The butt of a joke

Did you see the recent Family Guy episode that mentions David Cassidy? My husband was cracking up watching the show and called me over to see the clip figuring I'd get a kick out of it. Called "Three Kings", the episode is the parody of three Stephen King movies. In the Shawshank Redemption parody, the warden is so upset that a prisoner has escaped that he "could throw a rock at that David Cassidy poster on the wall" (paraphrasing). The poster in question has David in a back pose looking over his shoulder (should such a poster exist, I need it ;)). The warden throws the rock where it lands right on David's butt and leaves a hole in the poster. The warden gets closer, puts his finger in the hole, then his fist, only to realize that the poster is covering a huge hole in the wall which was obviously the prisoner's escape route.

I groaned seeing this. On one hand, they're implying that David is gay. On the other hand, they chose David for the poster. They could have used any number of well known "teen idols". Seems "David Cassidy" is still shorthand for pretty poster boy. As I told hubby, everyone over the age of thirty-five knows who David Cassidy is. He was THAT famous. And his heyday was almost forty years ago, so no chance of offending a huge fan base, right?

How will David Cassidy react to this clip? (Apparently, he's a fan of the show.) "Hey, as long as they mention me, it means I'm not forgotten!"? How many viewers will go, "Hmm, oh, yeah, hahaha, David Cassidy. Whatever happened to him?" and then go check him out on YouTube?

Any publicity is good publicity, right?