Scrub’s character “The Todd” is one of the most enigmatic, yet straightforward characters in all of television. His constant stream of innuendos (which he once played off as “in-you-end-o”) and brainless macho attitude makes him seem like the perfect candidate for a straight, yet sex-crazed, dude. Despite his super manliness and his constant hitting on nurses, his heterosexuality comes into question in the pivotal episode “My Lunch”. Carla and Elliot discover that he has never actually slept with any of the people he claims to have slept with. This leads to their wondering about what he was compensating for- his homosexuality.
After easily “outing” him, he becomes their “new gay best friend” and he starts to hang out with Elliot as she does embarrassing things with him (well, they would only really be embarrassing if The Todd was straight…). While Carla and Elliot expect him to turn his overcompensating sexual attitude off, he simply redirects it to men, hitting on every guy he sees. When Carla and Elliot confront him about this, he simply motorboats them both and says “Chicks dig gay guys”. He then strolls down the hall, saying that he would tap every guy or girl, no matter the situation. When asked “What are you?”, he simply responds: I’m The Todd!
The Todd is all about sex, you can tell that from any episode. While The Todd is treated differently as a homosexual, these differences are social, not legal. He utilizes closet anxiety to get close girls only to profit through his own perversions. While some may say he was a victim of Heterosexual Privilege #12 (The Right to Public Affection), I would argue that he was not, being that he was shouting pick-up lines to co-workers and commenting on their ‘packages’. The show satirizes homosexuality and The Todd by combining the two. While The Todd does appear to be homosexual, he does so in an obviously manly and upfront manor, such as asking Turk out of nowhere if he wants to have sex.
This subplot was used as a comedy device in the show, because the main plot, about Dr. Cox taking the death of his patient very badly, was one of the saddest in the show’s history.
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