Louis Theroux's Weird Weekends

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Louis Theroux's Weird Weekends is a television documentary series, in which Louis Theroux gives viewers the chance to get brief glimpses of things they wouldn't normally come into contact with. In most cases this means interviewing people with extreme beliefs of some kind, or just generally belonging to subcultures not known to exist by most or just frowned upon. It was first shown in the UK on BBC2.

"Weird Weekends sets out to discover the genuinely odd in the most ordinary setting. To me, it’s almost a privilege to be welcomed into these communities and to shine a light on them and, maybe, through my enthusiasm, to get people to reveal more of themselves than they may have intended." Louis Theroux, taken from an unofficial website

Contents

[edit] Episodes

The episode titles here are taken from DVD releases of the show in the UK, and may differ from the US versions, which were titled 'Louis Theroux's America'.

[edit] UFOs

This episode follows several people who believe in UFOs. One of these is a man called Thor Templar, the self titled "Lord Commander of the Earth Protectorate". He claims to have killed more than ten aliens by chopping their heads off.

Originally aired on the 22nd of January 1998

[edit] Porn

Is being a porn star really the dream job for any man? This episode offers a look at very different sides of the porn industry, as Louis interviews countless male and female porn stars. He reveals the problems a lot of porn actors face, be it not getting a job in straight porn and therefore having to do gay porn, or not getting an erection when it is needed.

[edit] Swingers

Louis meets a couple from Southern California who have been hosting swinging parties for countless years. He visits one of these very popular parties to find out what drives couples to want to swap partners. This program also offers a brief look into other kinds of swinging through an organisation that has a database of members that are rated on a scale of 1 to 10. Under this system, you can only visit the parties of people of your level and lower.

[edit] Wrestling

Louis takes a look at different types of wrestling from the high profile WCW to people organizing events in their spare time. He also visits the WCW Power Plant, a training facility where some of the WCW wrestlers started out. The training he receives there from Dewayne Bruce shows him that some wrestlers will not break kayfabe (the illusion of fiction being fact) and will take exception when their profession's authenticity is questioned.

[edit] Gangsta Rap

This episode shows Louis going to New Orleans to have a look at the gangsta rap scene known as the "Dirty South". He starts his own Gangsta rap, having a CD cover designed for him as well as getting the rappers Reece and Bigelow to write a song for him to perform on a rap radio show. Other parts include him interviewing a pimp turned rapper, as well as rap superstar Master P.

[edit] Other episodes

[edit] Book

In 2005 Louis released a book called "The Call of the Weird: Travels in American Subcultures" where he revisits people he previously interviewed for the Weird Weekends documentaries. Some of the people he tracks down 7 years after the shows include JJ Michaels (porn star), Thor Templar (alien resistance commander), Mello T (pimp turned rapper), Lamb & Lynx (the singing racist twins - aged 8) and others.

[edit] Trivia

The show had sufficient success that its title was parodied. FourFourTwo magazine's Louis Massarella writes a column under the title Louis' Weird Weekend, where he recounts a matchday or weekend spent in a usually unseen area of football (soccer).

[edit] Links

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