There Ought to be (more) Clowns!

Here I am to pay tribute to even more marginalized mimes and pranksters from Pop Culture that hold a place in my heart. Pretty quickly after compiling the first list I thought of a bunch more examples of these candy-colored crusaders that excite and inspire me - because these are really the only kindsa things I think about. (Don't be surprised if this isn't the last list.) Honk! Honk! 

- Paul

Marie and Michelle

Requiem For a Vampire

The film opens with these two young ladies, dressed as clowns, being pursued in a car chase/shootout. We're never really made aware as to who is chasing them or why, or why they're dressed as clowns, but everything considered amounts to what is maybe the greatest movie opening of all time - or at least one that seems to've been custom-made for me. 

Jangles the Clown

Inside Out

He's meant to be scary -- actually he's a manifestation of deep, dark fears (and coincidentally shares a scene with Bill Hader). But he obviously doesn't come across as too terrifying in this PG Pixar movie (I guess he'd count as a "mild thematic element"), and instead has an otherwise lovable dopiness about him that feels more like the foil from older Disney films; he very much gives the same mood as the giant from 1947's Mickey and the Beanstalk.

Sticky the Clown

Married... With Children

Hired by Peg as a surprise for Bud's 18th Birthday party, Sticky is a former TV Clown who's just been paroled from prison as part of a work release program. His props include a flask of hard liquor and a hunting knife. Other than that, the only thing we know about him is that we shouldn't confuse him with a clown who given a damn. 

Sex-Head and Death-Head

31

The World of Rob Zombie leaves us no shortage of clowns, but I feel compelled to pay homage to this natural born killer couple who seem to love each other as much as they love stabbing people. Obviously my big draw here is E. G. Daily in clown drag, but I wanna give extra recognition to Torsten Voges who's made a career out of weaponizing his German accent to comic crescendos, from Lords of Salem to Seinfeld to Big Lebowski ("I fuck you!").

Buttons the Clown

The Greatest Show on Earth

Two important elements that haven't come up very much on my lists are The Circus, and "The Tragic Clown", and this movie has both of those covered. Despite his otherwise recognizable physicality, Jimmy Stewart is completely disguised in the role (until he speaks of course). Really the main draw is the fashion: the raggedy button-down and fedora combo of his off duty wardrobe feels like an overlap of Silver Age Joker and the Heath Ledger version.

Johnny Clay

The Killing

Let's face it: "clowns as gangsters" is undeniably cool. But the wonderful contrast here is that there's nothing bubbly or jovial or clownish about Sterling Hayden in general, and if anything he's even more stern and grumbly once he puts on the mask. But again, this one's all about style for me: the whole ensemble with the gloves and the gun and the almost expressionless mask is a Halloween costume goal. Or just to wear around the house or to Target or wherever. 

David Bowie

"Ashes to Ashes"

I'm definitely of two minds on the idea of "The Music Video". On the one hand, I've found them to be the richest example of what filmmaking and the moving picture can achieve. On the other hand, I find it inconvenient that so many of them dominate the imagery in my head when I hear certain songs. Having said that, I can't hear one note of this song without picturing Bowie in his Pagliacci-inspired getup. 

Steve Mahanahan's Child Clown Outlet

Tim & Eric Awesome Show Great Job

I haven't addressed too many "creepy clowns" because meh. But one of the joys of this recurring sketch is its very unsettling subtext; beneath the enthusiastic veneer of business owner Steve Mahanahan is a grim darkness that certainly involves kidnapping, abuse, and probably some kinda trafficking situation. If all of that's too disturbing, they've got fudge!

Doo Doo the Clown

Billy Madison

It took me years to warm up to this movie, and when my snobbery finally lifted it was due, in part, to Doo Doo. It was during its one millionth broadcast on TV, a little over two thirds into the film when the entire cast bands together for a Busby Berkeley song & dance sequence and its sorta brilliant absurdity finally and wholly sank in on me, and its peak surrealist moment was when the barely-referenced Doo Doo the Clown sings a verse to assure the audience that he is, in fact, not dead. 

