Reba’s season 4, episode 4, titled “Van’s Agent,” became one of the sitcom’s top-rated episodes on IMDb with an 8.3/10 score, but the premise of Reba having to fake her sexuality and the gay jokes that are told throughout the episode are clearly outdated and inappropriate 20 years later.

Reba is a sitcom based on a single mother who was cheated on and has to live with her ex-husband’s mistress as a prominent part in her life, all while raising her children, which also happened to include a teenage pregnancy and marriage. So, crossing the line and pushing the limit is nothing new for the Reba McEntire-led series. However, with the season four episode, “Van’s Agent,” new viewers might be left feeling uncomfortable after some of the Reba characters’ one-liners about lesbians, Van’s lesbian agent and the LGBTQ+ community in general.

In the following, we discuss what the dated Reba epsidode is about and why Reba’s bad “gay” jokes have not aged well. We also talk a little more about why Reba’s Van character could be seen as controversial.

What “Van’s Agent” From Reba Season 4 Was About?

During season 4, episode 4 of Reba, Van admits he doesn’t have a professional sports agent to help him negotiate his football contract to lengthen his terms and increase his salary. Early in the episode, Brock, Reba’s ex-husband, offers to be Van’s agent, but no one takes him seriously.

Van later returns to announce that he has set up a meeting with the top agent in his football league, but that she wants to come meet the family because she won’t represent problem athletes. The whole family wants to impress Sadie Owens, the sports agent played by Wendie Malick, but with Barbra Jean and Brock’s antics, Cheyenne’s naivity and Van’s ditzy persona, things aren’t looking too great for Van.

After everyone but Reba retreat to the kitchen to sort things out, Reba gets some alone time with Sadie. The two women quickly bond over their shared history of divorce and raising children. Realizing they have a lot in common, Reba shares how she misses having someone she can relate to and that she gets lonely sometimes.

After Reba mentions her “girlfriend,” used as an endearing word for best friend, moved away and was supposed to come visit but canceled because she’s in a new relationship, Reba suggests she and Sadie get together sometime to hang out. While Reba meant this in the most innocent and platonic fashion, Sadie did not take it that way.

“This is wild, because this is actually what I’d hope to happen ever since I switched teams.”

Sadie admits that she got divorced and realized she was “gay.” And then shares that Van has already told Sadie that Reba was also gay, and that he said Reba was “super gay.” The rest of the episode involves Van and the family pressure Reba into pretending she is a lesbian so that Sadie will sign with Van and get him a better football contract.

Ultimately, Reba does come clean and admits the truth to Sadie, but not before the rest of the cast make several tacky gay jokes.

Reba McEntire, Melissa Peterman (who plays Barbra Jean on Reba ) and the actress who plays Van’s agent, Wendie Malick, all held roles on CBS’ Young Sheldon, though their characters never crossed paths during the Sheldon Cooper series.

How The Bad Jokes Made In Reba Season 4, Episode 4 Did Not Age Well

Reba is without a doubt a hilarious sitcom that has a special way of making light of some pretty serious topics. However, the season four episode of Reba titled, “Van’s Agent,” could be perceived as pretty offensive in present day. The LGBTQ+ community has had to overcome a lot in the last 20 years and have made some major advances since “Van’s Agent” aired in 2004, including the legalization of same-sex marriage in the United States in 2015.

In this Reba episode, it’s clear that Van wants to progress in his football career. He admits to telling Sadie that Reba was “super gay,” after he made a bad joke pertaining to gay people to Sadie in an earlier conversation.

“Sadie and I were talking about our favorite cities and I said I really liked Lubbock. She mentioned San Francisco. I wanted to sound clever and make a joke. But I don’t know anything about San Francisco but cable cars and gay people. So I made a joke about gay people, and it wasn’t funny apparently because she looks at me kind of offended and says, ‘Van, I’m gay. Do you have a problem with gay people?’ I’m like “Oh, no, not at all. My mother-in-law’s super gay.”

After learning that Sadie was a lesbian, Cheyenne exclaims, “Sadie is gay? This top is perfect. She… she probably hasn’t even heard a word I’ve said.” Cheyenne is wearing a lower cut top with her chest slightly exposed.

Van doesn’t initially want to come clean to Sadie, stating that “Lesbians do not find this kind of thing funny.” And Brock’s response is, “They really don’t.”

As the family tries to convince Reba to carry on with the lie, Barbra Jean’s off-putting comment is, “Yeah, just don’t go to Massachusetts Reba. They’re making them get married.” No further context is given to that “joke.”

Reba eventually agrees to help Van out until he gets his football contract locked down with a better deal. Just ahead of Reba’s date with Sadie, Barbra Jean comments, “Oh Reba, you are definitely gonna be the pretty one.” and after Reba turns down Barbra Jean’s attempt at sharing where she and Sadie should go for their date, Barbra Jean states, “I thought gay people were jolly.”

Reba comes clean to Sadie before their date and apologizes, admitting she was just trying to help out Van. Sadie then puts herself down, claiming, “How am I supposed to meet women, I got no gaydar, I got no dates, I got nothing. It’s because I’m no good. I’m bad. I am a bad lesbian.”

In the end, Van gets his big football contract and Reba does begin a platonic friendship with Van’s agent, Sadie. But the jokes that were made throughout the episode were done at the expense of a vulnerable community, especially to be made in 2004 when the LGBTQ+ community were not as openly accepted in society as they are today.

If this season 4 episode of Reba were to air in today’s pop culture, with those same jokes and episode premise, the reviews and ratings might have been received differently.

Why Van Was A Controversial Character In Reba

Van Montgomery, played by Steve Howey, is the lovable dummy of the sitcom. And although he adds some much-needed comedic relief to the series, some of the things Steve Howey’s Reba character says are unsettling and often inappropriate. Van gets away with saying some really jarring things, because he’s just portrayed as a dimwitted person who doesn’t know any better. He’s just a football player, you can’t expect him to know how to speak to women… right? *insert eye roll*

Just in this season four episode of Reba alone, Van speaks down to his young wife and mother of his child. Cheyenne, desperate to impress Van’s potential agent during the family meeting, comes wearing a top she feels confident in, but Van tells her, “Cheyenne my agent’s a woman, put those things away.”

At other times, Van has made comments to Cheyenne that he prefers her “hot and ditzy” and takes issue with Cheyenne growing up and how that could “affect him.”

When Reba began, Van was portrayed as a high school football star, with a troubled home life, who steps up after he gets his teenage girlfriend pregnant. Van stands by Cheyenne through it all. And although he was clearly not a bright young man, he appeared to be trying his best. However, as the seasons of Reba progressed, Van became increasingly more volatile and controlling and his undoubtedly good looks no longer took the attention away from his controversial behavior.