Cartoons, Unions, & Spite

John Waters as a special guest in a Halloween episode of Helluva Boss was truly fucking fantastic and I'm still so delighted that he was there. If I hadn't already been keeping up with the show, hearing the words "John Waters guest starred in an animated horror-comedy about horny demons" would make me start, just to get to that episode.

#HE WHAT

John Waters plays the villain in the new Halloween episode "Ghostfuckers," his character looks exactly like him, and I am so glad to be the one to share this with you.

this is the first time I have ever heard of John Waters and I feel like the outlier here

@godfrey-the-chaos-duck

Oh god are you in for a treat.

he directed the original hairspray (his first movie to break into the mainstream and the only one with a PG rating which says a lot. Also one of only two that people thought would work as a musical that’s appropriate to be performed in high schools).

as far as movies are concerned I recommend female trouble because it’s the closest of his first three big movies actually has to a linear plot. It’s about a girl who ends up modeling for this couple as part of an ‘experiment’ to see if crime can make people look glamorous. By which I mean they have her committing atrocities while they photograph her. They basically predicted true crime before true crime was really a thing.

also it has this exchange in the year 1974

Gator: Ain’t no way; I’m straight. I like a lot of queers, but I don’t dig their equipment, you know? I like women.

Ida: But you could 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.

Ida: I worry that you’ll work in an office! Have children! Celebrate wedding anniversaries! The world of the heterosexual is a sick and boring life!

OKAY SO BASICALLY. QUEER CINEMA ICON

cooool beansssss

I am *so* delighted that someone has learned about John Waters from this post! He's an important figure in American queer media, and I always love when he shows up in things.

For anyone who would like to learn more about him and his work, I highly recommend this video essay from Matt Baume! :)

John Waters as a special guest in a Halloween episode of Helluva Boss was truly fucking fantastic and I'm still so delighted that he was there. If I hadn't already been keeping up with the show, hearing the words "John Waters guest starred in an animated horror-comedy about horny demons" would make me start, just to get to that episode.

#HE WHAT

John Waters plays the villain in the new Halloween episode "Ghostfuckers," his character looks exactly like him, and I am so glad to be the one to share this with you.

😈 You are not bound by the Hays code.

😈 You are allowed to have evil characters who are not punished by the narrative by the end of the story.

😈 You are allowed to have evil characters who win.

😈 You are allowed to have evil characters who make evil look fun and cool.

😈 You are allowed to make your fun, cool evil character the protagonist.

😈 You are allowed to glorify, romanticize and eroticize evil characters and villainous acts.

😈 You are not obligated to teach your audience a moral lesson.

John Waters toking on a John Waters bong.

stop hitting yourself

the existence of a divine feminine implies the existence of a john waters masculine

Seriously though, do most Americans not know that the reason you can mock the shit out of public officials without getting charged for libel is Hustler Magazine? No really. In 1983, Hustler Magazine ran a fake ad that Jerry Falwell (yes, that Jerry Falwell) went to bone-town with his own mother in a dirty outhouse. This was in response to Falwell's Moral Majority, a puritanical organization that tried to put prayer in public schools, ban abortion, ban homosexual acts, ban any 'anti-family' news outlet or magazine, and convert Jews to Christianity. For obvious reasons, Jerry Falwell's Moral Panic PAC (not the actual name it was definitely called the Moral Majority and NEVER represented the majority of Americans) represented a threat to Hustler and its ilk. The ad itself was a parody of a Campari ad that was running at the time, asking people to describe their 'first time'. The original would be a bit risqué and end with people revealing they were talking about Campari, an alcoholic drink, not sex.

In the ad, there is a fake interview wherein Jerry Falwell supposedly confesses to banging his mom in a fly-ridden outhouse while drunk on a Campari based cocktail called a "Fire and Brimstone" after chasing a goat out of the outhouse. The ad concludes with fake Jerry Falwell saying he's always drunk when he preaches and he calls his teachings bullshit. At the very bottom of the ad, in very fine print (too fine to be legible on the image I found of the ad) it tells the reader that this is a parody and should not be taken seriously. Well, Falwell was pissed and took Hustler (and its editor Larry Flynt) to court for libel. From 1986-1988, different courts said yes it was libel or no it wasn't libel until, in 1988, the case made it to the Supreme Court. In an 8-0 ruling, the Supreme Court said 'Yeah, being accused of incest in a parody ad probably hurt Falwell's feelings, but the First Amendment protects free speech that is critical of public officials and public figures.' Without Hustler Magazine writing a distasteful porn parody about a homophobic, anti-woman, anti-semitic man who wanted forced government-sanctioned Christianity to be the state religion of the United States, your free speech wouldn't be protected. Pornographers aren't 'the devil' but our friend John Waters up there is correct. Pornographers protect our rights. Whether you agree with porn or not, if you live in the United States, you ought to thank a pornographer for your free speech and the best way to thank a pornographer is by rallying behind pornographers' rights to exist and distribute porn. So next time someone on any platform comes for the pornographers, remember that you owe the pornographers for your right to mock politicians and other public figures. Thank pornographers and back them up.

he's everything i wanna be...

I think we need some kind of major resurgence in popularity of early John Waters films. This is the best possible antidote to the movement towards a sterilized circumscription of queerness. Get out there and watch something ugly, fucked up, and sincere.

This conversation plays through my head any time I see a “queer is a slur” bullshit post on this site or anywhere, really.

(Homer’s Phobia, 1997 – guest star, John Waters)

john waters was born on april 22 and i think we should make that second weed day, because what is 4/22 but four twenty too?

John Waters is the Mr. Rogers of the filthy queers

I think we need some kind of major resurgence in popularity of early John Waters films. This is the best possible antidote to the movement towards a sterilized circumscription of queerness. Get out there and watch something ugly, fucked up, and sincere.