Brokeback Mountain parodies

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Brokeback Mountain has garnered a number of parodies of its central plot, two men in a forbidden homosexual relationship. With the release of Brokeback to the Future (a parody trailer that combined clips from the Back to the Future trilogy, along with themes and music from Brokeback Mountain, to create a humorous interpretation of the Back to the Future films), this led to a mass media and Internet phenomenon with scores of videos using footage from films and television shows that has been edited to suggest a Brokeback Mountain-like romantic relationship between other characters. These videos belong to a category known as re-cut trailers.

[edit] Parody techniques

Critic Virginia Heffernan at the New York Times dissected the making of these parodies to find how it's possible to find or suggest a homoerotic theme in that many and so disparate films [1]. These trailers share common visual and sound treatment with the original Brokeback Mountain trailer, like using slight slow motion and including the main theme from the original soundtrack by Gustavo Santaolalla:

It works almost every time: a gay movie seems to emerge when scenes between male leads, or a male lead and a supporting actor, are slowed down, set to make-out music and bumpered by portentous cards that say things like, "A truth they couldn't deny." The editing, and the use of slow motion, do suggest that close-ups, especially viewed at length, are intrinsically erotic.

[edit] Notable parodies

• In South Park episode 209, "Chef's Chocolate Salty Balls" (written and aired in 1998, after Proulx's story had already been published and the McMurtry/Ossana screenplay adaptation was circulating in Hollywood), Cartman made a statement about independent movies: "They're always about gay cowboys eating pudding." In a 2005 interview with the Associated Press, the authors of the episode were asked about Cartman's statement in relation to then-forthcoming Brokeback Mountain. Trey Parker replied, presumably in jest, "If there's pudding eating in there, we’re going to sue." [2] It should be noted that this was more of a reference than a parody.

• On Google Video, there is a parody called "Brokeback Dumber," in which Harry and Lloyd from Dumb and Dumber are portrayed as a couple of gay caballeros

• On YouTube Video, there is the Spongeback Mountain parody trailer starring SpongeBob SquarePants and Patrick Star.

• Another video on YouTube called Brokeback Enterprise portrays the Star Trek characters Wesley Crusher and Jean-Luc Picard in a homosexual relationship.

• Saturday Night Live did a trailer parody called "Brokeback Goldmine" with two gay prospectors (played by castmember Will Forte and then-host Alec Baldwin) holding hands, falling in love, and rejecting the advances of a floozy who thinks they'll want her around to keep them warm.

• Mad TV also did a trailer parody of "Brokeback Mountain" called "Brokeback Mountain 2: The Cowgirls" about two lesbian cowgirls (played by castmembers Crista Flanagan and Nicole Parker) keeping their relationship a secret from their husbands.

• In the first episode of Season 2 of Mind of Mencia, Carlos Mencia and Mario Lopez star in a trailer for a fictional movie called "Wetback Mountain", a parody of Brokeback Mountain. The movie concerns two Hispanic males who work in a corporate office. Because of the bond formed by these two Hispanic employees, many other employees assume the two males are a gay couple. In an attempt to shock the other employees, Mencia and Lopez pretend to be gay. Eventually, the two retreat to a place called "Wetback Mountain" where they exchange their business attire for traditional Mexican attire, and the pair begin to dance to Mariachi music.

• American Idol took a twist with the title "Broke-Note Mountain" in which a pop trio wearing cowboy hats failed to perform well in front of Simon Cowell.

• In the sitcom Joey, Joey was 'proofreading' Brokeback Mountain and provided the following quote: "And he kisses 'her' chest."

• Premium-cable channel Starz included a parody of Brokeback Mountain in their "Movies In 30 Seconds (And Performed By Bunnies)" series of rabbit-themed movie parodies, featured on their website and Video On Demand service. [3]

• An Emerson College-based comedy group called Chocolate Cake City [4] created a trailer for the Back to the Future films titled Brokeback to the Future. Their trailer used clever editing to suggest that Back to the Future characters Marty McFly and Doctor Emmett Brown were involved in a romantic homosexual relationship, as in Brokeback Mountain. This video became popular on the Internet in early 2006. [5]

• The show The Soup had a skit called 'Brokeback Kong,' involving a man dressed up as a gorilla hugging another man dressed up as a gorilla while wearing cowboy costumes. It was a parody of the film King Kong as well as Brokeback Mountain.

• David Spade's Showbiz Show had a skit in which two female cowgirls kissed; the joke is that the sequel to Brokeback Mountain will involve two homosexual women instead of homosexual men.

• On a 2005 Late Show with David Letterman, guest Nathan Lane (who himself is gay) starred in a skit in which the film had been turned into a flamboyantly gay musical, which was used for promoting The Producers film adaptation. In the first three weeks of February 2006 alone, Letterman used the film as part of a joke in three Top Ten lists.

• The Tonight Show with Jay Leno parodied the marketing of the movie with a re-edited trailer that makes it appear that the film is full of sexy women and as a very quick afterthought mentions, "...and two gay cowboys".

• The animated series Drawn Together parodied the movie extensively in the episode "Xandir and Tim, Sitting in a Tree" with the relationship between Xandir and Captain Hero's gay alter ego Tim Tommerson, even referencing the film's famous line, "I wish I knew how to quit you."