Clown Surgeon

Pee-wee's Big Adventure

Like Pee-wee rescuing the snakes from the burning pet shop, I put it off as long as I could; this movie features several spectacular clowns, to the point that I felt it was all just too obvious and easy. But I couldn't resist, and my choice goes to the scary doctor operating on Pee-wee's bike. It's most effective because it's played as a shocking reveal that he's a clown, and it's done mostly with performance (the actor's credit is a mystery) and very minimal makeup. (Again, a very easy but effective Halloween costume idea!)

STATIC SHOTS

Beverly Hills Cop II (1987)

Lazy Lament

Little light left to remind us of before

Heavy cross to carry into tomorrow

I clench my fists and bite the bullet

I think of spit and I'm cold with sorrow

Greater guts have spilled for less

A better time was had by all

Our mishmash of emotions were always aligned

The chicken, the duck, and the walrus was Paul

The expiration for explanation was long ago

The time to grieve is now

This is all for nothing and nobody knows

Why any of this happened or how

Remorse will gnaw and scratch and kick and slap

But not because of what was done

I will ache and obsess and yearn for the chance

I will fight the hunger until there is none

It boils and bubbles and toils and troubles

And tastes like a waiting room ashtray

They say it is better to have loved and lost

But I think that's just something they say

- P

ROGER CORMAN and CHEESE part XX: "Eat My Dust" and Taste of Inspirations Four Meat Brewery Crust Pizza

Roger Corman movies will forever be synonymous with the phrase "Exploitation Cinema" - which was never accidental, nor derogatory. And under that umbrella he explored many (if not most) of the major and minor subgenres: Creature Feature, Sexploitation, Women in Prison, Psychedelic, Teen Deviance, Bikers, and that most indicative of the 1970s, Carsploitation. 

1976 marked the beginning of Corman's relationship with Ron Howard when Roger sent him the script for Eat My Dust. Ron agreed to star in it with the hopes of eventually getting the opportunity to direct a feature for Corman (which ended up being 1977's Grand Theft Auto), but otherwise thought it sounded "terrible;" and described it as a "zany car chase comedy with weak jokes and cardboard characters." In hindsight, that is the literal premise of the picture, and also an unwaveringly objective review. Ron plays Hoover, the son of the town sheriff, who steals a Chevy Camaro from the town's racetrack to impress superficial floozy Darlene. The two of them lead the town on a two-day car chase full of rural California backroads and hick humor and fiddle music. Most of the car stunts are fun and sometimes impressive, and really that's all we're here for. And while none of the jokes are actually funny, it's a much funner hangout to watch a Chase Film that does everything it can to let you know that it won't end in bloodshed; nothing is spoiled by letting you know that they didn't drive Richie Cunningham off a cliff as an analogy for some sociopolitical commentary. Actually, it has a decidedly happy ending that's almost thought-provoking (and for big bonus points takes place on Halloween).

The point of pairing these movies with frozen pizza was always meant to be an obvious metaphor for high quality in low places. But that parallel kinda fizzles when the pizza tries so hard to be classy, which is clearly the case with Taste of Inspirations Four Meat Brewery Crust Pizza. (You get all that?) Sure the pretentious name is off-putting, but the even more unappetizing thing is the bland box it came in; the mandatory closeup of the pizza texture is excusable, but the diminutive serif typeface looks like nutrition facts. To balance out the froofiness we reached down for the lowbrow Four Meat selection, topped with Italian Sausage, Pepperoni, Hamburger, and Bacon. As usual they're all a bit indiscernible when you mash 'em together like that, but the results were actually quite good - and a lotta that had to do with their fancy ass "malted barley crust" they're pushing. (We couldn't organically work in an "Eat My Crust" pun anywhere so consider this that.) But the most remarkable thing is how the actual cooked pizza is identical to the picture on the box. That's a truth in advertising that was almost nonexistent when it came to posters for Roger Corman movies. 

