On Tuesday night's Vanderpump Rules reunion, a whole bunch of dirty laundry was aired publicly. Some dating back long before its cast members were on Bravo.
Newcomers Max Boyen and Brett Caprioni apologized for making racist remarks in their youth that were brought to light when they were first cast on the show.
Many viewers may have felt that the apologies were insufficient, and both men should be fired, but at least Max and Brett seemed genuinely remorseful.
While their comments were not something most of us (hopefully) can relate to, you have to give them some credit for owning up to their youthful idiocy.
Sadly, the same cannot be said for perennial moron Jax Taylor.
Despite being roughly a decade older than Max and Brett, the 40-year-old Jax continues to make problematic statements.
Moreover, his apologies - which are few and far between - always come off as forced and insincere.
Worst of all, they're usually followed by repetitions of the behavior for which he's been chastised.
In the past, the show's producers tried to sell us on the "Jax is a changed man" narrative, and the storyline might have made for compelling television -- if Jax had actually changed at all.
But of course, he hasn't.
On the show and on social media, Jax has continued to bully and berate those whom he regards as his inferiors (read: everyone).
The problem has gotten so bad that calls for Jax to be fired from Vanderpump Rules have become commonplace among fans.
Unfortunately, those demands have fallen on deaf ears, despite repeated instances of blatant homophobia on Taylor's part.
The most obvious example - though far from the only one - involved the pastor Taylor and Brittany Cartwright selected to officiate their wedding.
The most cursory search of the guy's name would have been enough to reveal a long history of bigotry, but Jax and Brittany continue to play dumb and undermine their obligatory apologies with excuses.
“I promise you guys, I did not see anything more than the one tweet," Cartwright said during the reunion show.
"He promised me that he [wasn’t homophobic] so I believed him.”
That statement is demonstrably false, but this is the same Brittany who claimed she'd never seen an episode of Vanderpump and met Taylor by chance.
(It was later revealed that she was a longtime fan of the show, who sought him out during a trip to L.A.)
Obviously, that's a completely different level of dishonesty, but the point, is we shouldn't be surprised.
She casually and convincingly lies like most people breathe, and is also married to Jax Taylor, implying at least a somewhat relaxed attitude toward moral responsibility.
Anyway, producers will keep Jax around because he's good for ratings, but thankfully, the other cast members seem to be fully fed up with his sh-t.
Jax's homophobia has surfaced several times in the past year, including the multiple incidents in which he mocked Ariana Madix for coming out as bisexual.
She clapped back at Taylor during Tuesday's show, and hard.
If you listened hard enough you could probably hear applause from people all over the country who had been bullied for their sexuality by fools like Jax.
“I don’t think it’s very hard to understand what it is to be bisexual; I’ve never flip-flopped on that,” Ariana said in clarification of concept so simple even Jax should be able to understand it.
“Anybody who knows me has known that for a very, very long time," she said.
"It’s also like, really fun to just know that I bother him so much.”
As usual, Tom Sandoval and Ariana were willing to speak truth to idiocy, while the rest of the cast kept their mouths shut when confronted with Jax's bigotry.
(Again, the guy is good for ratings, and thus, he gets away with a lot.)
Thankfully, one newcomer who probably flew under most viewers' radar this season made herself known in memorable fashion during the reunion.
And boy did she call Jax out for the human garbage he can be.
"I don’t even know this like, 50 year-old man,” Charli Burnett said when asked about being bullied on Twitter by Taylor.
“He’s retired and done and wrapped," she added.
Naturally, Jax responded in the worst possible fashion by throwing one of his signature man-trums.
"Know your role, sweetie,” Jax screamed into his Zoom cam.
“Know your role! Know your role! You should be lucky that you’re here! You should be lucky that you’re here!“
He later admonished Charli for being “the most disrespectful person.”
“I am who I am and I don’t give a f--k if you like me,” Burnett replied.
“End of story.”
Her views on pasta might remain unpopular, but something tells us Charli earned quite a few new fans that night.
