you guys do that?

[Langston Kerman]

Wow, that's a tough question. It's a very hard question. Would I adopt a white child?

[Vinny Thomas]

I would adopt the right kind of white child. I would adopt. I would say Greek or Italian. I would adopt an Italian ex white child.

[Langston Kerman]

Okay, I like that. I think Greek sounds nice. A little Stavi running around. That seems nice.

[David Bore]

But if you get an Eastern European, he could still ball.

[Vinny Thomas]

Oh, yeah.

[David Bore]

Get you a Luca.

[Vinny Thomas]

That's true. Get you a Jokic.

[David Bore]

And I don't know the prices of babies racially, but prices I would maybe not be crazy and saying that you get a little cheaper.

[Langston Kerman]

I'm gonna be honest. Them Eastern Europeans seem wholesale to me. They seem. You know what I mean? They seem like there's no markup. You just hit them for what they're worth, and that's a deal anywhere you go.

[Vinny Thomas]

I think you play a dangerous game. I think it's a 50. 50 chance if you adopt an Eastern European person, they're going to be a vampire, because that's where they live.

[David Bore]

That's the worry that. See, man, right? Two minutes in, you're already tracking. That is the worry.

[Langston Kerman]

They're calling you papa and they're biting your neck, and now you're in trouble. Yeah, I got you.

[David Bore]

But now I got a vampire on the team.

[Langston Kerman]

Oh, you're saying you can weaponize this vampire, you can make them into. Into something else?

[David Bore]

I mean, I'm saying that he will have a love of his father that will propel him to help his father out when his father is in need, much like all of you would be. When are you gonna be in need of a vampire, bro? AI's coming around. I don't know what's about to happen.

[Langston Kerman]

Fair enough.

[Vinny Thomas]

So you're imagining kind of a Dexter situation where you train your monster child.

[David Bore]

Whoa. You said monster. First of all, I just said Eastern European. You're putting these labels on my boy. No, we agreed on ve.

[Vinny Thomas]

We agreed on vampire, and I think

[Langston Kerman]

that qualifies as monster. I'm here with Vinny. I don't. We should introduce our guests. We haven't even bothered introducing him. He immediately launched into speculations about the prices of white babies and vampires. But our guest today is so funny. We're both big fans of his. He's a comedian, he's an actor, he's a writer. And you can see him currently on Platonic on Apple tv. Give it up for the hilarious Vinnie Th. Everybody. Oh, yeah.

[Vinny Thomas]

I got a friend in this village

[David Bore]

that was more ominous than it felt. It was just the sound.

[Vinny Thomas]

They told me to expect sounds, and I Still was not prepared, I think, emotionally, spiritually, or physically for a sound to occur. And I'm going to do better in the future.

[Langston Kerman]

That's the hard part. It happens at any time, and there's no real way to prepare for that feeling.

[David Bore]

We grow when we're uncomfortable.

[Langston Kerman]

Vinnie, we're excited you're here. You came to us with a conspiracy theory that I actually was surprised we had never covered before. It's such a formative conspiracy theory, I think, in my childhood that I almost think I overlooked it because of how much it felt ubiquitous with my own upbringing. But you said, my mama told me if your right ear is pierced, that means you're gay.

[Vinny Thomas]

Yeah, true. That's all true. Everything you said is true. I think by the time I was in school that that conspiracy theory, it was starting to kind of drift away a little bit. Right. But there's always that thing in the back of your head is like, which year is a homosexual year, which year is the heterosexual year. Ultimately, I could not remember which is which.

[Langston Kerman]

So which maybe is. Is the gayest thing you can do. Not remembering that means forgetfulness.

[Vinny Thomas]

Yeah. One thing about gay people is we have amnesia. You know, is gay. Oh, my God. Yeah. Dory from Finding Nemo. Lesbian.

[David Bore]

F. Yeah.

[Vinny Thomas]

Short term memory loss. This is all tracking.

[David Bore]

So my question is first, because I know we all heard it. Did you guys believe it?

[Langston Kerman]

Vinny, I'll let you answer that first, because I do have an answer. I don't want to override.

[Vinny Thomas]

I don't know if I believed it, but I still was terrified of getting one ear pierced versus the other because I wasn't sure which was which. You don't believe it, but you do trust that other people will believe it. Perhaps people who are bigger and stronger than you. And I think that alone instilled a kind of belief, if that makes sense.

[Langston Kerman]

I feel almost exactly the same. I didn't believe it for a second, but I was like, all these niggas do. So who am I? Who am I to jet against their own research? Yeah. I'm going to make sure I get the correct one, Pierce, so that no associations.

[Vinny Thomas]

Yeah.

[Langston Kerman]

Are made.

[Vinny Thomas]

Ultimately, it's not the same smart who inherit the earth. It's the brutal and stupid, and they make the decisions.

[Langston Kerman]

Bori, did you believe it when you were a young lad?

[David Bore]

I think I believed it in the way that I believed a lot of things. I was told of this, like. Of this kind of type where it's like, maybe there's something going on that I don't know. You know what I'm saying? Like, I was like, I don't know what they do. I. That could be like, I didn't have my ears pierced. It definitely wasn't something I was, like, worried about either way. But I think that. I thought that maybe it's culture, you know what I mean? Maybe there's a story behind it, but I thought that. I definitely think. I thought it came from somewhere.

[Vinny Thomas]

I will say I was not out in school and I didn't have my ears pierced at all because my parents thought piercings were disgusting. They still do. I don't know. What about piercings and tattoos and still kind of a visceral disgust in their mind.

[Langston Kerman]

Oh, you know, you don't mean disgusting in, like, a shameful way. You mean literally, like.

[Vinny Thomas]

I think there's a gag reflex. Yeah. It truly. It produces a sound in them that is like a kind of scoff, like, kind of like a. You know what I mean?

[David Bore]

Are your parents a lot older?

[Vinny Thomas]

No, but my mom. My mom is white, but Italian white, and her mother is from Italy, like the old country. And so there's a lot kind of wrapped up in there, I guess. My dad's a military guy, so I think any kind of departure from, you know, having regular ears was. Was weird for him. But I did get one ear pierced. It wasn't the right one for gang guy, but I did get one ear pierced.

