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That Pauly Shore is not getting a queer re-assessment, for his peak-era fashion sense, if nothing else, is a crime.

1992's Encino Man was well-beloved by a certain set of young people primed to enjoy it. It's a film well-made for its era; somewhere between the quirky but fuzzy-feeling comedies of the 80s, and the stoner comedies of the later 90s. Modern memory of the film sees it as the beginning of Brendan Fraser's super-stardom. Few, if any people, remember that Sean Astin is the ostensible lead character, playing the straight man/sex pest, David Morgan. Pauly Shore's turn as Stoney is still in people's minds, but it is in a very, very specific way.

Nobody in Encino Man does drugs--not even the Latino gang members that pop up in the last third of the film--but "Stoney" and his portrayor, Pauly Shore, are both sanitized-for-TV versions of the surfing, snacking, weed-smoking stereotype that was so popular at the time. Remember, before Snoop Dogg had his day, marijuana in films was mostly enjoyed by white, college-aged idiots. Shore's Stoney is in high school, and a protagonist, so he can't actually smoke weed, but he can sure make money off that kind of character.

So, I said Pauly Shore needs a queer re-assessment, and then I said he is supposed to be a stoner. These things aren't incompatible, but I'd actually argue any intention, or period-specific assumptions, are irrelevant. We want to assess Stoney, and Shore, right here, right now; that's why it's a re-assessment. And baby, I'm here to tell you, he is queer as fuck.

Pauly Shore is not a large, muscular, tall, masculine, horny, typical, stereotypical man. In Encino Man, Brendan Fraser's Link, a literal caveman who's been thawed out of Ice Age ice, is all of the above; he'd probably be annoying, or even disgusting, if he didn't have Fraser's incredibly soulful eyes. Sean Astin is horny, and in an unapologetically straight way; he finds Link's ice cube-to-the-future because he's digging up the family's backyard to hand-build a pool so the girl of his dreams will go to the prom with him. Which is honestly, such straight man logic, I can't even. (Also, why do his parents let him do this?)

Stoney is, again, none of these things. He has a rich, curly head of hair, held back by a gauzy, colorful scarf. He has mesh tank tops in clashing colors. He always, always wears bell bottoms, and in one scene, we learn that the only things he would potentially need money for are snacks, and new bell bottoms. Everything else about his outfits is absolute anarchy; matching colors, humility, and silhouette are all foreign concepts to the Stoney wardrobe. At one point, he wears a shirt with his own face on it.