Will & Grace: If That Stonewall Joke Flew Over Your Head, Read This

After a well-received premiere episode, Will & Grace continues to show it is still the series we all know and love from a decade ago with episode two, cleverly titled "Who's Your Daddy?" Will and Jack come to grips with being "daddies," aka older men who are interested in younger guys, on the dating scene.

On Will's ill-fated date with a 23-year-old (played by Dear Evan Hansen Tony-winner Ben Platt), the young man dismisses Will's "older guy" drama by saying that he knows "all about Stonehenge," to which Will replies, "Do you mean Stonewall?"

For those of you who were confused by the reference, the Stonewall riots happened in June 1969 when members of the LGBTQ+ community held demonstrations in New York City after the police raided the Stonewall Inn in Greenwich Village. It was not uncommon for police to raid gay bars then, but at Stonewall, the situation came to a head, leading to protests for weeks. Within a few months, two gay activist organizations had formed and three newspapers were established to promote gay rights. The first gay pride marches then took place on the one-year anniversary of the Stonewall raid, which is why a lot of pride events are held in June throughout the world.

In giving his history lesson, Will launches into a pretty epic speech about younger generations not forgetting the people who fought for their rights.

"It's great that you have no shame. I mean, you missed the joy of signing up for football to fool your parents. But you guys can never forget the struggle that came before you, the people that fought and loved and . . . and died so that you could walk down the street in skinny jeans with rights you never even knew you never had. The minute we forget what we went through to get here is the minute it could all be taken away," says Will.

Then, in a callback to an earlier joke, he adds, "And that will be the night the lights go out in Georgia!"

Just as an FYI, if you aren't familiar with Designing Women, Will was referencing a famous monologue by Dixie Carter. Her character, Julia Sugarbaker, was kind of known for them on the CBS sitcom that ran from 1986 to 1993. Unfortunately, Designing Women is not available to stream anywhere — who can we call about that oversight? — but you can at least watch Carter's "the night the lights went out in Georgia" speech below.