Ever since country singer Morgan Wallen made his political affinities known in no uncertain terms on SNL some weeks back, he’s been on our collective sh*tlist. To add insult to injury, Wallen’s collab with Tate McRae, a gay favorite, is causing a meltdown in the gay-o-sphere.
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“Those intersex individuals are still XX or XY,” Hopper inaccurately replied.
But don’t lose hope: there’s one good thing to come out of all this, and it’s an AI deepfake song that was making the rounds on TikTok sounds last week. Using Wallen’s country twang, the sound begins with the dupe singing, “I’m not gay, but I do gay stuff.” It only gets raunchier from there.
Sadly, the powers that be have already made headway in trying to scrub the sound from the Internet, but luckily it can still be found in evidence if you look hard enough.
The sound actually comes to us seemingly via an AI generator account called @BiscuitBeatsAI, and we don’t know if Wallen was the direct inspiration, but either way, a hit was born.
We love to put gay words in the mouths of alleged homophobes, but there’s obviously a problem there. As in: even when AI is used for good (making jerks look hypocritical) it’s still AI. After YouTuber Kat Blaque posted a video using the sound, she quickly posted a follow-up in which she told fans they were right to drag her for using an AI sound (granted, she didn’t know it was AI at the time) and used that criticism to bring up a bigger cultural conversation. I.e.: can trans women make gay jokes?
Meaning: if the joke is meant to be an in-joke about gay men, is it homophobic for someone in a different group (even another LGBTQIA+ identity group) to say it?
Well, as with all things, context matters. Part of the issue with a deepfake sound that becomes trending is that it can be used for good (gay people laughing at it) and for evil (straight people using it to be more homophobic.) So where’s the line?
Ideally we wouldn’t be using any generative AI on TikTok or other social media platforms, but sadly, the Internet as we know it has already been overhauled by ugly fake AI-generated crap. So when it shows up in this seemingly benign form (a song about a conservative enjoying man on man action in the back of a truck) it’s fine to laugh right?
“Tbh the dolls should make fun of the gays more often,” one commenter wrote. “we need it to stay humble.” Fair enough.
“Many trans women lived a part of their lives by navigating the world from the gay male perspective,” someone else wrote, “and it absolutely allows a certain leverage on some topics.”
Another user had a good point to make: it all depends on what you consider to be homophobic. “All your video was doing was making fun of morgan wallen for being a conservative,” they wrote. “it wasn’t making fun of gay men.”
So we solved it: you can make fun of other people in your community as long as it’s in good faith, and you shouldn’t use AI if you can help it, but if you come across a deepfake of a known conservative saying gay stuff, it’s more than okay to indulge in a deep, much-needed laugh.
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