Aaron Goldenberg and Jake Jonez, otherwise known as the Mean Gays, invited us over for “fun” on Sept. 1, 2023—though they really invited the whole world via a viral video on social media. The POV video features the duo rolling their eyes, offering us water for looking “dehydrated,” and questioning when we took the photos on our online profile. (The photos were taken last week, to which Jonez looks us up and down with disgust, saying, “Wow, a lot has happened in a week.”) They promptly push us out, ending the video.
While the content creators may have pushed us out, they ultimately invited millions of viewers in. That video currently has more than 10 million views on TikTok and Instagram. Now, more than a year later, the Mean Gays are bringing a live tour to City Winery venues. The comedy duo took time to chat with PGN ahead of their show in Philadelphia on Oct. 16.
While Goldenberg and Jonez uphold a passive-aggressive mean persona in their videos, they surprisingly have a deep friendship in real life. It all began when Goldenberg, a content creator, discovered Jonez’s humorous videos, enjoyed them, and noticed they were both based in the same city.
“I slid into the DMs,” Goldenberg said. “I wasn’t thinking of anything like the Mean Gays or doing a long-term kind of partnership or anything, but I just wanted to do a collab with another creator who was doing funny stuff that I liked. We had dinner. I think we were there for probably an hour and a half. We just really hit it off and clicked. And it was in more ways than just talking about content. We were talking about future goals and our hopes for the industry. I felt an instant connection in that way.”
The duo filmed a skit the night they met, not as the Mean Gays, but as characters providing a humorous take on the SAG-AFTRA strike that was occurring at the time. Jonez said the most interesting thing about his relationship with Goldenberg is that it initially began for business purposes.
“For the first few months, we weren’t able to have a true friendship bond until we were getting a break from working and [had time for] actually doing friendlier things,” Jonez said. “And what’s wild is, I think through all of our hard work, we’ve bonded as friends in a different way than I have ever bonded with anybody before, which is a beautiful thing to me. Even though it didn’t start off as friendship, it’s led to a really deep connection between the two of us.”
After that first video, Goldenberg developed ideas for the Mean Gays characters, envisioning them as passive-aggressive gay neighbors whose compliments leave you unsure if they’re genuine. Among the skits were “POV: The Mean Gays who go to your gym” and “POV: The Mean Gays tear you down with ‘compliments’” prior to the now-viral “POV: the Mean Gays invite you over for some ‘fun.’”
As for why these characters resonate with audiences, Goldenberg and Jonez are still trying to figure that out.
“[There were] moments throughout [our tour] where we’ve been like, ‘These people are horrible creatures. Why do people resonate with them?’” Jonez said, before offering a possible reason. “I think there’s a level of trolling that we’re doing that just brings light to a darker spot—and passive-aggressive speech—throughout our society. Passive-aggressive speech that happens—whether it’s from your parents, generationally, whether it’s friend to friend—that can really hurt. And I think the comedy that feels most digestible for people from the Mean Gays is…being self deprecating, making fun of the gay community, because there’s so much to make fun of.’”
“I’m sort of shocked, in a way, that people haven’t gotten bored with these characters, or that they haven’t become stale, but part of it is because we’re always trying to find new and interesting ways to have them interact, or new places to take them, [and] new conflicts for them to have,” Goldenberg added.
Among the new places to take the Mean Gays is this multi-city tour. While their short-form content spans between 30 and 90 seconds, a live show gives them the space to expand on that material.
“It was a relief, because so much of the time Jake and I are—whether we’re writing or editing—trying to figure out how to make our stuff shorter,” Goldenberg said. “It was very freeing at first for this show. I was like, ‘Oh, I can go for 567 pages if I want.’”
Initially, Goldenberg was concerned about how to fill a 90-minute show, balancing the ‘Mean Gays’ content with other characters, improvisation and simply being themselves on stage. However, he said Jonez was a great partner in helping to refine the show’s structure.
“[There is] a lot more richness that you can provide with more time [in a full show],” Jonez said. “You can allow characters to breathe. You can allow for pauses that are truly comedic just because of the timing. You can allow for things that these 90-second time frames will just not give you.”
As for the show’s format, Goldenberg and Jonez will provide audiences with a little bit of everything.
“People have asked us, ‘What’s the show going to be? Is it going to be stand-up for 90 minutes? Are you guys just going to be, like, talking and doing crowd work? Are you guys going to show videos or do skits—and the answer to all of those is, ‘Yes,’” Goldenberg said. “We’ve put a lot of thought and time into the show, and it should feel just like a stupid, fun, gay 90 minutes that is hopefully an escape—just so fun, dumb, and probably offensive at different times.”
Jonez added that this show will ultimately give him and Goldenberg a chance to showcase their talents.
“I remember specifically going into the show with Aaron, and I was like, ‘I want to show our range,’ because I believe Aaron and I are way beyond these two characters, and specifically where these characters stand in the sketches, which is a very vapid surface level,” he said. “What I want people to do is to get excited to see the expansion of what these characters look like, as far as the Mean Gays that you’re very used to.”
Goldenberg and Jonez also hope to add more dimensions to these characters in other formats. The duo are currently working with their manager and producing partner, Evan Mirzai, to pitch the Mean Gays as a television series. When it comes to this potential future, Goldenberg and Jonez have goals in mind.
“Even if the Mean Gays as a title or as these characters doesn’t get picked up, I would still love for it to be something [where] Jake and I are leading the show—even if the show looks completely different—or at least having a dynamic where I’m able to appear as an actor on screen as well as be in the writer’s room. That’s just part of the process that I love so much,” Goldenberg said.
Jonez envisions a similar path.
“The goal, really, for me—in some way, shape or form—is to originate a scripted series,” Jonez said. “I would love for it to be a comedy, and I would love to be in the scripted series as a lead. I think that is the goal of all goals.”
With five stops left on their first tour, audiences are sure to be in for more passive-aggressive behavior, trolling and good humor no matter where the Mean Gays go.
The Mean Gays will perform at 6 p.m. on Oct. 16 at City Winery Philadelphia, 990 Filbert St. For more information or to purchase tickets, visit citywinery.com/philadelphia.