I think it's the disjointed nature of Harry's public persona, vs the signaling we pick up on that causes a pause. In the public, Harry is Straight, a serial dater running thru models, with very hetero songs. Given that context, this comes across as very "haha no homo; gay is so funny!" If you're not picking up on other cues, this looks appropriative & insensitive. The rest of his promo has been so Hetero, this just looks like he's having a laugh, esp bc it's not beyond Corden to do that.
i feel like this is a good sum up about why someone might take issue with it, and why i personally was slightly uncomfy about it. i think one of the things that complicates it is that like, on a surface level, there's an element of "it's okay for men to kiss" about it. like, "we don't care! we're so comfortable with ourselves, we'll kiss, and we don't care if homophobes out there don't want to see that!" so like on the one hand i'm like, yeah put gay kisses on TV!! but on the other hand i'm like, a little annoyed thinking about a bunch of straight people feel pleased with themselves for not being offended by it and not thinking about it any further. I mean, there's got to be a way to make a "there's nothing wrong with same sex kissing" statement that doesn't make the kissing a joke.
