ReviewsNYC Theatre Review: “Adam of the Apes: A Farcical Fusion of Evolution and Creationism!”

Posted on June 21, 2011 by Theresa Basile

During the summer, I volunteer at a summer camp for children with disabilities.  I serve as part of the Activities staff, a group that arranges activities and performances for the campers.  We meet several times a year to discuss themes for activities, and sometimes we get a bit silly.  If someone comes up with an idea that seems hilarious to us, but we know would not translate well to anyone who didn’t understand the inside joke, we describe the idea with four simple words: “High concept, low payoff.”

On Saturday night, I saw a production of Adam of the Apes: A Farcical Fusion of Evolution and Creationism! at Haberdasher Theatre Inc. (website here), and I was strongly reminded of our camp catchphrase: “High concept, low payoff.”  Written by New York City playwright Oliver Thrun and directed by Joshua M. Feder, Adam of the Apes has a fascinating premise.  It desperately wants to be an irreverent, edgy play, but it falls just short of “edgy” and lands uncomfortably in the land of “predictable.” Continue reading →

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Blog PostsLessons in Funny Feminism from My Father

Posted on June 19, 2011 by Theresa Basile

Continuing with my tradition of writing about my family members on Mother’s Day and my brother’s birthday, I want to take some time to talk about my father.  When I look at the ways both men and women are negatively affected by sexism and gender-based expectations, I feel luckier than ever to have grown up with a father like mine.

My dad is a man who would never use the term “babysitting” to describe spending time with his own children.  Even if I couldn’t put this feeling into words when I was growing up, I knew that my dad read stories with me (usually pages from the Calvin and Hobbes comics, or the Ramona Quimby books) because he enjoyed it and relished our father-daughter bonding.  I see the same affection when he takes one brother swimming at the YMCA every weekend, and helps my youngest brother train for sports or coaches his soccer team.  He spends quality time with each one of his children and gives us all the same attention, even with one of them out of the house.  I’ll email him chapters from my yet-to-be-published novel knowing that he’ll read them and give constructive feedback as soon as he has time for it.

Looking back, I also see how it helped me to have a father who embraced stereotypically feminine roles around the house.  More often than not, it was my dad, not my mom, who picked me up from after school programs and Girl Scout camping trips because my mom was usually working shifts at the hospital.  My dad also does the lion’s share of the cooking in the house, whipping up delicious Italian meals or getting culinary ideas from Mark Bittman and Michael Pollan, and sometimes making four versions of the same dinner: the gluten-free dish for the first brother, the sauceless meat-free dish for the second brother, the non-spicy pepper-free variation for my mom, and the original for himself and me (the least picky eaters of the family).  Then we sit down to eat, because you’ll never catch our family sitting in front of the TV, using our phones, or even reading during dinner.  Family dinner time is sacred to my father.  If only four of us are home because I live in a different city now, or three because my mom is working, or two because my youngest brother is involved in a band rehearsal, we still have dinner as a family no matter what.

Now that I am an adult, I also fully appreciate how much my dad openly loves my mother.  Hear him talk about her, and it seems as though no other woman ever existed – which isn’t to say that she doesn’t have flaws, or that he doesn’t notice those flaws, but I know he wouldn’t change anything about her.  I’ve forgotten how many times we’ve had conversations where one of us brings up my mom and he compliments one of her qualities, then she steps into the room and asks what we were talking about, and he makes a harmless joke at her expense.  She pretends to be flustered and rolls her eyes, and my dad winks at me.  I have come to associate teasing and playful ribbing as one of the best expressions of love thanks to their relationship.

Today is Father’s Day.  At my family’s house, this day is often looked on as an afterthought, or known as the day following my brother’s birthday.  Sometimes we joke that “no one cares about Father’s Day” in our house.  But my dad takes it all in good fun and cooks a wonderful meal for his son.  He jokes about feeling neglected, but when I see the fond look in his eye as he watches my brother inhale another dinner, I know he wouldn’t have it any other way.

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Blog PostsLessons in Funny Feminism from My Older Little Brother

Posted on June 18, 2011 by Theresa Basile

The elder of my two little brothers turns twenty-three today.  I will most certainly buy him a present, likely a DVD version of a VHS tape that has worn down by now, but I also want to take a little time to honor him here.  Having a brother with autism has affected my life and my personality in ways that are deeply profound and profoundly deep.