[David Bore]

Damn, you still blew it.

[Vinny Thomas]

I still blew it.

[Langston Kerman]

Hey, you and me both, brother. We both did the piercing. I did it. I guess I, in theory, chose correctly for myself, but that said it all was very rooted in a fear of, like, yo, I hope I don't get made up.

[Vinny Thomas]

Yeah, here's the thing. When I went to get a pierced, I went with a friend and he got his. He got his right ear pierced and I got my left ear pierced because we weren't sure which is which, and we wanted to cover. Cover the bases that. You know what I mean?

[Langston Kerman]

That's insane. That's genuinely insane for y' all not to, like, call it off that day and go check and just be like, I'll do one, you do the other. Good luck. My nigga is crazy.

[Vinny Thomas]

One of us was going to be right. You understand? One of us was going to be right.

[David Bore]

That's beautiful. Kinda.

[Langston Kerman]

That's the closest thing to homophobic Russian roulette I've ever heard in my life.

[Vinny Thomas]

And as a direct result, I'm gay.

[David Bore]

And that is what happened that day at that Claire's. A lot of people Think you're born with it.

[Vinny Thomas]

Not all that was really Claire's up that you just said Claire's was really fucked up.

[David Bore]

Was it not a Claire's?

[Vinny Thomas]

I didn't get my ears pierced. I'd be terrified to let one of they use the same hole punches that they use to, like, punch tags and heifers ears in their farming. You know what I mean? I got bad news.

[Langston Kerman]

I'm a Claire's man through and through. That's. Let's go, baby.

[David Bore]

Claire's gay. Claire's gay. Claire's gay.

[Langston Kerman]

Claire's. Get the money, dog.

[Vinny Thomas]

You let a teenager stab through your

[Langston Kerman]

ear at Claire's stab. It was a little gun that they put to your ear with a person who clearly doesn't know how it works or could not replicate the same hole even if they wanted to. It was a huge mistake. Of course that's not the right way to do it. But I'm of a generation where I think I'm 37 years old. We didn't have the option to go anywhere professional. You went to Claire's or your mom wasn't going to take you anywhere at all.

[Vinny Thomas]

Your mom took you to get your ear pierced.

[Langston Kerman]

That's right. She was a nice lady.

[David Bore]

I do feel like. And maybe this is. There's part of this. It's like just a lack of awareness. But I do feel like when I was young, there were not nearly as many places specifically to go for piercings. Like, I don't feel like it was always the tattoo, piercing shop, combo type of thing. So I do feel like there was. Oh, yeah, I steeple. I do feel like there was less. I do feel like there were less places to go to get it pierced.

[Langston Kerman]

Yeah. And you. If you were a real man, you went to Claire's and you did it on the bus.

[David Bore]

If you were.

[Langston Kerman]

You pretended like it wasn't a business filled with children's jewelry. You. You acted like you belong there.

[Vinny Thomas]

Did y' all have those friends who did it themselves who, like, they heated up a needle with a fire and, like, stuck it through?

[Langston Kerman]

Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Vinny Thomas]

You know, they had terrible infections. Every time I hear someone tell me about that, and they're like, I was oozing afterwards. I was like, what the hell are you talking about? You were oozing. They were like, it was infected bad. It was crazy, brother.

[Langston Kerman]

If your ear looks like it makes a ninja Turtle, you did something wrong. That's not how it's supposed to go. You know,

[Vinny Thomas]

If it makes a Ninja Turtle,

[Langston Kerman]

so. So you Obviously bought into the. The stereotype. You bought into this conspiracy theory despite what ultimately ended up being. You ended up being a queer person despite that. Do you feel like there were ever any. Were there people in your life that ever told you otherwise? Was there ever a brave soul who stepped up and was like, vinnie, that's silly. Be who you want to be. Pierce whatever ear you want to pierce.

[Vinny Thomas]

No, absolutely not. Sometimes when I talk. Sometimes what I would. I mean, I had an older brother. Do you know what I mean? I would talk about piercing my ear, and he'd be like, you better make sure you flip the coin the right way.

[Langston Kerman]

Dangerous game again, it does not have to be a coin flip. You could have just researched which era

[Vinny Thomas]

was the correct with someone else, and you each have to get one. That's the way it works. Research. There's. There's no way to know. Yeah. I didn't have anyone who was actively, like, fighting against it. I feel like it just wasn't as ubiquitous. I feel like this is a very 90s conspiracy theory, kind of a 90s, early 2000s conspiracy. And it's. It's since started to trail off because now I feel like young guys. They got young guys now are guys who would have been considered very gay, like back in the day in school, you know what I mean? They got like. Yeah, mushroom haircuts and dangly, like, cross earrings and stuff.

[David Bore]

So I. Little brother wears two dangly earrings.

[Langston Kerman]

Yeah. The stress I would have had wearing this color shirt throughout most of my childhood was brother so heavy before Cam' Ron freed us. Yeah. I would've been like, fuchsia, my nigga. Do you know what I'm walking into with this? I don't have the strength.

[David Bore]

Better be a goddamn school color.

[Vinny Thomas]

We better be the fighting fuchsia tigers, or else I'm absolutely fucking fucked.

[David Bore]

You know what's funny to me about this conspiracy is like, what a terrible signal if it was. Because I always thought about it as it was trying to keep a secret society type of sit. You know what I mean? Like, it was supposed to be a secret signal. What a terrible signal.

[Langston Kerman]

You don't think it's a great sign?

[David Bore]

So clearly obvious.

[Langston Kerman]

You don't think it's a great signal?

[David Bore]

No, it's like if you're trying to keep something concealed, I could just look at your face the first thing I look at and be like, oh, he's gay. Well, he's like, there's no. Like, it's not.

[Vinny Thomas]

You know what I mean?

