Popsugar News Opinion Reactions to Jokes About Donald Trump and Putin's Gay Affair And Now, a Tired Gay Joke About Trump and Putin — Except We're Not Laughing 17 July 2018 by Ryan Roschke Image Source: Getty / AFP / Yuri Kadobnov The New York Times opinion section shared a "funny" thought on July 17: what if US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin weren't just colluding to compromise the American democracy? What if they were also gay?! It's a tired joke that we've seen before, even with Trump and Putin as the subjects. Stephen Colbert insinuated something similar during a monologue back in May 2017. In 2016, a photoshopped image of Trump and Putin, shirtless and riding a horse together, made its way around the internet. This time, the tweet in question comes complete with a hard-to-watch cartoon and talks of the fantastical "forbidden romance" that might as well be playing out in a "teenager's bedroom." In this episode of Trump Bites, Donald Trump's not-so-secret admiration for Vladimir Putin plays out in a teenager's bedroom, where the fantasies of this forbidden romance come to life. https://t.co/cWeQMuzWUz pic.twitter.com/4shBRkloot — NYT Opinion (@nytopinion) July 16, 2018 Based on the words and the nature of the cartoon itself, it's clear the whole affair is meant to be satire. As luck would have it, the best kick-off to a counterargument comes in the form of a meme, which was sent to the NYT by Twitter user PrettyBadLeft. "Satire requires a clarity of purpose and target lest it be mistaken for and contribute to that which it intends to criticize," the woke meme states. Using this idea, the target is clear: the New York Times was attempting to humiliate Trump and Putin. But the purpose is a little murkier. The joke is that we could gaze upon Trump's decision to cosy up to a United States enemy with horror. We could interpret his actions as a direct threat to the notions our country was built upon. But these men aren't reprehensible comic book villains who have somehow escaped into this reality. They're just gay together. As one might predict, the internet didn't take too kindly to the piece. That's because it's not a critique or satire of what we witnessed during Trump's time at this summit in Helsinki, Finland. As a matter of fact, you might say it's contributing to rhetoric the Trump administration (and its followers) are trying to spread: that gay people are evil. To drive the point home, we've compiled some tweets that help clarify the situation in a few more reinforcing ways. Ironically, some of them are actually funny! Related: Hillary Clinton's Latest Trump Tweet Was More Than Just a Roast — It Was a Premonition HOMOPHOBIC JOKES: Come overWOKE LIBERALS: I can'tHOMOPHOBIC JOKES: You can use the Trump/Putin meeting as a cover to say gay sex is gross WOKE LIBERALS: pic.twitter.com/XQhjeqGV1h— Adam Moussa (@adamjmoussa) July 16, 2018 1 / 10 All your lil Trump and Putin gay jokes pic.twitter.com/ZrmvMwbXDC— Ira (@ira) July 15, 2018 2 / 10 You’ve done it guys. You’ve saved democracy by saying Trump and Putin are gay for each other. The first 1000 times didn’t work, but your version was the final nail. You have humiliated them out of destroying democracy by saying they are like gay people. The union is safe.— Guy Branum (@guybranum) July 16, 2018 3 / 10 Also, please keep your Trump-Putin gay jokes out of my feed. Think about whether that's really who you want to be.— Mark Harris (@MarkHarrisNYC) July 16, 2018 4 / 10 unfriendly reminder: implying that Trump + Putin must be gay because straight white men, surely, could never be this awful, cruel, irresponsible, and insecure is not only casual homophobia but a brutal act of hetero-supremacy https://t.co/bvQIaVXXo8— Patrick Nathan (@patricknathan) July 16, 2018 5 / 10 You can condemn Trump’s relationship with Putin without making a gay joke. pic.twitter.com/mUMG2u4NdL— Khalid El Khatib (@kmelkhat) July 15, 2018 6 / 10 Aside from the blatant homophobia, you should be seriously fucking embarrassed if the best you can do is the same hacky as shit joke about how Trump and Putin are gay for each other.— Louis Peitzman (@LouisPeitzman) July 16, 2018 7 / 10 You: Trump and Putin are gay lolYour gay friend: Wait whatYou: no I don’t mean YOU, it’s just funny when it’s them. Politics etc— Bec Shaw (@Brocklesnitch) July 16, 2018 8 / 10 In addition to not being gross, “Trump is an oaf who thinks he’s a Deal Genius” is just way, way funnier to me than “Trump is gay for Putin”— Patrick Monahan (@pattymo) July 16, 2018 9 / 10 Hey did you know you can make scathing critical remarks about Trump/Putin without relying on gay jokes? Try it!— s.e. smith (@sesmith) July 16, 2018 10 / 10 World NewsUS NewsHumorPoliticsVladimir PutinDonald Trump