One of the most important aspects of feminism (or at least, how I define feminism) is to examine the idea of privilege, and how the advantages and disadvantages we have from the moment we’re born change and inform our perspectives.  I was aware early in my life that there were certain things I was expected to do and not do because “I was a girl,” but I didn’t start actively thinking about sexism until I was in my teen years.  Much, much earlier than that, I was hyperaware about the challenges and difficulties my brother would face as a person with autism in a world where people are punished for being different.

I never witnessed, and rarely heard of, people bullying or being mean to my brother because he was autistic, but I ran into many well-meaning people who just didn’t get it – and how would they, given that they had never lived with autism themselves?  People told me that they felt sorry for my brother, or asked if there was a “cure” as though autism were a disease that needed “fixing.”  As a kid, I took it all in stride, accepted these well-meaning statements, and wondered if, someday, there would be a cure for his disability.

I don’t remember exactly when I realized that my brother doesn’t need to be fixed.  It wasn’t a single epiphany; more of a long string of realizations that took place over a period of time.  I still have to come to terms with that idea when he’s having an aggressive mood swing, hitting the walls and fighting to keep himself under control, or when I long to have a real conversation with him and he can’t progress beyond a few monosyllabic responses.

But even if I can’t converse with him the same way I would with my parents or my youngest brother, I bond with him in different ways: through tickling and movie references.

My brother loves being tickled.  If he’s in a silly mood, I hold my hands up in little claws and offer to tickle him.  A little twitch forms at the edge of his mouth, just the hint of a smile.  Then he will either say “yes” and hold my hands so that I can’t reach him, or say “no” and then lean closer to me so I can reach him more easily.  It makes him laugh and he likes it, but there’s always a little part of him that’s either afraid of it, or is too overwhelmed by the anticipation of it all.  Then I’ll dive in for the kill, and he’ll laugh and laugh.  Sometimes I hold his arms back so that another person can tickle his stomach and he continues to giggle with anticipation.

I also bond with him through movie references.  Home Alone, Mrs. Doubtfire, The Lion King, Beauty and the Beast, and Toy Story are among the many movies that our entire family has memorized from beginning to end because he’s watched them a thousand times.  (That’s not an exaggeration.  Given his age, the number of days in the year, and the fact that he watches one movie every night before going to bed as part of his routine, I am quite certain that he has seen several movies a thousand times or more.)  Sometimes, when I see that he’s in a silly mood, and see that half-smile forming on his face, I’ll sneak up behind him and do my best Buzz Lightyear impression: “You, my friend, are responsible for delaying my rendez-vous with Star Command!”  His half-smile will break into a huge grin and he’ll say, “You. Are. A. TOYYYYY!” just like Woody.  And then comes more tickling.

My brother is one of my favorite people in the world.  From him, I learned two very important lessons about life and myself:

1) No one has the same experiences, our experiences inform who we are and shape our perspectives, and the world would be a better place if people paused to think, “I wonder where this person is coming from?”

2) Humor is a wonderful tool to bond with others.

Thank you for yourself, little brother.  Which DVD would you prefer for your birthday – Mrs. Doubtfire or Home Alone?

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Blog PostsTrey Parker and Matt Stone: What Equal Opportunity Offenders SHOULD Be

Posted on June 17, 2011 by Theresa Basile

Earlier this week, I explained why I have nothing but contempt for people who use the “equal opportunity offender” defense when they make jokes that are hurtful or reinforce the status quo.  I have even less respect for people who use that defense and try to apologize simultaneously, because in my mind, an “I’m sorry if you were offended” non-apology is even more gutless than no apology at all.  As said eloquently in this post, “No comedy is really equal-opportunity.  Why?  Because our society is not equal-opportunity.  We are not all the same.”

I agree with this…for the most part.  Because despite my firm belief that people who honestly believe that we live in an equal opportunity society have their heads up their asses and have no concept of the idea of “privilege,” I have an enormous amount of respect for two of the biggest and most vocal equal opportunity offenders of all: Trey Parker and Matt Stone, creators of South Park and The Book of Mormon.

There are a few reasons for this.  Right now I’m going to focus on why I love their humor from South Park, because I have a much longer post extolling the virtues of The Book of Mormon that will appear sometime next week. Continue reading →

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Blog Posts“I’m an Equal Opportunity Offender!” and the Elementary School Mentality

Posted on June 13, 2011 by Theresa Basile

So Tracy Morgan is in a heap load of trouble for his homophobic “joke” during his stand-up routine.  In case you haven’t heard, Tracy Morgan “joked” that people who complain about gay bullying are just whining, and if his son whined about gay bullying, he would kill said son.  See, that’s so funny because it’s completely over-the-top and not something that would ever happen in real life, so the absurdity of it all makes it funny!  LOL!

