Video: Vince Vaughn film trailer axed over ‘electric cars are gay’ joke
Universal Pictures has dropped a trailer for a new Vince Vaughn film which calls electric cars “gay”.
In the trailer for The Dilemma, Vaughn is seen addressing a boardroom and saying: “Electric cars are gay. Not homosexual gay, but my-parents-are-chaperoning-the-dance gay.”
The company released a new trailer with the offending line removed after US gay groups complained about the “homophobic” language.
CNN anchor Anderson Cooper and lesbian presenter Ellen DeGeneres both criticised the line, with Cooper saying that such language was “hurting kids”.
Jarrett Barrios, president of the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation (GLAAD), said: “The use of the word ‘gay’ in this trailer as a slur is unnecessary and does nothing more than send a message of intolerance about our community to viewers.”
In a statement, GLAAD added: “Hopefully Universal Pictures and other film studios will start to think twice before having their performers (and major stars like Vince Vaughn in particular) try to wring a cheap laugh out of homophobic language.”
Universal Pictures said on Friday: “The teaser trailer for ‘The Dilemma’ was not intended to cause anyone discomfort.
“In light of growing claims that the introduction to the trailer is insensitive, it is being replaced. A full trailer, which has been in the works for some time, will post online later today.”
To see the original trailer, scroll down
