I’d argue part of the realness comes from the compassion he has for the character. You can also see it in the Cathy/Kathy bits:

Yah. Kids had a great gay voice that normalized a lot of that culture by making it just more stuff to goof on...like the skit about what to do if attacked by bears or the blowjob fairy or...you know, RUNNING FAGGOT. It was so inclusive, just a bunch of friends who didn’t stop giving each other shit just because the…

This has always been my gold standard description of cultural insularity. One of the rare, brilliant instances of a white artist using that word to expose white – and especially WASP – insecurity.

I love Scott Thompson and he’s a really interesting guy, but the real buried lede here is that Kevin MacDonald used to be fat.

I liked the Buddy Cole sketched but for my money, Scott Thompson’s best character was Fran. It’s the one where Scott’s natural acting ability begins to take shape. Little things he does really make the character feel like she could be a real person.

Not gay so maybe my take on this is less than needed but always felt Scott Thompson and Amanda Bearse(Marcy from Married with Children) get short changed in the gay history of television(GHT). They were out way before the late nineties when I seem to remember stars coming out being a big deal.