Frizzle Frazzle, Razzle DazzleBeloved Comedies, Reimagined
(Inspired by this post on good old Jezebel.)
Author’s note: I enjoyed all three of the following scenes/projects in their original incarnations. Just thought it might be interesting to play “let’s pretend”…
1. A young woman (Kristen Bell) is suddenly and harshly dumped by her live-in boyfriend. The man is clothed, but the woman remains completely and visibly naked for the duration of the scene. Her nudity is not sexualized; in fact, she looks frantic and vulnerable. As she pleads with him to stay, we’re treated to a full-frontal crotch shot. Would the average viewer find this scene funny/cute? Would Bell’s career recover, or would she be known in perpetuity as “the batshit crazy naked chick”?
2. Two hilarious imbeciles from Kazakhstan (Isla Fisher and Melissa McCarthy*) are traveling through America. In a climactic scene, the two of them are completely naked on a hotel bed while one attempts to suffocate the other with her pussy and ass. (This act isn’t just implied; we basically see everything.) Isla and Melissa then chase each other naked through public areas of the hotel, exposing their bodies to crowds of shocked onlookers. It must be mentioned that this movie is shot documentary-style; the people witnessing this spectacle are not actors and it’s not a closed set. Would Fisher and McCarthy be hailed as brave comic dynamos or dismissed as insane, pathological attention-whores? Would the scene be praised as one of the funniest of the year, or would it be reclassified as gonzo porn simply because girls are involved?
3. A group of women make a TV and movie series that involve them injuring and exposing their bodies for the sake of comedy. These stunts involve shit, vomit, Tasers, branding irons, self-inflicted genital trauma, frequent nudity and the drinking of horse semen. During filming, the star of the series injures her vagina so severely that she has to be catheterized twice daily for the rest of her life. Do you think this franchise would be a hit? Would it air on a mainstream cable channel and be distributed by a major studio? Would it provoke heated dialogue or simply viewed as cutting-edge physical comedy?
***
Obviously, female bodies are perceived as “serious business” in American culture— probably in most cultures, now that I think about it. If a guy exposes or injures himself for the sake of a gag, it’s funny. If a girl does the same, it’s degrading. Russell Brand once jerked off a stranger for laughs on British TV—yeah, an actual hand-job—yet who do you suppose gets called a “whore” more often, Brand or his wife, Katy Perry? I’m not saying either of them deserves the epithet; I’m saying, THINK ABOUT IT
*Yeah, I know, Melissa McCarthy is way cuter than Ken Davitian. Go with it.
(via clownprince-of-crime)