[Langston Kerman]

It's not like, here's why I thought it was a better idea. Maybe this is my own stupidity. It always takes me a minute to remember which ear is left and which ear is right when I'm facing somebody. So it's like, ah, you got to sit there and do math. And after the. You don't want to finish the math, so you just ignore it and you move on with your life.

[Vinny Thomas]

Absolutely.

[Langston Kerman]

It's like, oh, it's subtle. It's very subtle.

[Vinny Thomas]

I feel like this has to have come from gay people in, I don't know, the 70s, maybe earlier than that. They had. They had a language, secret little signals. And it was, you know, it was gay years. It was the hanky code. It was all of this that now is impossible to understand. Like, to me, it doesn't make any sense. But back then, every homosexual had to be like a Navajo code talker and to have like a secret breakdown, like some hidden dialogue. And now it's like, oh, you guys aren't hidden at all, you know? Yeah.

[Langston Kerman]

Grindr used to be you just gotta break a branch off of this tree and walk into the alley, wait for somebody to notice.

[David Bore]

It is interesting you said the hanky code because I remember when I first moved to San Francisco, that was like a big thing, but it was forever. It was like the color and the placement said what you were into. But I knew a lot of very boring people who also used it. Like, they really co opted that.

[Vinny Thomas]

Yeah, some people with the hanky code, I don't think you need a hanky for like missionary and eye contact. Do you know what I mean? Like that you need to be open to love.

[Langston Kerman]

Yeah. Do something nasty with this. What are you doing? I'm curious to know how much you felt like something like this slowed your ability to finding your queer self to fully coming out and feeling sort of settled in whoever you are, despite, you know, the right or wrong ear piercing quote, unquote.

[Vinny Thomas]

Huh. You know, I don't think the. The ear piercing. I don't think the ear piercing slowed it. I think it was an eventuality that I was going to get my ear pierced. You know what I mean? Ultimately, I do think it was destiny. And at the end of the day, I don't know if I. I don't think I ever absolutely believed it. What you're afraid of is other people's reaction to it, not necessarily the thing itself. I think it was more afraid of having a hole punched in me, which on the face of it is a completely ridiculous thing to do for what you could stick something in there. It doesn't even make any sense.

[Langston Kerman]

Do you know what I mean?

[Vinny Thomas]

I think human behavior is just kind of odd to begin with. Yeah, I think I was more scared of getting my ear pierced than being perceived as a gay guy with his ears pierced. And no, I don't think the ear pierce theory had any effect at all.

[Langston Kerman]

Yeah, that's nice. There's something nice that it didn't. Yeah, it is. Because you fear that this is somehow an inhibitor to people sort of being able to explore, to find themselves, as it were. And so, like, hell, yeah, if. If a bunch of the deeply rooted homophobia from the 80s and 90s did not break anyone's brains. I take solace in that. That makes me feel warm inside.

[Vinny Thomas]

Oh, damn. Come on.

[David Bore]

All right.

[Langston Kerman]

I want to be homophobic again to protect myself because I'm also a coward. All right, we're going to take a break and when we come back, we're going to talk more ear piercing and wrong, right and left, whatever you want to call it. And it's more Vinnie Thomas. More My mama told me.

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[Vinny Thomas]

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[Langston Kerman]

my mama told Me presents the Start the Steal Tour. We're very excited about it. I'm not about to bite my tongue. We want to sell it out and the dates are coming up fast. And so if you live in one of these areas, we want you to buy your tickets. Now. It's all available on our Instagrams, on our websites, on our link tree. But October 17, we're in LA, in Hollywood. We'll be in Atlanta on Halloween. October 31. November 1 we're in Houston. November 2, Austin. November 1, November 3, Dallas. We're in Brooklyn. On November 7 we're in Somerville, Massachusetts. It's Boston, bitch. Get over it. November 8, November 10, we're in Philly. November 17, we're in San Francisco. We want y' all to come out. We want y' all to kick it. We will be doing our coveted live show with special guests with just me and David. Depending on the city, it'll be a great time.

[David Bore]

All that meet and greets. You think Chris Brown has a good meet and greetings, bro.

[Langston Kerman]

Let's be clear. I'll take a weird picture with you for free,

[David Bore]

but in reverse. Terry, back it on up to our conversation about ear piercings. Left, right, Gay, straight, who knows?

[Langston Kerman]

Who cares? Who knows? Who cares? So your parents are disgusted by it. What was their reaction upon seeing that you had gotten your ear pierced?

[Vinny Thomas]

First of all, I'd just like to acknowledge David's left, right, gay, straight, who cares? Which truly sounds like an RFK Jr campaign slogan.

[Langston Kerman]

Say it with a shitty voice and we'll buy in, then I'll listen.

[Vinny Thomas]

I think they've calmed down a lot. I think it was when we were kids, they were very, like, their reaction to. Every now and then, my brother or I would float the idea of getting a tattoo or getting a piercing, and my mom would be like, why would you. Why would you do that? Why would you mar your skin? And since then, my brother's got, like, he has a giant half sleeve, and now I have my little itty bitty piercing, which I think they use for, like, babies or something. I have the smallest piercing in the world. I have one of those hearts that you give, like. Like you give a baby a year after it's born.

[Langston Kerman]

You know what I mean? Yeah. Like, we don't know who you are yet, so here's something to remind us that you're alive.

[Vinny Thomas]

Little placeholder. Nah, they've chilled out, I think. Yeah, I think they're cool enough with it now. I think if I asked my mom, she would. She would definitely prefer I didn't get it, but what do I care about her? He's not a gay guy.

[David Bore]

Let's go,

[Langston Kerman]

Bory. Do your parents give a shit? Does your mom. Is she an advocate? Is she anti. Where is she?

[David Bore]

Oh, no, she doesn't care at all. Which is funny, because now I'm thinking about it. Yeah, it would have made no difference. I don't know what I was worried

[Langston Kerman]

about as far as her judgment. Would have made no difference in you wanting to do it or not.

[David Bore]

There's like. There's other fashion things I could have done that she would have been a lot more upset about than the gay year.

[Vinny Thomas]

Like, what kind of stuff?

