Teen sex, celibacy, birth control, condoms, gay and lesbian relationships, video sex tapes, virginity, pregnancy, dirty dancing, communicating about feelings, the dad-son (gay) sex talk, and... even romance. This was Glee tonight, prefaced with a "parental discretion advised" warning.

Did the seductive Do you want to touch me song and dance go too far? Note how Glee Club teacher Will holds up a sign "Too much?"

With singing, dancing, guest star Gwyneth Paltrow, and a dubious but entertaining sex-ed storyline, tonight's Glee episode (entitled 'Sexy') covered it all. This was a great "Entertainment-Education" example using popular culture - a hit TV show - to promote health. Here's a blow-by-blow recap from your fave reviewers, E-Online. 

What made it so good? It illustrated so many principles about what makes entertainment work - or not - as a carrier of health messages. Especially the core idea; the "entertainment contract."

The entertainment contract refers to an implicit agreement between we the viewers who agree to suspend disbelief and connect with the characters, in exchange for the producers providing us with a good time. Did the show violate the contract by having a storyline that was too unbelievable... like Kurt the gay guy not knowing anything about sex? Or cheerleader Britanny who has a boyfriend (and a girlfriend) thinking babies come from storks (really, at 16 years old) and therefore thinks she's pregnant because a stork nested by her bedroom window? Or were we the viewers able to keep relating to the characters and the story. As the theory goes, once the entertainment contract is violated, viewers switch from an empathic mindset to an evaluative and often dismissive frame of mind, which renders the education ineffective. 

Just the first 15 minutes of the show will be a great teaching tool - very exciting! Well, to me anyway. Harnessing TV shows for health persuasion was what my PhD dissertation was about, the subject of graduate courses I've taught. and the focus of products we developed. Yeah, I'm psyched.

Here's a couple reviews: Wall Street Journal and a Glee Wiki (with links to all the songs in the episode). Your thoughts on this episode of Glee?