Except not.  There are different schools of opinion about how harmful this is, how much retribution he should face, and how much time we should even spend talking about it.  Me?  I’m mostly disappointed to see this side of a performer I enjoy so much on 30 Rock (hence the “dammit (janet)” tag).  But Morgan’s apology is what interested me the most:

“I want to apologize to my fans and the gay & lesbian community for my choice of words at my recent stand-up act in Nashville. I’m not a hateful person and don’t condone any kind of violence against others. While I am an equal opportunity jokester, and my friends know what is in my heart, even in a comedy club this clearly went too far and was not funny in any context.”

Sigh.

I’ve heard the “equal opportunity jokester/offender” defense before.  I’ve used it myself.  That was before I started thinking more carefully about how I and others use comedy.  It’s really quite simple and easy to say, “Either everything’s a fair target for humor, or NOTHING IS,” and I used to live by that rule.  Now, I believe that comedy and the debate over “fair targets for humor” is a lot more complex and nuanced than a simple all-or-nothing, black-and-white rule.

But I’ll talk more about those nuances at another time.  Right now, my eyes are still pointed to the top of my head.  See, when I heard Morgan’s apology, my eyes rolled so hard that they got stuck.

“I’m an equal opportunity jokester/offender.”  I’m still amused at how many comedians, how many people, use that excuse and think they’re being oh-so-clever and “edgy” – or even better, egalitarian.  (Martin Luther King, Jr. would be so proud; that’s TOTALLY what he was talking about in his “I Have a Dream” speech.)  They make jokes that rely on tired stereotypes and cliches and then claim to be edgy and original, and then they defend themselves by pretending to be “equal opportunity jokesters.”

Well, equal opportunity jokesters, I have news for you.  You likely have many friends and fans who appreciate you for “telling it like it is!” (e.g. “repeating the same stereotyped shit that’s so old it’s practically fossilized”), but there are others, like me, who are not impressed.

You want to know why?

Every time I see or hear you make a “joke” like this, I no longer see your face.  I no longer hear your voice.  You cease to exist to me as an individual.  Your individual personhood vanishes before my eyes, and all I see in front of me is a third grader who squints hir eyes, flops hir hand, beats said hand against hir chest and makes a “DUHHH” sound in a crude impersonation of someone who has a disability.

Basically, you’re no more original than the kids on the playground who made fun of the retards.

How does that feel?

Or hey – maybe I just don’t get your sophisticated humor.  Tell me another gay joke – one I haven’t heard before.  I bet it’s hilarious.

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Blog PostsFemale Character of the Fortnight: Turtle Wexler

Posted on June 11, 2011 by Theresa Basile

I am halfway through reading Alan Bradley’s The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie, a very clever (sometimes TOO clever) mystery starring a plucky eleven-year-old sleuth named Flavia deLuce.  While I’m enjoying the book so far and Flavia is a quite witty, clever character, I sometimes find her cleverness a little off-putting.  She seems a little too perfect, and I find myself comparing her a little unfavorably to my all-time favorite mystery character, one thirteen-year-old Turtle Wexler from Ellen Raskin’s The Westing Game.

Name: Tabitha-Ruth “Turtle” Wexler (sometimes called Alice, later T.R. Wexler)

Why She Rocks: Turtle, a stock market whiz and budding financial genius, could write a how-to book about investing money, but she could also pen a book called How to Win Friends and Alienate People if she wished, because she’s equally good at both.  No one in Sunset Towers seems to have a neutral opinion about Turtle.  She’s either an angry, braided brat who kicks people in the shins when they annoy her, or she’s an amusing little scamp who just needs a friend and a parental figure.

Turtle’s longing for a parental figure can be traced to the alienation she feels from her actual parents.  She and her father Jake seem to have a loving relationship, but they don’t seem particularly close, and she and her mother Grace are constantly on the outs.  Grace outwardly favors the elder daughter, the beautiful and “perfect” Angela.