[David Bore]

I don't know, man. Just, like, going out, being ashy. She hates that. That's not really. That's not really. It's not like she would rather me be well presented.

[Langston Kerman]

A classic fashion taboo. Being ashy is what she'd be upset about. Not.

[Vinny Thomas]

You know, sometimes I'll go to the beach and I'm just ashy on the right side to let them know, Just as you on the right.

[Langston Kerman]

That means I want to have sex in the water.

[David Bore]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Langston Kerman]

It's.

[David Bore]

It's an adapted Hanky coat. Really?

[Vinny Thomas]

Yeah. Ashley on the right with a gray hanky, also on the white side in the ocean. I feel like there are worse things I could have done. Like, I think an earring is so tame. I feel like it's a kind of surgical invention. And on the scale of surgical invention, like, I could have gotten those insane lip fillers that make it so your upper lip can't move. Do you know what I mean?

[David Bore]

Right? Or, like, for sure.

[Vinny Thomas]

What are people doing now? They're getting their buccal fat removed and they look like corpses. I could have done that, you know.

[Langston Kerman]

What's your buccal. What? Yeah, I don't know.

[Vinny Thomas]

You know, the buccal fat. Fellas, fellas, Buccal fat put me on game. Yeah, it's right here on your cheeks, and people are getting it sucked out so they look like, whoa.

[Langston Kerman]

Yeah, you're just handsome Squidward all the time.

[Vinny Thomas]

Yeah, Handsome Squidward face. You get it sucked right out. I don't know where they put it.

[Langston Kerman]

None of that's nobody's business.

[Vinny Thomas]

None of my business where they put it.

[Langston Kerman]

That's hipaa. You don't violate that now. You take it out, we talk about it. But if you. Where you put it? That's Hiplin.

[David Bore]

But, yeah, to all that, my mom would be much more angry about that. What about you?

[Langston Kerman]

No, my mom literally took me to go get my piercing. My mom consented for me to get a tattoo when I was 16, which was a massive mistake and remains stupid on my arm to this day.

[Vinny Thomas]

What is a tattoo? What does it say? Like, hustle.

[Langston Kerman]

Okay. You want to hear how bad of a choice I made? I've never told this story before. This is.

[Vinny Thomas]

It's R. Kelly. Holy fuck, it's R. Kelly.

[Langston Kerman]

It is. It's a big old picture of R. Kelly, and it says, no matter what he does, I'm a fan. No, it's. So my first tattoo. I used to do performance poetry. And I, at 16 years old, was playing with the idea of going by the stage name Language Arts. You know, Langston becomes language Art, I swear to God. And I.

[David Bore]

It's hard to breathe. This is the best day of my life.

[Langston Kerman]

I then went to arguably the most amateur tattoo artist in all of my community, and I took my stepfather. My then stepfather's drawing of a microphone that then the microphone cord turned into writing that said, you guessed it, language. And I took it to that amateur artist and I said, put this as big as you can on my right arm, please. And, boy, did he.

[David Bore]

Irene Devil's advocate. You can get some pussy behind that,

[Langston Kerman]

bro, I assure you, you can't. It wasn't done well enough. It didn't look cool. You know what I mean? Like, all of it was a mistake in every way, shape or form.

[Vinny Thomas]

You gotta go to the right places. You gotta find a girl who sees that and she's like, you know, I could speak a language. Yep.

[Langston Kerman]

Boom, boom.

[Vinny Thomas]

That's enough. It's an end.

[Langston Kerman]

I truly had a bunch of God fearing women around me who were like, you should not have done this, sir. This is not gonna make us fuck you at all.

[Vinny Thomas]

God, language. Sounds like a woman at church telling you not to swear. It just. Bro, it sounds like a warning.

[David Bore]

It's like a tattletale ass name.

[Langston Kerman]

It was awful. I really thought I was doing something, you know what I mean? Like, I really thought I was like,

[Vinny Thomas]

no, but everyone does.

[David Bore]

The thought process, though, is the thing I see where, like, if it was just a little too far over here, if it was just a little back, it would have been the coldest shit ever.

[Vinny Thomas]

But when I was a kid, when I was in high school, I saved up enough money to get a class ring. And I wanted to get the word creavi written on the side, which is like Latin for, I create creavi. Yeah. But I get the ring. The letters are so close together, it looks like cream. It just says. So I saved up all this money to get this ring, and it looks like it says cream on the side, and I couldn't wear it. The first thing my friend said, my friend Gustavo, he looks at it, he

[Langston Kerman]

goes, what does cream mean?

[Vinny Thomas]

What?

[Langston Kerman]

Gustavo? Gustavo, what the fuck are you talking about, man? This is Latin. I create. I'm an artist. He's like, no, that's cream, dog.

[David Bore]

That's cream. I see.

[Langston Kerman]

That's cream. Scream, get the money. Because if not you, weird as fuck. Creepy.

[Vinny Thomas]

Yep. Cream King of Eastern Colorado.

[Langston Kerman]

Damn. The Cream King. We gotta add that to your intro when the episode's over. He's locally known as the Cream King of East Colorado. I did a little bit of research. Cream King that I'd love to go over with you. Feel free to agree with it, disagree with it. Truly, none of this means anything. But one of the things that there was a quote that I guess I had never heard, the official quote, but I guess the official slogan for this was left is right and right is wrong. I don't know if y' all ever heard it phrased so sort of 80s succinctly, but that was sort of the phrase, I guess, that circulated around this theory.

[Vinny Thomas]

Wait, can I ask, did you read. Did you read the same Queerty article where there's, like, there's a guy on a bench holding a rainbow flag and his face is collapsed into his hands? Because I looked up, just as a preliminary thing, I was like, gay year, you know, articles. And the queerty one popped up. One of the first pictures is this guy holding a little rainbow flag in his hand. He's sitting on a bus bench like this. And it's one of the funniest things I've seen in my life.

[Langston Kerman]

I did not see that. But, boy, don't want to please send it to us, because my God does that. What a silly thing to be. Like, we're going to show a gay person, but they're not having fun with it.