The Movie: C

The Pizza: B

'76 Done Dirt Cheap

Now come. Come, take my hand, and if you dare, sheathe your sword to its hilt. Are you up to it?

I hadn't really intended to do any kinda 1976 Anniversary Retrospective - mostly because it can sometimes get tedious trying to champion the years before I was born; it's a challenge attempting to repackage another generation's nostalgia using a Peter Frampton album and a season of Three's Company as my only tools. So, I went to the movies. Music and sitcoms and World Events can all work together to create a palpable vibe, but my pompous ass will always evaluate the merits of any given year (in the 20th Century) based on its Cinema. And when I laid the flicks of '76 out in front of me, something became startlingly apparent: 1976 was raunchy! 

Lewd. Grubby. Obscene. Exploitation Cinema wasn't even a genre, it was just the tone of the entirety of movies. Think of the most prominent films of that year: Taxi Driver, Carrie, The Omen, The Enforcer, King Kong, Marathon Man. Hal Holbrook as Deep Throat. Gene Wilder in blackface. Peter Finch got so mad he literally died. The Best Picture winner ends with two guys beating the shit out of each other. Kris Kristofferson reprised a role previously inhabited by James Mason. Mainstream movies in 1976 may've just been the apex of what we talk about when we talk about "1970s Cinema": underdogs, antiheroes, alienation, cynicism, revenge, sex, violence, depravity, monsters, and mayhem. And those are just the Award and Box Office Winners. 

Over at the Drive-Ins and Grindhouses and the various seedy "Districts" of metropolitan areas was where the real action was - not because of the content, but because of the budgets. As I just pointed out, gritty realism and taboo subject matter was the mood of most movies at the time, so the smaller stuff wasn't necessarily marginalized for its substance, they simply didn't have the money for a wide release. Ironically, it wasn't until the 1980s, when videotape made everything that much more available, that the cold wave of censorship crashed down onto every artistic medium. It's really only been during this current century that a lot of these "undiscovered gems" have been brought to our attention as they've become readily available (and often meticulously restored), and it's because of that movement that I've been able to get a more full-bodied feel of the supposed Greatest Decade of Film.

It's funny because I find 1976 to be the weakest of the era, in terms of mainstream. But once we begin to veer off the road, even just a little bit, things definitely get more interesting. With a few exceptions, Horror was still stuck in "spooky" mode even after four years following The Exorcist (and eight years after Rosemary's Baby), but there were still some effective riffs in that spirit. And while Jaws ignited the brief (but robust) Natural Horror subgenre, the Slasher really started to take shape (for better or worse). In hindsight, Horror was tame - it was the Comedy and Action and Western and Drama categories that suddenly became saturated in blood and nudity and fire and bullets. (Obviously this is why all the Sex and Crime movies went so hard during this period.) I suppose it's pertinent to point out that STAR WARS would be released the following year, thus creating the abstract equation that fun + optimism = $$. By that measure, 1976 was that darkest darkness before the dawn, when moviegoers supposedly preferred to witness society through a mirror of bleak despair - before the Rebel Alliance came and washed all the scum off the streets. 

- Paul

1. All the President's Men

Admittedly, my favorite movie of the year is the most button-down - but still, with an anti-establishment edge. On the surface, it's a True Crime Biopic without any of the tedious hallmarks you'd find in stuff made today. At base level, it's a circus where we get to watch exposed politicians crumble under the pressure. At its heart, it's some of the coolest actors of the era bantering their way through a William Goldman screenplay - a situation that can only be improved by a Ned Beatty cameo. 

2. Up!

One could say they don't make 'em like this anymore, but the truth is that nobody ever made 'em like this! -- not even Russ Meyer. His ability to design shots and orchestrate edits was evident throughout his entire career, but now he (along with Roger Ebert) was writing material that allowed him to push those abilities to their extremes, giving us a live action dirty comic that defies the laws of nature, sex, and good taste. This is my favorite of his. 

