Friday, April 27, 2007

Yucking it Up

Manohla Dargis's New York Times review of Robinson Devor's horse-on-men sex documentary "Zoo" includes this sentence:
"It is, after all, difficult to sing of the bodies electric and equine amid a chorus of 'yucks.'"
The first thing I thought of when I saw the word "yucks" was that I wouldn't have spelled it that way. I associate the word "yucks" with laughs, as in "let's get together and have a few yucks."

Given the onomatopoetic usage of the word, I somehow expected a different spelling, like "yuch" or the more Mad Magazine-like "ycch."

These days, the verbal expression of disgust is more likely to be "Eeeewwww!" or "I just threw up in my mouth" or "Oh no you dih-int!" But then, given the subject matter of the film -- a group of men in the Great Northwest who used to get together, have a few drinks, and then go out to the barn to show Trigger a really good time -- I suppose open guffawing just as likely a response.

Let's face it, however artfully crafted the film may be, however haunting its imagery, it's still about guys who enjoy being humped by horses. I don't feel the least bit unenlightened or loutish or repressed or even Republican in saying that that's just plain, freakin' weird.

So naturally I have no interest in seeing the film. I mean, I enjoy documentaries, and I'm as open-minded as they come, but I can't even imagine being interested in something this... yucky.




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