HomoTech :: Will & Grace for the Facebook Age

Contrary to widespread viral belief, Mikala Beirma claims that her friendship with Tyler Coates is anything but disappointing. The duo, now residing in New York City, met in Chicago years ago and have been friends ever since. They've been our friends, however, since March 10, when the first three Disappointing Gay Best Friend skits were uploaded onto YouTube.

Following in the high heels of Sassy Gay Friend, Disappointing Gay Best Friend focuses on a fruit fly, played by Mikala, who expects her gay BFF Tyler to fit into the stereotype of the Lady Gaga-loving, flirtini-drinking fashionista while all he wants to do is to stay in and read The New Yorker, order Thai food and shatter his gal pal's flamboyant fantasies.

"What's funny is that I'm playing myself," said Mikala, a vivacious stand-up comic. "I'm the quintessential hag. Those are my clothes. That's how I am in real life. But Tyler is not disappointing at all. Yes, I probably wouldn't ask him what he thinks of my dress, but he is a great friend nonetheless."

The six DGBF videos that have been uploaded so far on YouTube have received over 180,000 views. A new video will be posted Mondays and Thursdays until, "it starts feeling like work," the couple promised.

How It All Started

Like many great ideas of our time, DGBF came to Mikala and Tyler while extremely intoxicated at a bar.

"Mikala had a show in Williamsburg, and it was a really gay show with drag queens and showtunes, so I got really drunk," said Tyler, a freelance writer and blogger, "I mean, really drunk. I went up to her afterwards and started blabbering about how much I would love to perform with her."

That same Saturday, the two friends got together, and began shooting ideas back and forth. They wanted to mock popular stereotypes of gay men by subverting them, making the girl the high-pitched, overly energetic one and the guy, well, downright disappointing.

"We wanted to use the same format, a quick conversation on a couch," said Mikala, "but the topics had to be fresh." DGBF has tackled subjects like clubbing, fashion, Lady Gaga, boyfriends and hot tranny messes.

Behind the Scenes

Mikala has had comedy performance experience. In Chicago, she performed with Improv Olympics and trained with Second City. Tyler, on the other hand, had stage fright.

"That's why, when we decided to do this, we thought it'd be better to do a video skit," he said. The director, Mike Lacher, was not hard to find. "He's Mikala's boyfriend," Tyler revealed. "So it was easy to cajole him to get involved."

Mike makes sure his girlfriend and her gay keep their banter to a 30-second format, and he also designed the title card at the end, which reeks of straight guy creativity.

"The longest part of filming these, actually," Mikala said, "is me changing my outfits. I want my outfits to keep getting more fierce as the season progresses, while Tyler wears the same plaid shirt."

[Read how the videos went viral and why they don't disappoint, all on the next page!]

The Videos Go Viral

Having written for The Awl, This Recording and Crushable, Tyler has made several contacts in the insular New York media world, happy to give a little exposure to their contributor's web video project.

"And my friend at LOGO posted it after seeing it on my Facebook page," Mikala said. "That's why we had to start using Vimeo, because of some legal reasons with YouTube and MTV."

But it wasn't just blogs and websites who were amused by the silly excitement of a girl getting her heart broken by her anything-but-fabulous friend.

"I knew it had spread big time when one of my friends told me he had seen it posted on one of his friend's Facebook," Tyler said. Then the skits went all a-Twitter, and next thing you know, DGBF had gone Rebecca Black.

"I really think that's how everything is going towards nowadays," Mikala said. "If you are in the comedy business and don't have a web presence, you are really doing yourself a disservice."

Why They Don’t Disappoint

The team agrees that, even though it plays up stereotypes, there is a real element to DGBF that has resonated with gays and girls all over the country.

"I didn't come out until after college," Tyler said, "but growing up, I was always more comfortable around females. I never fit in with the guys."

"And I'm way more comfortable around queens," Mikala jumped in. "Whenever I want to go see a musical, I know who to call."

But Mikala's experience with the gay community hasn't always been glitter and giggles.

"One time we were out with a bunch of gay guys, and they were such bitches!" Mikala emphasized the b-word like only a hag could.

"They kept referring to one of our friends as 'Rexi' (short for anorexia). I don't think that being gay gives you permission to be mean. I even asked Tyler if they were offending him."

"I wasn't offended," Tyler explained. "I date them! So I know how some gay men can be."

Besides biweekly videos, the duo has no "masterplan" for DGBF, although Mikala was not shy when I mentioned how common it was for female comics to have flocks of gay fans.

"I adore Bette Midler," she said. "That'd be my dream!"

"In all honesty, Mikala will probably get more out of this, than I will," said Tyler, who may not be disappointing but is down-to-earth.

"I'm just doing it 'cause it's fun. I have fun helping her," he said.

As it turns out girls, at the end of the 30-seconds, having a "disappointing gay best friend" is still better than not having one at all.

Even if he calls you, "fat."

Oscar Raymundo is a freelance writer based in San Francisco. He has written for SF Weekly, the SF Bay Guardian, Wired, Newsweek, BusinessWeek, Fast Company, CosmoGIRL! and the official Facebook blog. He is currently at work on his first novel.

He blogs here.

This story is part of our special report: "HomoTech". Want to read more? Here's the full list.