[Vinny Thomas]

Nope, they can't see his ears at all. What's the point?

[Langston Kerman]

The left is right and right is wrong was supposedly the slogan that was circulating. And the theory took the rise. Took its rise in the 80s and early 90s, which is sort of odd. A more recent study shows that a list, a company that sort of tracks online shopping behavior, says that men getting earrings rose by 147% from 2022 to 2023. So we're seeing a massive uptick compared to what, I guess, generally, generationally, it used to be.

[Vinny Thomas]

Did y' all ever hear that it might have started in prison? I feel like everything where it was like, might be gay was like, oh, someone would make up a myth where it started. Like, when people would sag their pants, they're like, you know what that means? He's sexually receptive. I don't actually know if that's true at all. I think maybe you just made that up.

[Langston Kerman]

Yeah, I think that's just deep, deep fear that you're associating with another deep, deep fear. You're like, I don't want to go to jail. And I got to find ways of making it so that everything could send me to jail or make me jail. Gay, whatever.

[Vinny Thomas]

Yeah, I. I also. It's kind of weird to me that the. The right side is the wrong side in this context, because this. I feel like the left side is traditionally. That's the bad side. Right. Like, I didn't go to Catholic school, but didn't people in Catholic school used to get their left hand beaten if they use the left hand? Because that's. That's the devil's quadrant. Is the left part of your body

[David Bore]

as a lifelong lefty? Yes.

[Langston Kerman]

Ah,

[David Bore]

no, that doesn't make sense. Yeah. I'm up to end it.

[Vinny Thomas]

Yeah.

[Langston Kerman]

Oh, I didn't know that.

[David Bore]

They tried to teach me how to write, right?

[Langston Kerman]

Oh, they, like, really tried to fix you?

[David Bore]

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Vinny Thomas]

My mom.

[David Bore]

My mom had to come in and be like, you're a stupid person. My genius baby boy is left handed.

[Langston Kerman]

Yeah. He's gifted. He's brilliant.

[David Bore]

I think they were just really, really. Well, they were really willing to crash out on the idea of like, I don't know, man. He's eating glue. He's trying to write with his left hand. We got to get him out of here.

[Langston Kerman]

I got you. It wasn't just that you were writing brilliant sonnets with your left hand. You were being.

[David Bore]

I was also throwing a lot of rocks.

[Vinny Thomas]

Yeah.

[Langston Kerman]

They're like, lady, we got problems. Here's a list. And your mom was like, well, he could be left handed. He could be left handed. Leave him alone about that.

[Vinny Thomas]

That left hand contains multitudes. Peace and violence on those five fingers.

[David Bore]

Yeah, yeah.

[Langston Kerman]

I think this massive uptick sort of speaks to what you were talking about before Vinnie of a different generation. Right. Like, even when I was a kid, I got my left ear pierced, but I also knew better, quote, unquote, better than to get both ears pierced. I think that was also considered, like, gay when I was a kid to some extent.

[David Bore]

And so there was a weird crossover period. Yeah, I remember that, too. There was a weird crossover period where it was like. Because it feels like we're a little. How old are you, Vinnie?

[Vinny Thomas]

28.

[Langston Kerman]

Yeah.

[David Bore]

Yeah, we can relate. Same, same.

[Langston Kerman]

Hey, man. Hey, man. I love Bluey, too. All right, go ahead. Listen.

[David Bore]

There was a weirdo.

[Langston Kerman]

The dad, the mom, they're all great.

[Vinny Thomas]

You know their names? I don't know their names. That's crazy.

[David Bore]

I do want to say, though, that to that point, I do remember being really, really young and having an earring being kind of more of a statement and then being. Having an earring being normalized, but having two. Being weird and then that transit, because it was like you had to be real fly to pull that shit off.

[Vinny Thomas]

Yeah.

[David Bore]

At first, two earrings.

[Vinny Thomas]

Fluctuations of culture. So fascinating because at one point, like, it was the high femme, like princes, you know, performers of the world that, like, they were, you know, allegedly the. The kind of the sexual icons for what a man would look, you know what I mean? Like, they were super famous. Yeah. You know, quote unquote, straight. But they all had, like, earrings. Do you know what I mean? Both ears, whatever. They were done the fuck up.

[Langston Kerman]

One Of Prince's album covers is him butt naked, sitting like an angel, you

[David Bore]

know what I mean?

[Langston Kerman]

On top of clouds and covering his chest and penis. And he got so much pussy from that. He got an insane amount of pussy off of that. And that doesn't make sense.

[David Bore]

They let. They really let a wolf in the henhouse on that one.

[Langston Kerman]

But he's such a cute wolf. Why would he.

[Vinny Thomas]

The fact you went up from fox to wolf I think says everything.

[David Bore]

I think he would describe himself the same way.

[Vinny Thomas]

Yeah, I think he absolutely would.

[Langston Kerman]

To your point about sort of like the generational changes, one of the things that I researched or read is it talks about how for thousands of years, more than just like since the 80s, for literally thousands of years, it was more. More popular or at least as popular for men to be wearing jewelry as their female counterparts. That for royalty especially, they would put on lots of jewelry, lots of. They would have earrings, they would wear. High heels were originally developed for men to be able to look taller. It's crazy.

[Vinny Thomas]

At some point you have to wear a lot of jewelry to distract from the inbreeding qualities of your face.

[Langston Kerman]

It's.

[Vinny Thomas]

The Habsburgs would have to put on sapphires on their ears so you didn't see what was going on between the sapphires.

[David Bore]

Oh, I got this big ass chain so you don't see my big ass chin.

[Vinny Thomas]

That's what you stand in the sun so the glint distracts you.

[Langston Kerman]

Like fuck, Today I really look like my parents are cousins. I need some earrings or something. Cause fuck, I look crazy.

[David Bore]

It also does feel very. If you just think about it, on the whole, it feels very American and very Christian. The idea of not allowing that to men.

[Langston Kerman]

Yeah.

[David Bore]

You know what I mean? It feels very puritanical. Very like what's. I don't even think of it. I don't see why it would be particularly feminine even. You know what I mean?

