Baywatch

The(ir) Blurb...

Devoted lifeguard Mitch Buchanan butts heads with a brash new recruit. Together, they uncover a local criminal plot that threatens the future of the Bay.

Contains spoilers!!!

One film that did not include any LGBTQ characters, but did include many jokes relying on gay panic for cheap laughs, is Paramount’s widely panned Baywatch. The first meeting between the male leads, Matt and Mitch, includes a joke about Matt having a “mangina.” The film continues with  jokes about Matt’s hair product being “100% semen based,” how uncomfortable he was to ride on a jet ski behind Mitch while holding on to his waist, and an extended exchange at the morgue where Matt is tricked into touching the genitals of a dead man. Mitch takes a picture and threatens to post it online. Near the film’s end, Matt envisions his female love interest kissing him as he is drowning. It turns out to be Mitch who is blowing air into his lungs, and Matt reacts with angry disgust. However, most audiences no longer find two guys kissing or touching to be inherently weird or worthy of laughter. [Who wrote this crap?!?]

In another scene, Matt and Mitch decide to go undercover to infiltrate the kitchen of a resort. When they meet up, Mitch is dressed in a chef’s outfit, while Matt – rather than wearing a matching uniform - is dressed as a woman (in what is possibly the restaurant’s women’s server uniform) for no apparent plot reason. The entire joke then becomes a visual gag based on a man dressed like a woman, furthering the idea that someone in a dress who looks masculine is just a joke to be laughed at. [Is that not the whole essence of drag?!?]

Juvenile comedies tend to play to the lowest common denominator of what a studio believes an audience will find amusing. Creators – and executives – must learn that appealing to one demographic does not mean the project must belittle or insult another audience. Baywatch has received overwhelmingly negative reviews with an 18% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and flopped at the box office in its opening weekend [Cumulative Worldwide Gross: $176,928,652 is not a flop]. This might be a good time for the studio to reassess what type of content it stands behind before moving forward with a possible sequel, which producers spoke with press about. The film’s poor box office and poorer word of mouth suggest that audiences get these jokes - they just do not find them funny anymore. Other comedies in this same genre – such as Blockers (2018) and Neighbors 2 (2016) – managed to include queer [were they queer? Or, gay? Or, lesbian? Not all LGBT people are queer!] characters without making them the punchline and saw box office success. The producers should look to their example. [Why?]

Well...GLAAD just wants to abolish the First Amendment to the United States Constitution! The idea that anything in this terrible film would/could incite a viewer to violence is, practically, the funniest thing in the whole movie! The writers should have milked it for all its worth!

GLAAD...has your role become that of a censor!?! Wethinks...a tad hypocritical!