| EXAMINER PUBLICATIONS - FEBRUARY 1, 2006 A VIEW FROM THE CHEAP SEATS By Rich Trzupek If It Ain't Broke The big problem with �Brokeback Mountain?� It isn�t the subject matter. It�s not even the title. (�Nice Chaps� would have been more appropriate, don�t you think?) It�s the fact that�in certain quarters�the preceding joke isn�t allowed. Not because it�s admittedly not a very good joke. One could deal with that. Rather it�s because there is no species so cold and humorless than the modern-day ultra-liberal defending an �oppressed minority.� The left considers the gay community a terribly oppressed minority of course. This particular subset�gay cowboys�no one suspected of even existing, much less being the subject of an actual movie. Since cowboys have traditionally represented the ultimate in manliness to mainstream America, there�s an in-your-face element to this picture. �See? Flower-shop owners and art dealers aren't the only ones who are gay. We�ve got gay cowboys! Where�s your precious John Wayne now?� Spinning furiously in his grave one would imagine. The Duke barely had time for scantily-clad dance hall girls. His walk was pretty swishy though... But we digress. Hollywood is falling all over itself over �Brokeback Mountain.� It was a big winner at the Golden Globes and will undoubtedly be equally-honored when Oscar time comes. One suspects that the awards have little to do with the actual quality of the picture�which may or may not be the highest rank. It doesn�t matter. This is a statement picture and the Hollywood elite can not wait to reward statement pictures. Just as they gushed over Michael Moore, they�ll positively wet themselves over Brokeback. Would they do the same if there were a right-leaning flick exposing, say, hypocrisy in the environmental movement, or a liberal politician exploiting the poor? Umm-probably not. To them, not only is it wrong not to pay tribute to Brokeback, it�s a crime to make a joke about it. When one loses the ability to laugh, something is very wrong. Liberals do still laugh, but increasingly it�s the bitter, angry laughter of a group that finds itself more and more out of touch. Nazis are fair game�as they should be�but that�s shooting fish in a barrel. Likewise with the stereotype of the white, cigar-smoking business mogul. And that�s fine too, although the protection of endangered species is supposed to rank high on the lefty agenda. And Republicans? Hoot-man, Republicans are the ultimate in cannon-fodder. No doubt we�ve only ourselves to blame. Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford alone were good for several decades of one-liners. But then there are all of those subjects about which humor is strictly verboten. Cracks about women, the Middle East or envirocrazies are likely to earn a healthy scowl from the left. Some even get upset if you make a Teddie Kennedy joke, and Teddie Kennedy is to political humor what the Hoover Dam is to public works projects. Cracking-wise about �Brokeback Mountain� has joined the list. It�s too important. It�s groundbreaking. It�s a courageous expose of our pretentious society. For God�s sake, it�s a gay cowboy movie. Didn�t Mel Brooks cover this ground in �Blazing Saddles?� If Heddy Lamor wasn�t a repressed homosexual, nobody is. Brokeback may have re-invented the phrase �back in the saddle again� but it certainly didn�t invent it. And there we go, making jokes again. This is bad. One must be endlessly sympathetic and terribly understanding. Nothing less will do. Except that, for the sane majority of us, sexuality�of any kind�is just too silly a subject. When you have naked, sweaty bodies wrestling with each other, making impossible noises, how can you not laugh? When the bodies in question don�t have complimentary parts, the absurd transforms itself into the ridiculous. Add a cowboy hat to the picture and one reaches a Monty Pythonesque level of silliness. The left will never understand that every cause of theirs may not actually be the Most Important Cause In The World. Laughter is not allowed. And that�s too bad. Perhaps, if they lightened up a bit, they�d find that the center would be a tad more sympathetic to their causes. Not that we�re complaining on this end of the spectrum. By all means�continue to be angry and oh-so-serious. All the better for us. |