And another cool thing about this show is that as soon as it came out, gay men all over the UK, the US and Canada (and for all I know, elsewhere) latched onto it with glee and helped promote it more generally. My partner and I were throwing Absolutely Fabulous parties in NYC in the 90s, and I still occasionally break out into choruses of “sweetie darling" and “Bolly darling" with my gay friends.

I’m not sure what it is about the series that enchanted a certain class of white gay men, but it might have had something to do with these two women being taken as silly and frivolous even as they were clearly successful and must have been doing real work somewhere somehow. I think we can relate to that. Well, and to the partying. 🤣