This blatant favoritism could easily throw a wedge in the relationship between the two sisters, but in fact, the sisters seem closer because of it.  Turtle recognizes that Grace’s expectations are damaging Angela more than helping her, and while she resents the favoritism, she doesn’t resent Angela herself.  In fact, Angela is the only person who can tug on Turtle’s precious braid and get away with it; everyone else gets a swift kick in the shins.  Turtle is incredibly protective of Angela and actively dislikes her sister’s fiance, a plastic surgery intern named D. Denton Deere.  Whether Turtle hates Deere because she knows Angela isn’t ready to get married, or because she doesn’t want someone taking her sister away from her, is unclear, but I get the sense it’s a combination of both.

Turtle’s need to be close to an adult surfaces in her relationships with the Sunset Towers doorman, Sandy McSouthers, and the dressmaker, Flora Baumbach.  She and Sandy share a love of jokes and humor and they bond very quickly.  She and Flora Baumbach are paired together in the Westing Game.  Having once wished to be paired with the handsome Doug Hoo, Turtle quickly bonds with Flora, calling her “Baba,” and finding the mother figure that she always craved.  But Turtle can still be petty and spiteful.  She can’t bear to hear Baba talk about her dead, mentally retarded daughter Rosalie without having a fit of jealousy.

To talk too much about Turtle’s growth would spoil the ending of The Westing Game, so I’ll just say that she proves herself to be more quick-witted and insightful than many of the adults around her, without ever coming across as a too-perfect, stereotypical “spunky girl” character.  When I read this book as a sixth-grader, I zipped through it even when my teacher warned us not to read ahead.  Part of my fascination was with the mystery itself and the many, many complex characters, but I also just wanted to be Turtle Wexler.  I imagined myself starring in a movie version of The Westing Game so I could play Turtle.  At twenty-six, I still want to be Turtle a little bit.

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ReviewsFeminist Thoughts on ‘The House Bunny’

Posted on June 7, 2011 by Theresa Basile

A few days ago, I rented a movie called The House Bunny:

And now half of my readers are wondering, “…Why, exactly?”

Well, I’ve always liked Anna Faris.  I thought she was funny in Scary Movie, I liked her in Lost in Translation, and I even sat through some of The Hot Chick when it was on TV because I saw she had a big part in it.  (I singled out Take Me Home Tonight as a movie I wouldn’t see in the theater, but I’ll enjoy it as a rental.)  I also suspected that the movie might be more feminist than it came across.

Okay, no, I didn’t.  I watched it just for Anna Faris.  She has a quality that draws me to her and makes me like her so, so much.  A different actress in this part would’ve made me roll my eyes, change the channel, and forget this movie existed.

Because I did watch it, I have feminist thoughts about it, and one thought about the comic aspect of the movie.  Continue reading →

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Blog PostsWhy I’m Not Laughing About Anthony Weiner

Posted on June 6, 2011 by Theresa Basile

I can laugh about almost anything.  I do laugh about almost everything.  There’s very little that happens in my life that I can’t laugh about.

The Anthony Weiner scandal is not one of those things.

It should be easy to laugh about Anthony Weiner, right?  The subject is ripe for comedy.  Yet another politician thinks that he can get away with being a cheating sleazebag, and better yet, this politician happens to have a very funny last name that can be used to make all sorts of jokes that are just begging for a “That’s what she said!”

I love “That’s what she said.”  I almost called this blog “That’s What She Said,” because I’m a woman, and I talk a lot.

But this issue is a lot bigger than a simple act of a politician cheating on his wife and being exposed.  This issue affects many more people than just Weiner himself.  Why can’t I find this funny, or simply brush this off as another asshole politician with his pants caught down?  Continue reading →

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Blog PostsA June Movie that I Won’t be…I Mean…I Just…I Just Can’t.

Posted on June 1, 2011 by Theresa Basile

I saw this trailer and I just…I just can’t.

.

The movie is called Bad Teacher.  I hardly know where to begin.  But I’ll try.

Why is this movie necessary right now?  Just…why?  Why do we need a movie like this in our lives?  We live in a country where teachers are scapegoated for every problem facing Our Nation’s Children (oh, and it’s also our fault that people are unemployed, because UNIONS and SOCIALISM).  And now we have a movie where Cameron Diaz falls asleep on her desk, writes insulting comments on student papers, throws basketballs at students’ faces during gym class, and is generally inappropriate and awful…so why hasn’t she been fired?

Ooh, ooh, I know why!  I bet it’s because of tenure!  That system that protects teachers from being fired without due process is ACTUALLY an evil evil thing that protects bad teachers from ever getting fired ever!  And that’s why Cameron Diaz still has a teaching job, I’ll bet!