3. Bobbie Jo and the Outlaw

Two young lovers with nothin' better to do. There were at least a few dozen versions of this setup throughout the decade, all with different tones and styles and budgets. This one's played mostly for laughs, but Lynda Carter as Bobbie Jo plays it straight, and her commitment to the bit is what saves the whole show from total schlock (in spite of costar Marjoe Gortner's efforts).

4. Dark August

Traditional storytelling demands that the action should build towards something. The entirety of this movie is just the aftermath of that something, which manifests mostly as demons, real and/or imagined. It's Jacob's Ladder with some Don't Look Now mixed into a rural Vermont setting, which is a pretty accurate depiction of August in general. 

5. Mother, Jugs & Speed

Not a lotta Comedies around this time, and even this one squeezes in a lotta dark stuff that only works in this specific climate. Aside from being legitimately funny, it's blissfully aimless in its narrative, making it a mostly comfortable hangout that helps one to realize just how lame that year's Car Wash really is. 

6. Taxi Driver

I don't wanna waste this space talking about how "important" it is and just say that, subjectively, it's a really neat movie to watch for a teenage boy who's getting into Film. And it's an amazing achievement for a young director and a young actor so early in their respective careers. Since then they've outdone themselves many times over and I continue to look at this as a fantastic early effort (I like Mean Streets more), but if there's something that makes it stand out in Marty's body of work, it's definitely the rough grittiness of the production value that's been absent from his stuff for decades. 

7. The Great Texas Dynamite Chase

Surprisingly the only Roger Corman production on this list, but it's definitely one of the better ones. A gender swap Butch & Sundance yarn wasn't exactly groundbreaking, but the thing that makes it stand out in this genre (or really any movie of this time period) is that it doesn't go out of its way to leave you feeling depressed by the end. 

8. Eaten Alive

Tobe Hooper's followup to Texas Chain Saw was further proof that his strong suit in the 70s was atmosphere - though this was a conspicuous pivot from rough realism into cartoonish pageantry. The colored stage lighting and exaggerated performances make it a lot less scary but a lot more weird; it's totally a vibe. 

9. Alice Sweet Alice

The gradual merger of Italian Giallos and American Whodunnits gives birth to the Slasher Flick -- and so we start to get cool masks. Always noted as Brooke Shields's first screen appearance, but that useless trivia always seems to overshadow any due praise for the remarkable performance of costar Paula Sheppard - for me she's the singular reason to watch this movie. 

10. The Man Who Fell to Earth

The greatest Biopic of David Bowie that will ever get made. In all seriousness, any plot stuff that doesn't involve him, or scenes that he's not in, are the weakest moments of the whole picture.

11. Network

Of all the social commentary of the moment, this one is the most timeless (and also the most clumsily brazen and repetitive with its themes). At its heart, it's some of the coolest actors of the era bantering their way through a Paddy Chyefsky screenplay - a situation that can only be improved by a Ned Beatty cameo. 

12. Drive-In Massacre

The stupid dialogue and stiff acting is maybe funny for a minute but I'm not here for that. I'm here for the gore (which is cheap but creative and excessive) and for the honest-to-god, shot-on-location actual drive-in that so closely resembles the drive-in I grew up attending. If it isn't already, this movie should be a part of The Library of Congress for depicting and preserving such a prominent piece of American Culture. 

13. Carrie

You're laughing? Charlie Cheswick is getting electrocuted and you're laughing? Still waiting for the Hollywood adaptation where Carrie White isn't some objectively gorgeous actress, but that's sorta irrelevant in this hyper stylized De Palma melodrama that makes The Shining feel like Cinéma Vérité; the Prom climax steps away from Hitchcock and closer to Argento, and that's when Brian really dazzles - in any movie. 

14. The Missouri Breaks

What was Colonel Kurtz like in the weeks leading up to his termination? Probably like the violent, crazy sonofabitch he plays here. The scenes between Brando and Nicholson are most fascinating; Jack is supposed to be intimidated, but is it performance or is he truly in awe of The Master? Or is he threatened by someone who's clearly more mad than he? The "Jack Nicholson Western" is a narrow subgenre and this one's my favorite. 