[Vinny Thomas]

I think it's a part of men. Men. It's a part of men are dirty culture. Do you know what I mean? Where it's like if a man isn't disgusting, he's not a man. I think it's an extension of that where it's like if you're not, you know, bruised, filthy, and you know, you don't care at all what you look like, then you are actually a lady.

[David Bore]

Which I think I know people whose whole sense of humor still revolves around that.

[Langston Kerman]

Yeah,

[Vinny Thomas]

lot of stand up comics, brother.

[Langston Kerman]

I think if we can pull this out a little bit to almost a bird's eye view it does seem like a lot of this sort of damage that we're doing to each other comes from at least some version of a monarchy to the crossover of monarchy and capitalist societies where the wealthy can do whatever the fuck they want, but we have to find ways to keep poor people sort of locked in their poverty. Poverty. And so you make these weird associations where you look dusty on purpose just to be able to prove your value in society.

[Vinny Thomas]

And a really interesting correlation to that is that kind of the uber rich pop stars, they can wear whatever they want. You know what I mean? Two earrings, bracelets, it truly doesn't matter. But at that same time, the people, the normal people, the proletariat, if you will.

[Langston Kerman]

Oh.

[Vinny Thomas]

Could not wear earrings because we were afforded that flexibility.

[Langston Kerman]

Yeah, no, it is. You have to remain malleable when you do not have the resources to survive completely off of your own. You know what I mean? You just wake up and you get to eat. So you gotta. You gotta stay flexible. You can't afford to show up with signals that sort of make people question your value here.

[Vinny Thomas]

I think we did it.

[Langston Kerman]

Well, I got a few more things I want to run past you guys. One of the things that also came up in all of this is that, and David, you sort of spoke to the American ness of this. It turns out in Russia it's the exact opposite. That in Russia, it's the right ear that you get pierced if you want to signal to people that you, like, fuck bitches and not fuck around with dudes. It's like a warning signal in Russia that, like, hey, this guy's gonna get some pussy.

[David Bore]

Watch out.

[Langston Kerman]

No, not hey, we gotta. Hey, watch out, fellas. It's a pussyhound here, but more a warning to gay men being like, hey, no, no, no, not over here with that kind of thing.

[David Bore]

That's even funnier because that feels even more so homophobic to me. Like, let me just make sure they know. I mean, they could look at me, I'm dirty as hell.

[Vinny Thomas]

But also I feel like when it goes that far, it goes from you better not to you better not. You know what I mean? Like, bro, at some point it becomes you want them to interact with you, you know, you're like, begging for them to have some sort of confidence. He's like, I hope we don't have to wrestle. Waiting for a confrontation.

[David Bore]

The lady does protest. Better not be no gay guys in here. I bet if there's one in here, he better not.

[Langston Kerman]

He's all oiled up and finest, almost

[David Bore]

in Here, I'm gonna be mad.

[Vinny Thomas]

I'm gonna grab that neck.

[David Bore]

Muscly backs, neck look like a rip cord. Beautiful.

[Langston Kerman]

They also talk about, in one of the articles I read that that China similarly associated the right with heterosexuality rather than homosexuality, but has since banned ear piercings completely. They were like, I think probably suffering the same thing you were suffering with your friend. They're like, we don't know which is which. None of y' all motherfuckers get to do it now.

[Vinny Thomas]

We're just not gonna do it if

[David Bore]

we can't get on the same page. I'm taking it from everybody.

[Vinny Thomas]

Maybe that would have been a better policy, I don't know. Because if they. If they did opposite ears for each, like, as soon as a baby boy is born, they do right or left, right or left, they end up with a 50, 50 gay population. And that's ultimately not going to work out in the long run.

[Langston Kerman]

Can't do that. We already got too many girls as it is. We got problems. We can't focus on this. No more ear piercings. All right, we need to take one more break, but when we come back, I have a little bit more research I want to run past you guys that I think is going to illuminate this conversation evermore. So we'll be back with more Vinnie Thomas and more My mama told me.

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[Langston Kerman]

U-E S T.com Spinquest is a free to play social casino void where prohibited. Visit spinquest.com for more details.

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[Langston Kerman]

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[Vinny Thomas]

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[Langston Kerman]

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[Vinny Thomas]

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[Langston Kerman]

That's O D O O dot com My Mama Told Me presents the Start the Steal Tour. We're very excited about it. I'm not about to bite my tongue. We want to sell it out and the dates are coming up fast and so if you live in one of these areas, we want you to buy your tickets. Now. It's all available on our Instagrams, on our websites, on our link tree. But October 17th, we're in LA in Hollywood. We'll be in Atlanta on Halloween. October 31st. November 1st, we're in Houston. November 2nd, November 3rd, Dallas. We're in Brooklyn. On November 7th we're in Somerville, Massachusetts. It's Boston, bitch. Get over it. November 8th, November 10th, we're in Philly. November 17th we're in San Francisco. We want y' all to come out. We want y' all to kick it. We will be doing our coveted live show with special guests with just me and David. Depending on the city. It'll be a great time.

[David Bore]

All that meet and greets. You think Chris Brown has a good meet and greetings, bro.

[Langston Kerman]

Let's be clear. I'll take a weird picture with you for free. Pop my butt.

[Vinny Thomas]

Pop, pop my butt. Pop my butt. Pop, pop my butt.

[Langston Kerman]

Do you know what pop my butt meant to Harriet Tubman? Do you know what that meant?

[Vinny Thomas]

It meant a whip.

[David Bore]

And we are back whipping y' all into shape on this conversation.

[Vinny Thomas]

Pop my butt. Pop, pop, my butt.

[Langston Kerman]

It's just very funny that she made her read her own lyrics.

[Vinny Thomas]

You know what I mean?

[David Bore]

Like, it's awesome.

[Vinny Thomas]

Every time I watch that video. It's her mirthless grin. It's like, pop my butt. Pop, pop my butt.

[Langston Kerman]

But, like, why do you have to read your own lyrics? They're your lyrics, baby girl. Just say them out loud.