*headdesk*

Onnnnnn the other hand, what’s this I see?  A subplot involving teachers turning against each other and competing to get the highest student test scores all for the sake of bonus money?  Hmmm.  HMMM.  Now, this could be another way of showing that teachers are BAD and all about the money…or it could be a criticism of the system that encourages teachers to put competition and system-gaming ahead of the needs of the children (because that’s exactly what merit pay does).  From the trailer, it would appear that even the “good” teachers get caught up in the battle for the bonus.  Maybe this teacher-blaming movie is actually a subversive film that exposes the flawed educational system in the United States!

Or maybe I’m putting way too much thought into this, and the writers haven’t thought either way about tenure vs. merit pay, and the movie is really just an excuse to write a “dark” comedy about a sacrosanct subject.

That’s probably the case.  Who knows?  This movie could be a breath of fresh air after films like Ron Clark Teaches Freedom Writers (in the Blackboard Jungle) with Dangerous Minds How to Stand and Deliver About Dead Poets and Mona Lisa Smiles.  I’ve said before, and I’ll say it again, that all subjects should be ripe for comedy.

But even though I believe that everything and everyone should be fair game as subjects for comedy, I take offense at the way certain topics are portrayed.  I might have problems with this movie’s execution.  Louis Peitzman makes a great point in his blog post about the movie:

“…If the trailers are any indication, this movie is broad—like, really broad—which means more jokes about teachers saying naughty words and less intelligent commentary on a fucked-up institution. It’s a real shame that I don’t trust a major studio comedy to be edgy without pissing me off, but they haven’t exactly given me a lot to work with. I just assume that the jokes about teachers (and women and queer people) won’t be funny—they’ll offend me not because of their existence, but because they’ve found nothing new to say. Most of these movies find humor in the same stereotypes; after all, that’s what makes the majority of the country laugh. So when I see the trailer for Bad Teacher and sit there all frowny-faced, it’s partly because I think there could be a good comedy somewhere in there. Just because the concept is contentious doesn’t mean it wouldn’t work in more deft hands.”

Very well said.  I have a bad feeling about this.

But I’m going to see it anyway.

I can’t help it.  I’ll probably hate myself afterward and I might have to drink a lot beforehand, but the subject is too personal for me and my sense of morbid curiosity is too high to avoid it.  I’ll be seeing this opening night.  In fact, this could make an excellent evening for me and my other teacher friends: watch Bad Teacher and rent Waiting for Superman and decide which movie is a worse representation of our profession.

You know what’s sad?  I’m leaning towards Bad Teacher as the less offensive of the two.

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Blog PostsWriting Rehab: How to Fix Glee’s Female Characters (and also Finn)

Posted on June 1, 2011 by Theresa Basile

Another season of Glee has passed, and after another year of frustratingly nonsensical storylines and characterization that changed with every episode, I am almost ready to throw in the towel.   Almost.  Unfortunately (and fortunately), this show has me hooked but good as long as Kurt, Santana, and Blaine are around.  If I could, I would request a “queer characters only” edit of season 2.  Alas, the technology has not yet been invented.

I wish I could quit Glee.  I really do.  Two aspects of the show’s writing really grate my cheese: 1) the nonsensical storylines/characterization and 2) the portrayal of the female characters.  Now, I can forgive ridiculous plot contrivances as long as the comedic payoff is strong.  Season 1’s “Vitamin D” is still one of my favorite episodes, in spite and because of the complete lack of realism involved in making Terri the school nurse.  I didn’t care that Terri would never be able to become a school nurse in real life because the kids bouncing around and singing while hopped up on goofballs was hilarious and one of the best satirical episodes the show has ever done.  This year, the plot contrivances led to ridiculous, pandering theme episodes (the Britney Spears tongue-bathing, the Rocky Horror tribute) or sentimental manipulative garbage (let’s kill off Sue’s sister because we don’t know what else to do with this character!)  I don’t expect realism as long as the emotions ring true and/or the episodes are funny, but too many episodes this year fell short for me (“Blame it on the Alcohol” being a hilarious exception).

Then we have the women.  Oh boy.  I can’t tell you how many times the writing for the female characters (and Finn) has annoyed me this year.  Instead of writing a long complaint, though, I’ve decided to take a more positive approach and provide possible solutions.  Here are my suggestions for improving the writing of the female characters of Glee (and Finn). Continue reading →

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