In the month since its wide release, Brokeback Mountain has become far more than just a hit movie. The movie, focusing on a forbidden love between two cowboys in Wyoming, has evolved into a bona fide cultural flashpoint, with liberals claiming that the film’s commercial success proves that the religious right is not as powerful a force as everyone supposes. But Brokeback has also inspired a predictable backlash, with a not-so-predictable comedic focus. “What’s interesting about the gay cowboy jokes on television recently is, generally, there’s no joke. Instead, we get a banal repetition of the idea that the rural, taciturn, masculine, traditional-cowboy stereotype could be confused with its urban, expressive, effeminate opposite.”