| abstract | - Chase Talbott III is a character from the comic strip Doonesbury. He was introduced shortly after Mark Slackmeyer realized that he was homosexual. For a while he invented an imaginary boyfriend for himself called Neil, who he pretended to talk to on the air. Later on he met Chase at a bar and he appeared on Mark's NPR show as a conservative foil to Mark's own liberalism. At first they pretended that their relationship was platonic, but Mark persisted in dropping hints that clued the audience into what was really going on. Chase announced that he had no intention of outing himself on the air, but didn't realize that they were still on the air as he said it. Unlike Mark, Chase is very conservative. Indeed, the two are such polar opposites when it comes to any sort of opinion at all that people wonder what the attraction between them can possibly be. When asked, Chase replied "Well, it's physical of course". After Chase's initial appearance on Mark's show became a hit, the two began to collaborate regularly on a weekly program called All Things Reconsidered. Mark and Chase eventually got married in 1999. To do so they had to go to Pago Pago, to be married by MacArthur, who was Uncle Duke's assistant when he was the governor of American Samoa. Everything went wrong during the ceremony, and they eventually exchanged vows on a TWA plane back home, with a flight attendant as their witness and the Hanoi Gay Men's Glee Club singing Backstreet Boys songs. The two of them consider themselves ahead of the social curve when it comes to homosexuality. While most gays are fighting for the right to get married, Mark and Chase are a married gay couple thinking about getting a divorce. In 2007, Chase kicked Mark out of the house and no longer participates on his partner's radio show.
|
