From "John Waters Is Ready for His Hollywood Closeup/The director reflects on getting a star on the Walk of Fame and a museum retrospective about his career as a cinematic provocateur" (The New Yorker).
There's lots of interesting stuff in that interview. I'll just highlight this:
No one has ever jerked off watching my movies from the sex scenes! If they have, they’re in real trouble. The sex scenes in my movies are parodies. They’re always making fun of the idea of being horny. Sometimes I’m against instinct. Sex—I didn’t get to think it up. I’m mad I didn’t. I’m mad I have to take a shit every day. That’s wrong! I didn’t think it up! I am such a control freak.
But the idea of young people being prudish now is so warped to me.
The young people I know aren’t that prudish.... My fans are smart and nice, but they want to be shocked. Comedy is about walking on the edge. I mean, Lenny Bruce went to jail for saying “cocksucker” in San Francisco. Can you imagine? Words have changed so much. You have to keep up with the new rules to make fun of them. To me, there is a new sexual revolution happening right now, and it’s pretty astounding. As long as you can laugh at yourself first, you can get away with most everything.
How did you feel about the sexual revolution of the sixties?
It’s hard to imagine that every night you had sex with somebody different, and it was normal. That will never happen in anyone who’s alive today’s lifetime ever again, I don’t think.
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29 comments:
It’s hard to imagine that every night you had sex with somebody different
every night?
every night, you keep using those words.. I do no think those words Mean, what You Think they mean.
every night??? every single night??? Sounds Pretty much like WORK: Sex Work
Lenny Bruce went to jail for saying “cocksucker” in San Francisco.
He’s showing his middle age as we’ve come back around to you can’t say these things again. Lenny Bruce had a whole bit about why it was important that we say the N word (Bruce, more courageous than me, actually said the actual word) and any other word you’re not supposed to say. The prohibition is itself what gives these words their power and the only way to vanquish them is to suck the meaning out of them by over-using them.
As in so many things, polite society has its approach exactly backwards.
John Waters was far, far, far, far, far outside the mainstream until very late in his career (circa 1990s). He was 10x beyond Howard Stern before Stern hit the radio. Waters parodies were funny when they had something to push against (i.e., old-school milquetoast WASP USA). I don't think his humor can be understood by the anti-humor, anti-irony Woke left of the latest generation.
Having the 300 lb transvestite Divine jump on a trampoline in a stage show and then shoot the audience dead...seems a lot like a Biden administration staff person...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pink_Flamingos
The last days of Rome...
Actual John Waters film dialogue:
[Dialogue from "Female Trouble," between Edith Massey and Michael Potter]
[Aunt Ida Nelson:] "Have you met any nice boys in the salon?"
[Gator:] "Oh, pretty nice."
[Aunt Ida:] "I mean any nice queer boys. Did you fool with any of them?"
[Gator:] "Aunt Ida, you know I dig women."
[Aunt Ida:] "Aw, don't tell me that."
[Gator:] "Christ, let's not go through this again."
[Aunt Ida:] "All those beauticians, and you don't have any boy dates?"
[Gator:] "I don't want any boy dates."
[Aunt Ida:] "Oh honey, I'd be so happy if you turned nelly."
[Gator:] "Hey, no way. I'm straight. I mean I like a lot of queers, but I don't dig their equipment, y'know? I like women."
[Aunt Ida:] "But you can change. Queers are just better. I'd be so proud if you was a fag, and had a nice beautician boyfriend. I'd never have to worry."
[Gator:] "There ain't nothing to worry about."
[Aunt Ida:] "I'm worried that you'll work in an office, get married, have children, celebrate wedding anniversaries. The world of heterosexuals is a sick and boring life."
[Gator:] "Sometimes I think you're fucking crazy. I'm real happy just the way I am."
Wax diets.
@Enigma:
Sam Brinton could be a character in a Waters movie.
Waters is passe´. Hard to be a provocateur when, as I saw on Gutfeld last week during a discussion on the pornographic books for 5th graders, a gay guest, some head of something or other, commented he was happy to see that people were noticing that "normal gays" didn't like this either.
To use Enigma's submission
To "... work in an office, get married, have children, celebrate wedding anniversaries..."
is no longer just the world of heterosexuals
Sexual Revolution in Britain = Autistic girl thinking a cop might be a lesbian - saying so out loud - & gets arrested.
btw- If police officer is a lesbian - what's the big deal?
If not a lesbian... - what's the big deal? I thought lesbian = woke hip and cool. We are told to worship the gay. Not be offended. so what F is the problem?
Being offended is an art-form for the global white authoritarian left. It trumps all.
I strongly recommend the Waters film, Pecker, filmed where I used to live in that hellhole of a town, Baltimore.
Lenny Bruce had a whole bit about why it was important that we say the N word (Bruce, more courageous than me, actually said the actual word) and any other word you’re not supposed to say.
@tim maguire -
May I ask you, why are you reticent to say (well, spell) that word here? Althouse (the blog) is one of the few remaining places where, I believe, one could use it in a serious/"sincere" way and not be "cancelled" (at least, by the readership or the proprietor).
