‘Will & Grace’s’ Jack Flaunts His Stuff Online

While supporters of gay visibility have had a mixed reaction to NBC’s “Will & Grace,” just about everyone agrees that the show’s sidekicks have stolen the thunder from the eponymous stars. While bland Will and Grace are cookie-cutter sitcom characters, the idiosyncratic antics betwixt quirky combo Sean B. Hayes and Megan Mullally--as Jack, the king of queens, and his sugar-mamma Karen--is what turns the series from musty TV to must-see TV.

When the show launched in 1998, executive producers Max Mutchnick and David Kohan were quoted in The Times as saying their agenda was entertainment, not politics, which they believed had been “Ellen’s” downfall. Still, they said they wanted “to introduce the world to a strong dignified gay person whose identity was not achieved solely through his sexual proclivities.” Alas, dignity may be as dull as preachifying.

Meanwhile, a substantial portion of the intended entertainment comes not from the mouth of the irreproachable, if sexless, Will but from the irrepressibly flagrant Jack. And the best of Jack can be found not on the show itself but on the Web, far from the censors and the all-important Neilsen ratings.

While the official site is a guaranteed bore (https://nbc.com/willandgrace/home.html), offering star bios, ticket info and a clip that doesn’t play, another NBC-sponsored Web site, justjack.com, offers oodles of original content that’s chock-full of gaiety and conviviality.

For those not in the know, “Just Jack” is the name of the one-man musical bio-extravaganza that Jack sometimes stages. Recently, he commandeered Al Roker’s microphone to urge listeners to partake of his new home page (https://justjack.com). Those who did may have noticed that the site seems to be a repository for all the campy, politically incorrect and very gay humor that is kept off the show.

As with any good promo-in-hiding Web site (blairwitch.com,freetruman.com), the online content incorporates and expands on the premise of the movie or show.Justjack.com offers a file on his correspondence with the Immigration and Naturalization Service to beef up the case for his and Rosario’s fraudulent green-card marriage. It includes a typed letter from Rosario Ynez Consuela Yolanda Salazar-McFarland (Karen’s maid) delineating the couple’s first meeting: “We were at Man-o-Rama, a club for single heterosexuals, when our eyes met. We knew we would spend the rest of our lives together as heterosexuals in happy heterosexual bliss. The rest of the night was a blur of heterosexuality.”

The file also includes annotated photos of the honeymoon (“In San Francisco we split up. It’s good to spend time apart”).

In another nook, called “Papa can you hear me?” Jack continues his search for his father (who, according to one episode, had a quickie with his mom while wearing a Richard Nixon mask during a costume party in 1968). Jack writes, “If you think you are my Daddy (or if you’re really rich and cute and always wanted a son), e-mail me here at: [email protected].”

Jack also invites readers to send questions to him at [email protected]. But be forewarned, no matter your predicament, he is likely to tell you that the real problem is that you have not admitted to yourself that you are gay. He writes in part, “P.S. If you still want to pass for straight, don’t use Helvetica--the gayest of all the fonts.”

Cleary this is not-ready-for-prime-time content. But while the site is very funny, it--along with the TV character of Jack--milks the gay male stereotype for all its (vain, sex-obsessed, superficial) comic potential. In a Mad magazine spoof (https://eem.imagenet2000.com/madmag/page1.html), Jack, dubbed “Shock,” declares that he is “gayer than a fruitcake in a Key West bakery during Bette Midler Festival Week.” And he is. But while fans adore Jack, many wish that either he or Will would land a meaningful relationship.

It appears that the “Will and Grace” stars, all four of whom appeared in a TV commercial against Proposition 22 (view it at https://www.NoOnKnight.org/willgracemovs.html), have more of a political agenda than NBC. Earlier this month, more than 60% of California voters cast thumbs up on the ballot measure, saying that gays and lesbians shouldn’t be allowed to marry. Perhaps those voters never had the opportunity to observe a committed, devoted gay couple in a relationship that looks like marriage.

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Erika Milvy writes about entertainment and the arts from her home in San Francisco. She can be reached at [email protected].