[David Bore]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And honestly, own it. Rap that shit. You should have rapped that shit.

[Langston Kerman]

Yeah. You should have acted like you were trying to get something.

[David Bore]

Who is it? Who did it?

[Langston Kerman]

Yeah. Ayanla.

[Vinny Thomas]

Ayanla. Yeah. Fix my life.

[Langston Kerman]

Yeah. Fix my life. One of the white whales of our podcast, if we ever get her. Well, no, we finally did everything we needed to do here.

[Vinny Thomas]

I think if she actually rapped Pop my butt, Iyanla would have fired a gun into the air. She would have done something crazy. Just the reaction to that would have been explosive.

[Langston Kerman]

She would have gone super Saiyan 2. Just lost her mind on that. Okay, there's a few more things I want to tell you about this apparent conspiracy theory. One of the other pieces that came up was this question of signaling. Signaling you mentioned, David. Sort of a way of, I guess, showing to other people. It doesn't always have to be gay people, though. I think the term is rooted in sort of gay culture showing other people markings or indications that we belong to the same community. This specific signal, I think, also gets dropped into something called hairpinning, which I guess is. Or dropping a hairpin, which is essentially the same quality of signaling, specifically as it relates to the earring.

[Vinny Thomas]

I guess you would drop a hairpin.

[Langston Kerman]

I don't know. It's a dropping a hairpin. Oh, let me get praise to. Yeah, to, like, show a signal without having to get caught kind of thing.

[Vinny Thomas]

See, this is what I was talking about. There was so much subtlety in signaling. At some point. It must have been exhausting because you would have had to speak a whole different language, like in the 70s, 60s, to let people know, my God, just write your name on a bathroom stall, you know? And it'd be like, I'm so glad you said it. At 3pm I'm so glad you said it.

[David Bore]

I was thinking it. I was like, that seems like of all these things, that seems like the most reasonable way to do it.

[Langston Kerman]

Yeah.

[Vinny Thomas]

Name number. Go to a bookstore. Go to a bookstore and just stand in the corner reading a stupid book that people know you're not reading. Do you know what I mean?

[David Bore]

To get a nut. To get a nut.

[Langston Kerman]

This Garfield book ain't that long. You ain't reading that. What are you doing here? Come on.

[Vinny Thomas]

Hate Mondays that much. No one hates Mondays like that.

[Langston Kerman]

Put that book down.

[David Bore]

Also. Why do you hate Mondays? You don't have a job, you lasagna eating bitch.

[Langston Kerman]

Yeah, yeah, I did always. I did always take issue with that. I never understood what was the. These days mean nothing to you?

[Vinny Thomas]

Garfield, he had a job. Garfield worked for the doj.

[David Bore]

You didn't know this?

[Vinny Thomas]

You guys,

[David Bore]

I love this.

[Vinny Thomas]

Garfield works in the Department of Justice. He tapped phones, he broke into houses, he arrested people. Kind of a badass but problematic life. I think at the end of the day, Damn.

[Langston Kerman]

Damn.

[Vinny Thomas]

Odie was unemployed because he got kicked in the head by a horse.

[David Bore]

Yeah, he was gone.

[Langston Kerman]

Odie was unemployed and he was collecting a check. But he wasn't making it. One of the things that they said was made complicated for this signaling, right? Because it originally sort of becomes popular in the 80s and 90s. But the reason they claim at least that these signals started to become problematic is because it gets weaponized by pop culture to some extent. Right. There's actually an article from 1991 in the New York Times, no less, an article entitled Piercing Fad Turns Convention on Its Ear that basically exposes, in a formal way, which obviously it had probably been speculated on for a long time, but sort of exposes in a formal way that the right ear is the quote unquote, wrong ear or the gay ear. And that then makes it a societal conversation and not just this sort of communal one between gay men.

[Vinny Thomas]

This happened in the 80s, right.

[Langston Kerman]

This article is 1991. But the trend, I think begins in the 80s.

[Vinny Thomas]

I don't know what it was. I think there was a lot of. There was a lot of witch huntism, cultural witch hunt stuff in the 80s. Like you remember they telling everyone that Dungeons and Dragons was like demonic. You know, there was just a lot of.

[David Bore]

Oh, there was major satanic panic as well.

[Vinny Thomas]

Yeah, Satanic panic, yeah. And I think it's part of it. I think that's kind of an extension of it. But also I think as gay people kind of moved into just kind of of society, mainstream society as a whole. A lot of the stuff that was traditionally gay became popular.

[Langston Kerman]

And so it started to George Michael.

[Vinny Thomas]

Hell yeah, George Michael. Yeah.

[Langston Kerman]

And. And the rest.

[David Bore]

But George Michael. Talk about the other guy in Wham Nobody. He doesn't even have a name.

[Vinny Thomas]

No, he doesn't.

[Langston Kerman]

That's Wham.

[Vinny Thomas]

That's whammy.

[David Bore]

Yeah, No, I think that definitely that. I think also it's just a very conservative time.

[Langston Kerman]

Yeah, yeah. In general.

[David Bore]

In our country's history. And I think that leads to a fear around these things.

[Langston Kerman]

Yeah. We're in the middle of Nancy Reagan telling us not to fuck, not to do drugs, not to do. And she is meanwhile, secretly, secretly, she who we want to be doing drugs and fucking with. You know what I mean? That was the problem. Nancy should have been like, don't fucking do drugs unless you're trying to get the best. And that's me, that's Nancy on my

[Vinny Thomas]

rig until I tore down that wall.

[Langston Kerman]

Oh, we miss you, Nancy. That said, I do think you're right that it's.

[David Bore]

Senator Gorbachev. Tear down these.

[Langston Kerman]

Wait, in that, in that bit. Is it still Ronald Reagan telling him to do it to his wife? Oh, that's great, Mr. Gorbachev. Tear down these walls, Nancy. Just busting it open for freedom. For freedom.

[David Bore]

That's good because I don't think I can. Nut if I was president.

[Langston Kerman]

What?

[Vinny Thomas]

What?

