{"id":998,"date":"2011-02-24T16:20:39","date_gmt":"2011-02-24T16:20:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mmcgrath.co.uk\/?p=998"},"modified":"2014-06-24T18:14:41","modified_gmt":"2014-06-24T17:14:41","slug":"ufo-the-movie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.mmcgrath.co.uk\/?p=998","title":{"rendered":"UFO: THE MOVIE"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>This issue we descend further into the pits of hell to bring Matrix<\/em> readers the bad and the ugly in science ficton film. Join us as we reach a new level of terror and explore the tortured mind of troubled auteur Roy “Chubby” Brown through his seminal 1993 masterwork\u00a0 U.F.O. The Movie<\/em>.<\/h3>\n

This is just shit, isn\u2019t it?<\/strong>
\nIt certainly challenges one\u2019s preconceptions of what is funny, but I think it is more enlightening to view the film as a post-modern challenge to what we call \u201cthe joke\u201d. Take the opening sequence which features a supposedly humorous conjunction of bare arses and nuns, no one has laughed at anything like that since the 1970s. Assuming, as we must, that a modern performer will be aware of the inherent inanity of such a \u201cjoke\u201d, we are forced to conclude that this is actually a deliberate attempt to create an inversion in our expectations, a post-joke, post-comedic commentary on what it means to be \u201cfunny\u201d in the post-Soviet era.<\/p>\n

So Roy \u201cChubby\u201d Brown isn\u2019t just a leering prick?<\/strong> <\/strong>
\nI think it is possible to see him as forming part of the great tradition of The Fool in motley, hence Chubby\u2019s ludicrous clothing. It is a tradition that has passed down through the generations from the courts of the great kings of the Dark Ages…<\/p>\n

I think you\u2019ve mistaken an idiot for a Fool.<\/strong>
\n…The Fool is perhaps best known today through Shakespearean characters such as Bottom in A Midsummer Nights Dream<\/em>, Touchstone in As You Like It<\/em> and, err, The Fool in King Lear<\/em>…<\/p>\n

Maybe you\u2019re on to something, none of them are funny either!<\/strong>
\n… And had licence to say those things that could not be spoken by others, Fools frequently caused offence by using bawdy language to undermine pomposity…<\/p>\n

But they weren\u2019t just repeating the word \u201cfuck\u201d in the hope of getting a giggle, were they?<\/strong>
\n… and to challenge the powerful. Such traits may all be identified in the work of their modern-day successors, such as Chubby.<\/p>\n

Challenging the powerful? Jokes about women being bad drivers challenge authority?<\/strong>
\nWell, my theory may not be perfect.<\/p>\n

Your theory might not be sane. How do his piss-poor song and dance routines challenge the powerful?<\/strong>
\n\u201cThe Back Scuttle\u201d could be seen as a commentary on… no, you\u2019re right, it\u2019s piss-poor. It\u2019s fucking awful.<\/p>\n

And I suppose the cunning plot in which Chubby is kidnapped by leather-clad feminists from the future who he \u201csatisfies\u201d with his enormous sexual prowess is actually a commentary on the…<\/strong>
\nStop you\u2019ve made your point!<\/p>\n

And the gratuitous nudity is?<\/strong>
\nSigh… a sad attempt to sell the film to compulsive masturbators and teenage boys. Actually, as the second group is a subset of the first, let\u2019s leave it at compulsive masturbators.<\/p>\n

So is there anything good about this movie?<\/strong>
\nThe brief snippit of Gloria Gaynor\u2019s I Will Survive<\/em>\u201d is a rare moment of quality in an otherwise endless sea of shite.<\/p>\n

Thirty seconds of decent music, is that all?<\/strong>
\nWell, it\u2019s only 75 minutes long.<\/p>\n

Does UFO: The Movie<\/em> hold a lesson for fandom?<\/strong>
\nWe should learn that believing that what women really want is the leering, pawing attentions of a sweaty, unfunny fat bloke with awful dress sense probably isn\u2019t funny anymore.<\/p>\n

Tread carefully, for you tread on my dreams.<\/strong>
\nWanker.<\/p>\n

(Originally published in Matrix <\/em>176, Sept\/Oct 2005)<\/h5>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This issue we descend further into the pits of hell to bring Matrix readers the bad and the ugly in science ficton film. Join us as we reach a new level of terror and explore the tortured mind of troubled auteur Roy “Chubby” Brown through his seminal 1993 masterwork\u00a0 U.F.O. The Movie.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":1001,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[8,10,16],"tags":[51,76,43,46,88],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/www.mmcgrath.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/02\/ufo.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p27AP7-g6","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.mmcgrath.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/998"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.mmcgrath.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.mmcgrath.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mmcgrath.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mmcgrath.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=998"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"http:\/\/www.mmcgrath.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/998\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1760,"href":"http:\/\/www.mmcgrath.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/998\/revisions\/1760"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mmcgrath.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1001"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.mmcgrath.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=998"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mmcgrath.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=998"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.mmcgrath.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=998"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}