15. The Pom Pom Girls

Major criticism right off the bat: the titular "Pom Pom Girls" receive very little screentime and even less to do with what they get; the five female "leads" mostly sit on the sidelines so the guys can navigate their way through the most laughably macho storylines you could imagine in a Drive-In Sex Comedy. But once again, like the other low budget, lowbrow pulp movies of the moment, it provides the most accurate and nuanced time capsule of this generation that we could ever hope for. That makes it engrossing. 

TRADING CARDS :: That's a BINGO!

A few months back I tried out a new flea market in Londonderry, New Hampshire -- ever since my favorite one folded a few years back I've been on the hunt for a worthy successor. This was not that, but I still managed to walk away with a loot that justified the trip. And within that loot was a serendipitous assortment of mixed media that managed to bring about its own theme. 

Every flea market is populated with tables of junk, and most of those tables have no rhyme or reason within the boundaries of that specific junk. At the Londonderry Flea Market, one man was selling what had to be at least 100 swords of every kind (samurai, medieval, pirate, machete, and whatever other kinds there are) and also a plastic bin containing roughly 100 packs of Pacific Bingo! Trading Cards based on the 1991 TriStar movie. I noted the ironic unevenness of the stuff this guy was selling and I moved on down the aisle - about fifty feet, when I checked out another table that had its own odd assortment: military fatigues, history books (about the military), and an array of VHS tapes - many of which were documentaries (about the military) and one of which was the 1991 movie Bingo!.

I'd never seen Bingo!. (Yes, the exclamation point is part of the title.) All I remembered about its existence was from when I used to watch the Prevue Guide channel for hours at a time and they'd loop the same twelve trailers for the movies premiering on cable that week over and over again - and for a while Bingo! was one of those trailers. Even still, all I remember from that is that at one point someone holds a gun to the dog's head, and that Bingo is also served a subpoena. Needless to say I didn't seek out the actual feature on whatever channel it was airing during its run, and I don't think I've ever heard it brought up in any Pop Culture arenas in the past 35 years. But what I found at the flea market that day in the span of just a couple minutes felt like an opportunity to experience a movie in a fashion similar to the way I experienced them as a kid: see the film, collect the cards. So, I bought the video, then went back to the sword man and bought 6 packs of Bingo! trading cards. 

I let however many weeks go by before I committed an early evening to this whole immersive Bingo! adventure - but I may've been three and a half decades too late. I don't know how much I would've enjoyed this movie when it came out, but that's an almost impossible assessment; on the surface, I could say that I didn't really like these kindsa movies at any age, but now that I've seen it, I can say that there aren't really a lotta movies like Bingo!. Everything considered, I was expecting a tone along the lines of Homeward Bound or Beethoven, or maybe even Free Willy or Flipper, and it's pretty probable that that's what they were aiming for, but the whole thing is also an attempt to satirize that subgenre with a lotta weird and sometimes gross humor, generating an awkwardness that places it closer to something like Mac & Me or maybe even the Garbage Pail Kids Movie; when it tries to be funny it's distressing, and when it tries to be touching it's unnerving. 

Not surprisingly, the overall mood of the movie didn't really translate into the trading cards; opening up all six packs presented an attitude that more closely resembled the one I thought the movie was selling before I saw it: a daring journey, childhood nostalgia, lighthearted hijinks. But now I knew better as I was hip to the sordid subtext of each card. Obviously I didn't accumulate the entire set, but from these packs I pulled five singles that we can use to sorta outline some of the main events of the film - because if you've read this far, why the hell not?

- Paul

#26 "CPR Jump start"

Chuckie lies face down in a river after his older brother has left him there to die. Fortunately runaway circus dog Bingo shows up, pulls Chuckie out of the river, and manages to perform chest compressions until he regains consciousness. Bingo then strips the boy nude to dry his clothes before a bear sends them up a tree where they spend the night. Meanwhile, Chuckie's parents intentionally disregard his absence from home to teach him a lesson about being too attention-starved. 

