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So, as usual, Duck comes downstairs to chill out with Jake and I in front of tonight's rerun of The Chase. Duck loves master quizzer Mark Labbett and tends to lose his duck-shit when Labbett wins.
But, being a queer, political duck, what really lights Duck's pondweed is the number of duck references on the box. "Ducks are so underrepresented," he always says. "When was the last time you saw a duck on the news?" Well, on last night's Chase, there were five references to duck. Five!
Here's one of the questions that lit Duck's fire. The shot features Mark Labbett.
Here's the conversation that immediately followed in our living room, along with some happy duck-slap-dancing on the sofa:
Duck: Aaaaaooohh! A disco duck!
Me: I'm pretty sure the answer's not Disco Duck.
Duck: It might be!
Presenter Brook Burns: The answer is My Ding-A-Ling.
Jake: Huh. Bad luck, Duck.
Duck: But it's duck visibility! It said "duck" on TV! I have to text everyone I know, right now. For duck's sake, Star Williams, rewind so I can take a photo!
An almost identical conversation occurred when this one came up:
Duck: Aaaaaooohh! A duck hawk! Duck visibility!
Me: It's really duck hawk visibility though, right?
Duck: But it says "duck" on the screen! Pause it, Star Williams! This duck needs to take a ducking photo and text it to everyone.
How many folks, either bird or human, get excited when their species is quoted as part of the name of another species? Or when their identity is the wrong answer to a quiz question? Those of us who usually have like little visibility, of course.
Which brings me to the question: Why do we not see more folks who look like Mark Labbett on the TV? "It's the same ducking problem," Duck says. "On the screen, people of size are few-and-far-between."
"Not just ducks who need greater visibility," I say.
As a queer immigrant who takes they/them pronouns, I totally ducking get it.