MONDOmagazine

By Denise Liu

Reid Fleming: World’s Toughest Milkman, vol. 1
David Boswell (w+a). IDW, 2010.

Read if you like: slapstick, Comix, complete obscenity, local authors, anti-heroes

As a retail industry worker, I have, at least once a day, the fanciful wish to act like an utter asshole and get away with it. Disposing of — not dispensing — pleasantries. Saying and doing exactly what’s on your mind, employment be damned. The incredible torment that Reid Fleming doles out makes him my hero. He is a jerk that makes his own trouble and yet always beats the odds. I think that it is precisely the recurring improbabilities of Reid’s world that creates an astonishing and delightfully violent atmosphere, where no one gets (permanently) hurt and we do the same song-and-dance only a little differently each time.

The Jist: A hell-bent, chain-smoking alcoholic milkman with superhuman strength terrorizes everyone on his route. Dumping milk into a customer’s live fish tank, or crashing his truck almost constantly is the least he can do to give his supervisor, Mr. Crabbe, an aneurism. Both bully and hero (depending on the colour of your collar), Reid Fleming is a most peculiar and endearing jack-ass. Volume One is a collection of several individual books and strips originally published since 1978 (Deep Sea Comics, Eclipse, Dark Horse), including full-colour covers from each. Remember when dialogue text was hand-written neatly? Yeah. Read the rest of this entry »

In this article ,”conservative” is used synonymously with “prejudiced.” A double-edged sword?

By Ben Robinson

Two weeks ago, I wrote an article with some questionable humour in it. A reader named Dasha posted a comment that said I had crossed the line. I had offended Dasha. That was not my intent. Here is what I wrote:

“Maybe if you had said you had just hit your girlfriend because she wouldn’t shut up about being on her period, you would be allowed to continue to exist spiritually with your brethren, but owning a blog — and what’s worse, advertising its existence — were capital crimes.”

This is Dasha’s response:

“Good point about blogging; I agree. Although I’m not at all crazy about the reference to violence against women as an acceptable conversation topic. It is my understanding that this was a joke, but it was a stupid one indeed, one that might alienate a sizable portion of your audience. Keep that in mind, son.”

The point of my paragraph was that violence against women is unacceptable. More accurately, the point was that talking about it is unacceptable. When writing this, I thought to myself, “What is something one could say that would be so shocking that one might not be allowed to continue to speak?” Violence against women sprung to mind. I did not mean to imply that violence against women, or talking about violence against women, is acceptable. I meant to mention something taboo as a way of illustrating how taboo blogging was. The joke was that blogging isn’t as bad as violence against women. The joke was not that violence against women is funny.

Inside the joke about how talking about violence against women is unacceptable, a joke is made about violence against women that is unacceptable, and the unacceptable nature of the joke within the joke is what makes the main joke humourous. I apologize that reading my article brought up something that evoked such a negative reaction in Dasha, and possibly other readers. My intent was not to offend. I encourage more comments about how I sometimes cross the line and how I can prevent myself from doing so in the future.

I consider myself a comedy junkie. I watch a lot of comedy. A relatively new style of comedy that I have noticed in the past ten years is something I will refer to as “The Double-Edged Sword.” This may be a very old technique, but I have only noticed it in comedic media that has appeared since the late ’90s. The Double-Edged Sword is a bipartisan style of humour that typically deals with political correctness. In my mind, it was pioneered by Trey Parker and Matt Stone, creators of South Park. It was also employed by The Man Show and to a lesser extent other youth-oriented comedy shows such as Politically Incorrect, Sara Silverman, SNL, and MadTV.

How it works is this: someone says something blantently racist, sexist, or homophobic as a joke. To liberals, the joke is funny because the joke is so offensive. The butt of the joke is the teller of the joke. The fact that the teller is being unashamedly racist, for example Cartman in South Park, is funny because racism to liberals is seen as a sign of stupidity. It is a form of slapstick. On the other hand, to conservatives, Cartman is funny because he’s being racist, and the butt of the joke is the category of people Cartman makes fun of. Both liberals and conservatives laugh at the same joke, for different reasons.

In my opinion, what politicizes the joke is the person telling it. It seems to me, most comedians who use The Double-Edged sword are liberals. That’s how the sword gets its two edges. If a conservative told a Double-Edged joke, it would be purely racist, sexist, or homophobic. The true intention of a Double-Edged joke is to make fun of prejudiced views. The power of the Double-Edged joke is that no spin is necessary, a straight telling of the old kind of joke is funny because it is ironic.

If I may be so bold, I told a Double-Edged joke in my blogging article. I think a lot of people tell these Double-Edged jokes, but they are usually apolitical. For instance, if you act like a baby, and try to make someone laugh the exact same way a baby would, that is funny both because baby humour is genuinely funny, and because you are not a baby, so you are making fun of the baby. The goal of these jokes is to make the original edge of the joke seem stupid. If you are Cartman, you are making racism stupid by being racist. If you are a baby, you are making babies stupid by being a baby. Or more accurately, you are making adult baby-aping behaviour seem stupid and unacceptable outside the confines of a joke.