#54 "The Duke of Franks"

Part of the setup is that Chuckie and his family are moving from Colorado to Wisconsin but they've left Bingo behind, so Bingo is following their trail across states by the scent of Chuckie's urine. En route, the family visits a truck stop restaurant where it's discovered that the chef (Glenn Shadix) is making his hotdogs out of actual dogs. Of course, Bingo eventually shows up and frees all the canines, and then drives a truck into the restaurant with a decidedly unspectacular crash. 

#66 "Saved By The Summons"

Bingo is taken in by a new family after he rescues them from a hostage situation. Because of his involvement, the dog is subpoenaed to testify in court against the kidnappers. I really just had to include this one because it's that one part I remember most from the trailer. I feel like a circle's been closed. 

#73 "Here Comes The Guard"

During the trial, the defense lawyer finds a loophole that incriminates Bingo, and so he's sent to jail. People jail. He has a little prison uniform and everything. This isn't just a quick visual gag, this actually ends up being a main trajectory in the scope of the whole plot. Typically I would applaud such a mix of bravery and madness, but it just comes across as dumb and dull.

#105 "Hoping For The Best"

This is a moment from the last scene of the movie, so spoiler I guess. Every character from the entire film is gathered in a hospital room in a dazed, gleeful anticipation for the reunion of Chuckie and Bingo. It plays out like either a dream sequence, or this is heaven and they're all dead. At any rate, we end on an announcement from Dad that Bingo is to be neutered, because this movie is entirely preoccupied with anything below the waist. 

Blood on the Dance Floor

Come on and get down on it! Tonight we're gonna dance like no one's watching -- and they're not, because they're too busy kung fu fighting. Let's explore the moments when boogying gets brutal and the bullets rip to the sound of the beat. (And for once I'm not including Secret of the Ooze on the damn list.) Burn the mother down, y'all.

- Paul

Collateral

It seems like I'm starting off strong but this is actually the goofiest entry in this lineup. Once guns are ablaze, the crowd starts doing laps with no one heading for the exit. Actually, I think more people join the chaos as it escalates, possibly materializing from the bathroom and the bar(?). In fact, I'm pretty sure you can spot some folks still dancing even at the end of the scene. I admire their dedication to the groove. 

Airplane!

I guess we can call this the second goofiest entry -- but the violence is no joke. Apart from the brawling girl scouts we get a legit stabbing, which in turn designs some new dance moves. These patrons are even more invulnerable than the ones in Collateral. 

The Terminator

It doesn't matter how much Arnold and his scowl stand out in a crowd because everyone's too busy dancing to Ricky Phillips and Tryanglz. Also blending into the ambience of Tech Noir is a big shiny gun with a laser on it. Actually the shootout also lends to the atmosphere. So really, nothing to see here. 

Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan

In lieu of actually storming a New York dance club and fuckin' shit up (which probably would've been cooler), we instead get a tense one on one that ends with a brief but savage thrashing. Oh Eva, your screentime was far too short. 

The Dark Knight

Maybe the greatest lesson in "less is more". This very short scene, in which Batman confronts Eric Roberts, carries the style of the entirety of one of the Schumacher films, but obviously it's much more effective in the framework of the Nolan universe.

Hello Mary Lou: Prom Night II

This entire list could've been twice as long and been all "school dance" scenarios. Instead I settled on one, and it's the one that's the weirdest. À la Freddy's Revenge, Vicki is possessed with the ghost of Mary Lou, until Mary Lou decides to burst out of Vicki's body at the prom. Then it becomes a bit of Carrie, but again, weirder. 

It's a Wonderful Life

Not any real violence here, but there's malicious intent (at least, I used to think that). Stay with me: during the graduation dance, a heartbroken Alfalfa is approached by a nameless instigator who happens to have the key to open the gym floor, revealing the swimming pool underneath. I'd always proclaimed that this guy was Lucifer himself, but really that doesn't make any sense - his actions almost directly bring George and Mary that much closer together. At any rate, this guy was wielding the powers of fate. (Eventually everyone voluntarily jumps into the pool, but he jumps somewhere else.)

