FOX axed gay jokes, which Ryan says were used “to break stereotypes.”

FOX axed gay jokes, which Ryan says were used “to break stereotypes.”
The increasingly bitchy banter between American Idol 2 host Ryan Seacrest and judge Simon Cowell was stopped by FOX, Entertainment Weekly reports. Producers were told to end the sexuality-suggesting gay jokes, during which the two made references to gay culture that were rather “knowing references for a pair of just-kidding guy’s guys,” as EW’s Mark Harris writes. Ryan says the references are “just a joke” that were “never meant to be mean-spirited” but instead exist “to break stereotypes”; he compares the jokes to his ribbing of Randy for not speaking in complete sentences. EW’s Harris suggests the jokes were part of the show’s “larger conservative vibe,” which recently has included the decision to record “Lee Greenwood’s ‘God Bless the USA,’ a virtual Republican national anthem.”