Is it that you, personally, have on objection to writing it out? Are you concerned about Google searches for "tim maguire"?
I'm interested in your thought process on this.
I was immediately reminded of this blog post down memory lane…
“If Trump's shirt is on the floor, it's because he wants it on the floor. And he strips his own bed.
I give you my first selection from "Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House" by Michael Wolff:
He [Trump] reprimanded the housekeeping staff for picking up his shirt from the floor: “If my shirt is on the floor, it’s because I want it on the floor.” Then he imposed a set of new rules: nobody touch anything,…”
LINK
That post garnished well over 200 comments.
#TrumpChallenge
Why is every night hard to believe, gilbar?
You do realize that Waters was a very active homosexual, right?
>Gen Z is turned off by sex scenes in movies, especially gratuitous ones<
Hmm, I've never felt so hip - I was turned off by gratuitous sex scenes in movies before it was cool...
Waters is one of the fun gays.
Definitely a guy you'd want to have a drink with...
mikeski wrote
Althouse (the blog) is one of the few remaining places where, I believe, one could use it in a serious/"sincere" way and not be "cancelled" (at least, by the readership or the proprietor).
If you search hard enough you will find she precisely proscribed that word so as not to be demonetized or deblogged by Google who owns Blogger. Please don't write it out on this blog.
MikeSki" Althouse has specifically requested that the "N-word" not be posted here. I find her reasoning silly, but it is her blog and I will respect that restriction. She allows much criticism and that is worthwhile IMO.
MarcusB. THEOLDMAN
Gen Z is interested in authenticity, and sex scenes are the most inauthentic aspect of moviemaking. It's cringe, thinking of the actors pretending to get hot and steamy.
I would imagine that sex parody, like Waters produces, wouldn't be a problem. Waters himself, though, is old-school gay. I don't know if his humor is still welcome in the era of Pete Bootyjudge.
mikeski said...
Althouse (the blog) is one of the few remaining places where, I believe, one could use it in a serious/"sincere" way and not be "cancelled" (at least, by the readership or the proprietor).
you DON'T get out much, Do you mikeski? Althouse will come down on you, like a ton of bricks if you use "that Word". Something about Blogger.com being owned by Google, which will CLOSE her down if she allows it.
Many years ago I work with kids involved in art. John Waters came to give a clinic to a group of young artists at the Walker Art Center. One of the kids took Andy Warhol's iconic Sixteen Jackies and replaced the Jackies with pictures of JonBenét Ramsey. The kid went on the Internet and found pictures of Ramsey that were remarkably similar in pose and composition to the pictures of Jackie Warhol had used (e.g., Jackie in a pillbox hat comes to mind) and used them in his Sixteen JonBenéts piece. It was brilliant on so many levels.
Anyway, Waters saw the kid's Sixteen JonBenéts and bought it on the spot. He then gave the kid directions and keys to his summer home, telling the kid to drop it off when he had an opportunity.
True story.
It's not gratuitous if it's funny. I was turned off by gratuitous sex scenes in the 70's. ONe of the good things about streaming is you can fast forward.
"May I ask you, why are you reticent to say (well, spell) that word here? Althouse (the blog) is one of the few remaining places where, I believe, one could use it in a serious/"sincere" way and not be "cancelled" "
I speak from experience in telling you that you are dead wrong.
I wrote a comment that said folks like Jussie Smollett, who fake a racist attack for personal gain, should forever be branded with the n-word (I spelled it out) whenever their name is mentioned, because as the presiding judge said, their false-flag is particularly heinous because it causes folks to question the verity of folks who are actual victims of hate crimes.
Example: "Did you know N-word Jussie Smollett's net worth is only $300k? Boy, did that n-word fuck up!"
As Louis CK said, when you use n-word in place of the actual word, you cause the person who hears you to say the actual word in their head.
It did not pass moderation here.
I love John Waters movies and his books Role Models and Car Sick. I think the new puritans will have trouble with him.
I have heard of this guy, and have nothing against him. I have never seen any of his movies. Seems a little too weird for me, and that's saying a lot.
As far as I can see, they still have sex scenes in the movies and on TV, but all contemporary women keep their bras on while fucking. Not my century, for sure.
About a month before 9-11 I was at Hartsfield Jackson feverishly measuring doors for replacement (They knew it was coming), nature called and I walked into a bathroom, sidled up to a urinal, looked over and there he was. John Waters, he looks at me and I say fancy meeting you HERE! Dude laughed so damned hard. I mentioned that I wasn’t exactly a fan, but I knew he was the real deal. He liked that.
Thanks folks.
That makes sense, in an extremely practical way.
With apologies, mikee.
I strongly recommend the Waters film, Serial Mom, filmed where I used to live in a lovely leafy neighborhood in that hellhole of a town, Baltimore.
Came home from work one day to learn from neighbors that Kathleen Turner had spent most of the day sitting on the sidewalk in front of my house!
"It's cringe, thinking of the actors pretending to get hot and steamy."
And yet, Gen Z (male and female) and their Millennial parents are voracious consumers of porn. And they know that the performers are only pretending to get hot and steamy. And yet the kids and their parents buy it. Voraciously.
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