Jacob's Ladder

There really isn't a moment in this movie that isn't just generally upsetting, but there are definitely a handful of scenes that are "extra" - winged demon bat grinding to James Brown's "My Thang" is near the top of that list. It's all disgusting and disorienting enough, and then the punchline just ruins your life forever. 

MY POSTER PAST :: part 12

Tonight, we're gonna get Funky -- we're going to briefly explore the history of another poster company. Yes, this is my idea of funkiness, but in more literal terms we're gonna be looking at Funky Enterprises, Inc. - a brand that started strong in the 1970s, and as usual, died out in the 21st Century.

Located in Richmond Hill, New York, they hit the ground running with an inventory that consisted almost entirely of psychedelic art and, most notably, blacklight posters. In fact, if you saw or owned any blacklight posters from the 70s through the 90s, the odds were pretty even that it came from Funky. (I had a few myself, but in my experience blacklight bulbs typically tended to melt every lamp I'd screw them into.)

Their supremacy in the world of "Blacklight Art" was more than enough to secure their legacy in classy home decor, but in the 1980s they gracefully (actually, skillfully) changed with the times by successfully securing the licenses to a ton of music artists. Like, all of them; they offered popular prints for Bon Jovi, Guns & Roses, Metallica, and Ozzy, but they also had the monopoly on recognizable Classic Rock images of Led Zeppelin, Bob Marley, Queen, and The Beatles. 

If a big neon wizard or a picture of David Lee Roth in midair wasn't appealing enough to the youth culture, they also leaned hard into the pinup category, offering tons of tantalizing portraits of oiled bodies of both sexes in various states of undress. By the end of the decade, Funky had dominated the bedrooms and dorm rooms and basements and garages of at least two generations of fine art collectors. And they weren't done. 

I have personal experience with the blacklight trend even though I was a teenager two decades after the height of its popularity, but if you're anywhere near my age then you remember how a gaudy wave of superficial 60s and 70s "retro" nostalgia abruptly became big business in every corner of the culture, and suddenly I found myself in my bedroom behind a beaded curtain listening to "Within You Without You", lit by a 16'' Lava Lamp and a glowing Grim Reaper on my wall. In other words, blacklight ornamentation came back in a big way. Maybe bigger - not that I was old enough to visit a "head shop", but the expansion of this otherwise niche artwork into mainstream retailers and shopping malls (i.e. Spencer's Gifts) made them that much more accessible to minors like me. All they had to do was swap out KISS with Sublime and it was like no time has passed.

Funky's biggest "competitor" (and former Poster Past subject) was O.S.P. Publishing - a company that also put out plenty of posters of music artists and centerfolds, but also had the monopoly on major motion pictures. As far as movies, Funky's involvement was sparse and notable. They had a deal with New Line Cinema, and with that they managed to produce some artwork from Elm Street to Lord of the Rings for public consumption. The other really huge deal they landed was with comic books - both Marvel and DC. So if you remember those big illustrated prints of Superman or various X-Men that had that specific Fox Kids aesthetic to them, they were probably from Funky. In fact, they managed to hold onto the license long enough that they were able to put out a series of prints for the 2002 Spider-Man movie. 

The company's end is tired and predictable: The Internet came along and they dissolved into the ether. Again, not just because the Net killed retailers, but it also wounded the concept of decorating your environment with pictures that would ultimately distract you from... The Internet. Me, I don't march to that beat -- but I did do a quick inventory of what's on my walls right now and sadly I'm currently displaying only one Funky Enterprises print - of New Kids on the Block (though I have an embarrassing amount of Funky brand Britney Spears posters rolled up in my closet). Additionally, I'm currently only showing two O.S.P. posters (Bram Stoker's Dracula and a Dick Tracy Madonna print). But I suppose that makes sense - over the years, the ratio of movies to bands to boobs probably evened out statistically, with Cindy Crawford, Danny DeVito, and Freddie Mercury all vying for my attention. Really nothing's changed. 

- Paul

STATIC SHOTS