• The porn industry loosely parodied the film in 3 gay porn films named Bareback Mountain, a heterosexual anal porn film called Broke Crack Mountain, and a bisexual porn film named Bi-Back Mountain.

• Merchandise and online auctions at the time also included parodies including an American Ebay seller listing custom PEZ dispensers with the heads of Jake Gyllenhaal's and Heath Ledger's characters. [6] A toy seller also created his own version of Jake Gyllenhaal's and Heath Ledger's characters. [7]

• On March 29, 2006, the Footy Show on the Nine Network in Melbourne, Australia, parodied the film in a skit entitled "Brokeleg Mountain." Two high profile football players presenting on the program, Shane Crawford and Nathan Brown played the parts of Ennis Del Mar and Jack Twist, the joke drawing heavily on Brown's dramatic breaking of his leg in an AFL game in the previous season.

• A parody of the trailer appeared on Australian television show The Chaser's War on Everything on ABC TV. It showed the trailer of a so-called Christian edition of the movie where the two lead characters (Andrew Hansen and Chris Taylor) are shown secretly reading the Bible together, singing together and protesting against abortion. The trailer's tag line states that "The only man that it is OK for another man to love, is Jesus."

• The Mexican program La Parodia featured "Secreto en el Rancho Grande" on March 25, 2006, a satire that explores Mexican culture, machismo, gay issues, and contemporary Mexican politics. It uses Brokeback Mountain as its pretext, parodying its music and natural backdrop in detail. It follows Brokeback's storyline with usual gay stereotypes until the main characters are given a fictitious happy ending. Ennis says, "Let's not worry about what anyone says anymore. Let's go get married and be happy," depicting an Ennis quite unlike the timid one depicted in the movie and short story. Both characters walk off into the sunset holding hands mocking traditional western endings.

• Scary Movie 4 also parodies Brokeback Mountain featuring Anthony Anderson and Kevin Hart as Jack Twist and Ennis Del Mar.

• The British satirical sketch show Dead Ringers featured a sketch spoofing Brokeback Mountain, that featured impersonations of Bill Oddie and another naturalist. The sketch ends with the two men lying together in a tent, and Oddie saying, "Now that's what I call the funky gibbon" (spoofing Bill Oddie's chart topper with his comedy group The Goodies).

• Contained on the DVD set Beavis and Butt-Head: The Mike Judge Collection, Volume 2 (on disc 3, under "Previews"), is a parody featuring Beavis and Butt-Head, which uses a similar score and format as Brokeback's movie trailer. The parody functions as a commercial for the upcoming DVD release of The Mike Judge Collection, Volume 3.

• The Internet Video Sketch Show Moron Life did one of the few non-Gay themed Brokeback parodies for the start of their third season.

• On March 6, 2006, The 78th Academy Awards showed a montage of classic cowboy films, with emotional male characters while the score from Brokeback plays. In the telecast's opening film to introduce host Jon Stewart, the clip opens with a shot of a tent on top of a mountain and a narrator introducing "your host - Billy Crystal!" Crystal pops his head out of the tent and declines hosting the show, saying "I'm busy". Chris Rock (the 2005 host) then pops his head out of the tent and says "I'm busy too."

• Also in the Academy Awards, a mattress commercial began by saying "Got a broke back?" right after the awards went on commercial.

• In the 2006 Hong Kong Cantonese-language film Rob-B-Hood, starring Jackie Chan, a minor police character is shown to have slight homosexual tendencies towards the other main character, played by Louis Koo, as well as his (the minor character's) police partner. Irritated, the partner asks him what part of town he is from. In English, the policeman replies "I am from Brookbrack Mountain".

• Les Justiciers Masqués produced a parody which featured André Boisclair "finding" both George W. Bush and Stephen Harper - played by half-nude actors - together in a tent. Boisclair addresses the two parodied leaders saying that "Quebec will never join them in that 'kind of play'".

• In "Night at the Museum" (2006), the miniature cowboy Jed (Owen Wilson) and the miniature Roman general Octavius (Steve Coogan) are on a mission with a few other miniatures to stop the bad guys from escaping. In order to do so, they are going to take the air out of the tires of the bad guys' van, using the miniature Roman general's spear. The five of them cram the spear into the valve on the tire, which immediately starts letting out air. Three of the miniatures go flying, and Jed and Octavius are left hanging on to the spear. Octavius turns to Jed and croaks out 'Save... yourself...' to which Jed replies 'Ah'm not quittin' you!' This is also an implicit reference to Lureen's tale that Jack was killed by an exploding tire.

• When Vice-President Dick Cheney shot his hunting partner Harry M. Whittington in the face, The New Yorker's 2/27/2006 issue noted the event with a cover parodying the Brokeback Mountain movie poster. Cheney was Ennis, blowing smoke off the end of his rifle (though the actual weapon was a shotgun), and Whittington was a sour, suspcious-looking Jack. The humor worked on a second level, as The New Yorker had published the original Brokeback Mountain short story.

• In Family Guy, Brian is given a copy of a movie that "is essentially Brokeback Mountain from the point of view of the horses" where one of the horses peeked inside the tent and learned their relationships the 'hard way'.

• In the Simpsons television episode titled The Haw-Hawed Couple, Bart Simpson and longtime school bully Nelson Muntz become good friends. Near the end of the episode, after the friendship ends, Bart takes Nelson's vest out of his bedroom closet and hugs it in a similar manner seen in the Brokeback Mountain film.