[David Bore]

The stress of the job would be too heavy. I don't think I would get a lot of erections as the President of the United States.

[Langston Kerman]

Oh, you think it would really give you erectile dysfunction to be President of the United States? I've always felt like that job's not as hard as they pretend like it is. And maybe I'm tripping.

[David Bore]

Maybe I'm fucking for a bad person.

[Vinny Thomas]

Yeah. And I think.

[Langston Kerman]

I guess I've always thought they were all that. So it's not that stressful of a job.

[Vinny Thomas]

Nah. Me and David are different. We think every president is a hero and a kind of prophet.

[David Bore]

We have hope. We're not like you fuchsia shirted alarmists. We believe in the good people of this country.

[Langston Kerman]

Yeah. I just thought they were all monsters. I was like, there's no way these monsters are waking up stressed every day. They're probably.

[David Bore]

I mean, what do you say to the aging effect of it all?

[Langston Kerman]

I think what's stressful about it is the pace, not the work itself. Do you know what I mean? Like, you have to be a bunch of places and you have to stay up late, but I think you're Kicking it most of the time. It's like business school. You know what I mean? Like, those people drink all the time. They just happen to be doing fucking school at the exact moment that they're doing it.

[Vinny Thomas]

Could you imagine being the one that got stuck in a bathtub? I think about that all the time. I would be so humiliated if I was Taft. I wouldn't be able to show my face again. That shit is crazy.

[David Bore]

I'm the president.

[Vinny Thomas]

They had to get tools to get you out. Are you serious?

[David Bore]

And I'm still gonna raise taxes.

[Langston Kerman]

You know what's crazy? I just assumed they asked him to leave after that. I never. Yes, yes.

[Vinny Thomas]

Because how are you. How are you gonna let a man. How are you gonna let a man if he got himself stuck in a bathtub? How's he gonna make a law? Do you know what I mean?

[Langston Kerman]

Like, I just assumed they were like, Mr. Taft will obviously get you out, but you're gonna have. We're gonna give you 25 minutes to pack up and say your goodbyes to the staff.

[Vinny Thomas]

Leave your gun in, your badge at the door so you can't come back here.

[Langston Kerman]

Yeah. The Oval Office is closed for the afternoon, and you'll find the door is locked tomorrow morning.

[Vinny Thomas]

And to drag him out like,

[Langston Kerman]

No, you finished the thought.

[David Bore]

Yeah.

[Langston Kerman]

You finished the goddamn thought. Over here.

[Vinny Thomas]

Diary of a Mad Black Woman. But it's Taft being dragged out of the Oval

[Langston Kerman]

and then push down the steps in a wheelchair like, Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[Vinny Thomas]

They're like, stop making those bubbles while he's in the tub.

[Langston Kerman]

All right, now I think we did it. I think this morning we did it. This was great. It sounds like we're all in agreement that the signaling was probably necessary at a point, but certainly absurd for us as children to buy into. But what are you going to do when you're raised in a toxic culture that refuses to look at itself?

[Vinny Thomas]

I concur.

[Langston Kerman]

Yeah. All right. Vinny, do you want to tell the people where they can find you?

[Vinny Thomas]

Are you gay?

[Langston Kerman]

Who says I'm gay? You are gay.

[David Bore]

That was just the funniest possible time to do.

[Langston Kerman]

Was great. And I want to believe you were looking for it the entire hour that we spoke.

[David Bore]

No, no, I had it queued up. I was just like, where do we go? I wanted to get away from me.

[Langston Kerman]

That's perfect.

[Vinny Thomas]

You can find me. That's. I n nay on Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok.

[Langston Kerman]

Hell yeah. Follow Vinny and watch Platonic on Apple TV. Vinny's great. This was so fun. Bori tell the people where they can

[David Bore]

find you cool guy jokes 87 on Instagram and TikTok go to my patreon patreon.com davidboregb O R I E Purchase my special Birth of a Nation. Watch all the videos on there. We've made some real funny stuff. Come see us on tour. Start the Steal Wayne Brady said it's the funnest tour he's ever been on. He said. Funnest?

[Langston Kerman]

Yeah, that's how Wayne Brady talks.

[Vinny Thomas]

And that's not our business. That's not something he would say.

[David Bore]

Then it improvised a song on the spot.

[Langston Kerman]

But yes, please come see us on tour. We're on the Start the Steal tour as we speak. We still have dates in Brooklyn, Boston, Denver, San Francisco, Seattle, Portland, Houston, Austin, Atlanta, Dallas. A whole bunch of fucking places. So go buy your tickets. We would love to see you out on the road. And as always, you can follow me at Langston Kerman on all social media platforms. And if you if you want to send us your own drops, your own conspiracy theories. If you want to tell us what is the, I don't know, asexual ear, send it all to mymamapodmail.com we would love to hear from you. Like subscribe, rate, review, get them rebates. Send back them little pieces of paper so you can get your rebate. Bye bitch. There was doo doo feces thrown all over the walls, the floor, the ceiling and it stunk so bad. My Mama Told Me is a production of Will Ferrell's Big Money Players Network and I Heart Podcast, created and hosted

[David Bore]

by Langston Kerman, co hosted by David Bore executive produced by Will Ferrell Hansani and Olivia Aguilar co produced by Bay Wayne Edited and engineered by Justin Kong Music by Nick Chambers artwork by Dogon Krieger.

[Langston Kerman]

You can now watch episodes of My Mama told me on YouTube, follow @mymama told me and subscribe to our channel.

[David Bore]

Get a full body reset anywhere you

[Vinny Thomas]

go with Dr. Teal's magnesium spray.

[David Bore]

It's a concentrated magnesium blend of pure

[Vinny Thomas]

Epsom and Dead Sea salts all bundled

[David Bore]

up in a convenient on the go bottle.

[Vinny Thomas]

A few quick sprays will relax your body and mind and keep you feeling recharged all day long.

[David Bore]

It's wellness you can feel, and you

[Vinny Thomas]

can find it in your local bath aisle. Dr. Teals. Yep, you needed that.

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