Help me understand the Rocky Horror Picture Show

[Anonymous]

A PP. RHPS probably falls into the category of "more fun if you are drunk/high" along with Pink Floyd's "The Wall" and lots of 1970's David Bowie entertainment product. Did not find Young Frankenstein funny either.

I've never seen all of "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" but I saw about 20 minutes of it when I was a kid, and I still find the concept of ladies operating a "grail beacon" over their castle to be incredibly funny.

It was weird being an Xer and watching afterschool AIDS specials, primetime dramas about nuclear war, and Nancy Reagan "Just Say No" (to drugs) content while simultaneously being recommended all the Boomer cultural detritus from the unlimited sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll era.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I have never understood the appeal of this movie.

+1 same. It’s incredibly stupid!

Agree. Same with Monty Python. Nowhere near as good as people claim.

How old are you?

[Anonymous]

Where I lived, they had a Saturday midnight showing for years. I went with some college friends once (early 90s).

Although there were a lot of audience members dressed up, the core “performers” were down front, and reenacted the film while it was playing on the screen.

Apparently these core performers had a monopoly on these roles and had done it for years. Talked to a few fellow audience members and they were so sore about it, because they never got a chance to be down front. That stuck with me more than the actual movie all these years, that there was this Rocky Horror hierarchy of performers that had a stranglehold on the juicy roles, and some of the regular audience just seethed about it.

[Anonymous]

It’s the epitome of IYKYK. Can’t really explain it. I haven’t gone in years, and the movie as a stand-alone movie is dreadful (as is Shock Treatment, the sequel). At this point it’s a shared nostalgic cultural experience, and I’m not sure that someone just showing up would get it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I am super into camp and open minded, I swear, and had seen the movie itself several times. So I went to see it in the theater so I could experience the whole crowd phenomenon. I found it to be extremely dated and borderline offensive honestly. They force the “virgins” to do extremely uncomfortable sexual things in front of a jeering crowd - there were a couple of young women who looked like they were to cry. And then the whole time, people (mostly men) would yell things at the screen. Some of them were funny and all of them were well times but many of them were things that would have been funny 20 years ago and now we know better. I would have left if I had thought it was safe - we felt trapped.

The “virgins” is for people new to the movie, not sexual virgins. I don’t really remember what they did at the show in my town but I don’t think it was awful or humiliating. There may have been a chant.

I think the whole experience was very dependent on the particular crowd—I can see it gojng bad if there were some particular a-holes driving the dynamic. I posted above that I saw it in two different college towns—it was great in one and awful in the other. I’m sure that some of the jokes/comments from the 80s would be meaningless today … my impression of the whole thing is that the audience commentary evolved to fit the moment, but that there was some tension there with maintaining the “tradition” and continuity across locations. That’s probably true with any cultural institution, and I think there was an effort to sort of main stream it more some years ago that may have effectively killed the organic component to it. It was, I think, unique in being a movie that had been essentially rewritten by the audience through an evolving crowd-sourcing. Sort of a throw back to the way entertainment was prior to widespread literacy, where crowds would change and adapt a play as it moved through the geography and time. Someone had probably written a PhD thesis on this!

[Anonymous]

You don’t have to “understand” art that other people enjoy, and we don’t have to “help you understand” anything, sweetie.

[Anonymous]

When I attended RHPS as a "virgin" 35+ years ago they brought us to the front of the theater and "auctioned" us off somehow (crowd cheers?) to go sit with people other than who we came with. No biggie. If you didn't want to do it, you didn't have to identify yourself as such.

The front performers at the show I went to (probably about 4-5 times as a college freshman) were drama students from a neighboring college.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am super into camp and open minded, I swear, and had seen the movie itself several times. So I went to see it in the theater so I could experience the whole crowd phenomenon. I found it to be extremely dated and borderline offensive honestly. They force the “virgins” to do extremely uncomfortable sexual things in front of a jeering crowd - there were a couple of young women who looked like they were to cry. And then the whole time, people (mostly men) would yell things at the screen. Some of them were funny and all of them were well times but many of them were things that would have been funny 20 years ago and now we know better. I would have left if I had thought it was safe - we felt trapped.

Oh it's all incredibly offensive! Rocky being created to be a s** slave - but he's also basically a newborn baby. Eating Meatloaf. I mean there's nothing about this movie that isn't transgressive and wrong.

I've probably been to 30 screenings of RH in my life - most recently at a theater where they had performers acting it out as the movie was playing - and I've never seen anyone "forced" to do anything for hte crowd, though. I don't even know how you'd force someone to do anything.

It's just fun, though. As bad a movie as it is, as offensive as parts of it are, the experience of it is fun. If you don't find it fun, I'm not sure you can be talked into it.

I think that's it. Some of us think all that is stupid and not fun. Others don't and return to do it over and over again. That's really the only thing OP needs to understand.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You don’t have to “understand” art that other people enjoy, and we don’t have to “help you understand” anything, sweetie.

Not OP, but can you "understand" someone being curious?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You don’t have to “understand” art that other people enjoy, and we don’t have to “help you understand” anything, sweetie.

Your condescension is over the top for a movie that many would argue is not art. And is pretty terrible and in some ways very offensive.

[Anonymous]

I went a couple times while in College in the mid 90s. There were performers up front acting along with the movie & pulled some of us up to do it with them. I had never seen it before & still felt like I hadn’t after that because I was up there with them the whole time. We had no idea what to expect, so thought it was pretty hilarious & unlike anything we had ever done. We went back once more for other friends to experience it, but it wasn’t as fun after knowing what to expect & watching more of the movie itself.

Interesting reading the responses though because I assumed that there were always performers up front reenacting it since that’s how it was both times we went.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You don’t have to “understand” art that other people enjoy, and we don’t have to “help you understand” anything, sweetie.

I think "art" is pushing it, no?

[Anonymous]

Yeah it’s definitely about the communal experience. I went to grad school in Cleveland and they had a big weekly Saturday night at midnight production. And of course, we used the actual Plain Dealer and not just any newspaper during the rain scene, which lent authenticity everyone loved.

I randomly saw this documentary about it on YouTube a few years ago. It’s long, but worthwhile if you’re interested in its history and impact.

[Anonymous]

I don't think this is a phenomenon that can be explained. Just go, and you might think it is the coolest thing in world, in which case you go again, or you might leave scratching your head wondering why you wasted time on it, in which case don't go again.

I do wonder how it has aged; I went a lot in the late 80s -- it showed every Sat at midnight at our college town arthouse movie theater. It would get rowdy sometimes and they had to start threatening to prosecute anyone who brought rice in as it was damaging to the screen, but it was so much fun.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You don’t have to “understand” art that other people enjoy, and we don’t have to “help you understand” anything, sweetie.

Ugh, the smug "sweetie" poster arrives. Go away.