Straight people can be funny. They’ve proven it, time and time again. From the criminally underrated Penis Song in The Sweetest Thing to the diarrhoea takeover in Bridesmaids and Meg Ryan’s vibrating panties in When Harry Met Sally, people within that… community have offered the rom-com genre some of its most gut-busting and iconic moments. Well, they’ve offered the rom-com genre all of its most gut-busting and iconic moments because queer characters and narratives have historically been devoid. Not anymore!

The gay rom-com is officially on the rise – Love, Simon, Happiest Season and Fire Island are a few recent examples, all of which received heaps of acclaim. This month, however, marks the first-ever gay romantic comedy from a major studio with Billy Eichner’s Bros. Starring the Billy on the Street alum as Bobby Lieber, the host of a New York podcast and radio show called The Eleventh Brick at Stonewall, the film follows the character as he accepts a position as a curator for Manhattan’s upcoming National LGBTQ+ History Museum and falls for Aaron Shepard (Luke Macfarlane), a handsome “Tom Brady”-esque gay. 

Directed by Nicholas Stoller, Bros is notable for featuring a principal LGBTQ+ cast with supporting performances from Ts Madison, Monica Raymund, Guillermo Díaz, Amanda Bearse, Jim Rash, Bowen Yang, Miss Lawrence, Harvey Fierstein, Eve Lindley, Symone and Dot-Marie Jones (check out our official guide to the aforementioned stars here). This alone is enough reason to check out Bros, but it has a lot of factors going for it besides its historic feats.

It’s hilarious, so it easily accomplishes the ‘com’ of ‘rom-com’, while the chemistry between the two leads – Eichner and Macfarlane – is magnetic. The characters couldn’t be more mismatched, however: Bobby uses his wit and humour as a defence mechanism to disguise the fact that he is, like most rom-com protagonists, a mess, while Aaron is a confident and ripped estate lawyer with a passion for hetero musicians such as Garth Brooks and Maroon 5. While the latter is comfortable with his sexuality, he isn’t as loud-and-proud as Bobby, who uses any available opportunity to highlight cis-het privilege and advocate for LGBTQ+ rights. A lot of the humour comes from their mutual antagonism – Bobby’s sarcasm stems from his fear of being rejected for ‘masc4masc’ gay with a Barry’s membership (relatable) and Aaron isn’t accustomed to being with someone with such an outspoken nature. That’s the beauty of their romance; it shouldn’t work, but it somehow does.