The PopCulteer
JuLY 8, 2016
I don’t plan to see the new Ghostbusters movie when it’s released next week. I have many reasons, which I will lay out later in this post, and I realize that I’m late to the party when it comes to commenting on this film on the internet, but there has been a very disturbing twist to the marketing of this movie that needs to be addressed.
The producers, director and Sony Pictures, the studio financing the film, have mounted a bit of an attack campaign, portraying anyone who doesn’t absolutely love this movie as a mouth-breathing, sexist and misogynistic fanboy who has no life, lives in their mother’s basement and only hates the movie because the new team of Ghostbusters are all female.
This is cynical and reeks of desperation. It’s like they know that they have a deficient product, so their only hope is to somehow turn liking the movie into some kind of political cause and then they can trick Social Justice Warriors into shouting down their critics. The viciousness of the attacks has been pretty severe coming from an industry that has spent more than the last decade pandering to mouth-breathing, sexist, misogynistic fanboys.
So for the record, I breathe quite well. I am a happily-married adult who loves and accepts people of all types and while I do love what some folks call “geek culture” (I personally hate the term), I have a pretty well-rounded and full life. I own my own home and I think the idea of an all-female team of Ghostbusters is intriguing, if done right.
It’s that last part, “if done right,” that makes me not want to see this new movie.
Let me explain first, I am a student of comedy. I have been for my entire life. Way back when I was a toddler, before I got into comic books, animation or music, I rabidly devoured comedy of all types. I loved the classic comedy of The Marx Brothers and Jack Benny. I listened carefully to every stand-up comedian on the Ed Sullivan show, from aging Borscht Belt types to then-young Jackie Masons and George Carlins. I never missed the best of the golden age of televison variety shows like The Dean Martin Show, The Carol Burnett Show or Flip Wilson. Before I entered first grade I was well-versed in the political satire of The Smothers Brothers.
As I got older, I was in the front lines supporting Monty Python, National Lampoon, Saturday Night Live, SCTV and anything comedically cutting edge. When Ghostbusters was announced in late 1983, I was geared up for it as a big fan of Murray, Ackroyd and Ramis from their prior work. I really wanted to see their take on the “comedy team vs. ghost” premise that had previously been done by The Three Stooges, Hope and Crosby and Martin and Lewis.
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As always, there is a ton of STUFF TO DO here in Charleston. There is indeed so much stuff that we had trouble fitting it all into our handy little audio guide, which you can hear on The AIR, or you can listen to right on this nifty little link thingy HERE. Your PopCulteer and Mel Larch tell you all about all kinds of stuff, and we sample the music of Hybrid Soul Project, Miniature Giant and J Marinelli, all of whom are playing in Charleston this weekend.
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