WATCH: Why Republicans Advertise on Gay-Friendly TV Shows

When placing political ads on TV, Republican candidates make some surprisingly gay-friendly choices in programming, such as The Big Bang Theory and Modern Family, according to a new analysis of ad buys.

In a piece for The Washington Post's blog The Fix this week, political writer Philip Bump offered an analysis of recent television ad buys by Republican, Democratic, and independent U.S. Senate candidates. The Big Bang Theory, CBS's high-rated sitcom starring gay actor Jim Parsons, is one of the most popular prime-time shows for candidate ads, and Republican advertisers surpass Democrats by a big margin. Republicans are also far more likely than Democrats to place commercials on Modern Family, which MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell calls "the longest-running ad for marriage equality ever," with its prominently featured gay couple Mitch and Cam, who recently married on-screen and are raising a daughter together. However, when it comes to daytime talk shows, Democrats are more likely than Republicans to advertise on Ellen DeGeneres's program, as one might expect.

On his Last Word program last night, O'Donnell and guest Judah Friedlander discussed some of the Post's more "inexplicable" findings. "We see a gay marriage ceremony [on Modern Family] and then, in some markets, apparently, you immediately go to a Republican campaign commercial, because -- why?" O'Donnell asked Friedlander. See the answer and the full conversation below.