Perhaps this kind of joke is dangerous. Maybe it shouldn’t be done, because the wounds are still fresh. But I believe The Double-Edged Sword has an important place in modern comedy. I believe it is an effective tool in combatting prejudice. In the future I will try to make more clear whose side I am on when using this humour. And I apologize if just reading about abuse against women was offensive. I apologize for your hurt feelings. I guess what I’m trying to say is, I want to be on your side.

Alias Godot
Written by Brendan Gall, directed by Richard Rose
Runs April 2 – June 1, 2008 @ Tarragon Theatre Mainspace (30 Bridgman Avenue)

By Daina Valiulis

If you like watching guys taser each other, slap each other around, dress in drag and lose their pants, there might be something in this play for you. Oh yeah, and if you’re into existentialism and deep thought, there’s that, too. Based on Samuel Beckett’s Waiting for Godot, new Canadian playwright Brendan Gall’s Alias Godot provided a night of fulfilling existentialism. Wait. What?

The play centres on detectives Vince (David Ferry) and his dim and sympathetic partner Eddie (played brilliantly by Paul Braunstein). Unlike Beckett’s mysterious Godot, Gall’s version (played by Alon Nashman) is present and, from the minute he runs onstage, chasing his bowler hat (a nod to Beckett), doesn’t leave.

Nashman plays an excellent Godot, appearing innocent, whimsical and bumbling, but also mysterious and menacing, subtly exerting his control over situations and characters without their knowledge. He reminded me of a twisted Mr. Bean – funny, but also strangely dark. Godot mostly observes the action on stage throughout the play, and it is fascinating to watch Nashman’s facial expressions in reaction to his fellow performers. I wondered if he was amused by his colleagues or he was meant to appear on the verge of bursting into laughter. Either way, it worked.

And it looked like the actors were having a blast during all the purely ridiculous situations and slapstick scenes (another nod to Beckett). While I love the idea of having physical comedy in a play, at times it could have been executed more precisely and more quickly: more violent and better offsetting the comedy. Sometimes it seemed obvious that someone was about to throw a punch or take a hit.

The set was impressive: a scuzzy light-blue interrogation room with a sharply sloped stage and angled walls, much like looking into a box. A two-way mirror on the back wall reflected the audience’s faces – an effective claustrophobia, isolating and creepy. Lighting began with a stark and revealing fluorescent effect in the beginning, descending (along with the characters) into a creepy putrid yellow. A halo of light shone over Godot throughout the show, emphasizing his importance and mystery.

Ultimately, a success. Alias Godot was like a chew toy for my mind, and I left with more questions than answers. Who is Godot really? God? In its day, Beckett’s version drew similar questions. (He denied Godot-as-God ever being a conscious choice.) What is Godot’s mission? What is the audience meant to take away? Are we all essentially alone? Do yourself a favour: watch this play with some buddies, laugh lots, then head out for a beer and discuss. It’s that kind of show.

Tights, Tutus, Tiaras…Chest hair?!

By Leandra de Valois-Franklin

Last weekend Toronto’s dance audience had the pleasure of attending one of two fabulous sold-out performances of Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte Carlo, January 19^th & 20^th at the Elgin Theatre. The Trocks, as they are affectionately known, are a world-renown New York City based all-male ballet company that has, since 1974, performed parodies of classical ballets en travesti (in drag). One of the few comedy companies in the world, including Les Ballets Grandiva (also from NYC), the Trocks model themselves after the old great Russian Ballet companies of the 1930s, whose glamorous but narcissistic ballerinas would attempt to upstage one another. The Trocks’ absurd slap-stick homages succeed in maintaining the integrity of the original work while bitch-slapping its elitist stereotypes right in its faux-lashed face.

The varied programme of satirical interpretations of Les Sylphides, Go For Barocco (an adaptation of Balanchine’s Concerto Barocco), and Paquita, was preceded by a pre-performance introduction in an exaggerated Russian voice announcing cast changes, including Svetlana Lofatkina replacing the injured Natasha Notgudenov. The announcer also warned that “all our ballerinas are in vyery, vyery good moods this afternoon!” The show began with a comic rendition of Fokine’s abstract ballet revolving around the popular figure of the sylph. The dancers subvert the original choreography with outrageous catastrophes; one sylph falls onto his/her face and another sleepwalks right offstage!

The highlight of the production was former National Ballet of Canada member Joshua Grant’s feather-shedding performance as Katarina Bychkova performing the beloved solo of the Dying Swan, appearing more like the executed cock, leaving a trail of bird carnage onstage. The flamboyant demonstration of strength and grace kept the audience on its tippy toes in hysterical laughter, and Bychkova swam in applause in an extended reverence which lasted longer than the solo itself.

The third act saw the troupe trade its signature comic approach for an impressive feat of technical skill. Although at times the dancers are indistinguishable from female ballerinas, their acrobatic jumps and fierce fouettes defy expectation, and their virtuosity claims the spotlight so often denied to men in most ballets.

It’s refreshing to see gender reversal in dance not take itself so seriously. These postmodern pomosexual ballerinas add to the general notions of the female iron butterfly, creating a hyper technique like the third sexuality they themselves embody. The Trocks have earned an international following of devoted fans with their high-class drag show, entertaining both knowledgeable and new dance audiences. The Trocks rock, but leave me wondering…how do their tight tutus accommodate those bulging, uh, trocks?