Line #5 Creator/JohnWaters


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3	%%Per Administrivia/CreatorPageGuidelines, only tropes associated to a creator's works are allowed on this wiki's pages, and tropes that only apply to the creator's personal life as if the creator is a fictional character are not allowed. Please do not apply tropes about the creator's personal life as if they are a fictional character.
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6	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/johnwaters.jpg]]
7	[[caption-width-right:350:Not Creator/SteveBuscemi.]]
8
9	->''"To understand bad taste one must have very good taste."''
10
11	[floatboxright:Influences:
12	+ UsefulNotes/{{Baltimore}}, Creator/TennesseeWilliams, Creator/KennethAnger, Creator/JeanGenet, Creator/PierPaoloPasolini, Creator/DianeArbus, Creator/AndyWarhol, ''Series/HowdyDoody'', Rei Kawakubo, Music/JohnnyMathis, Creator/LarryClark, Music/LittleRichard, Creator/RussMeyer, Creator/IngmarBergman, Creator/MarquisDeSade, Creator/RainerWernerFassbinder, Creator/HerschellGordonLewis, Creator/WilliamCastle ]
13
14	John Samuel Waters Jr. (born April 22, 1946 in UsefulNotes/{{Baltimore}}, Maryland) is an American director, actor, screenwriter, producer, and owner of a [[GoodHairEvilHair badass pencil moustache]]. He spent much of the 1970s and '80s making low-budget exploitation movies, such as ''Film/PinkFlamingos'' and ''Film/FemaleTrouble'', before achieving (relative) mainstream acceptance with ''Film/{{Hairspray\|1988}}'' in 1988.
15
16	Waters' films are all [[CreatorProvincialism shot in (and take place in) his hometown of Baltimore]], are [[RefugeInAudacity packed with as much sleaze as possible]], and [[CrossesTheLineTwice celebrate trashy Americana]] through a distinctive {{camp}} lens, with kitschy fashions and gaudy designs featured prominently. They also employ a [[ProductionPosse regular troupe of actors]] largely drawn from Waters' circle of friends and known as the Dreamlanders, chief among them the late [[{{DragQueen}} drag performer]] Creator/{{Divine\|Actor}}.
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18	[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YnpofBtijF8 Likes a good smoke.]]
19
20	----
21	!!Filmography:
22	[[index]]
23	* ''Hag in a Black Leather Jacket'' (1964)
24	* ''Roman Candles'' (1966)
25	* ''Eat Your Makeup'' (1968)
26	* ''Mondo Trasho'' (1969)
27	* ''The Diane Linkletter Story'' (1970)
28	* ''Film/MultipleManiacs'' (1970)
29	* ''Film/PinkFlamingos'' (1972)
30	* ''Film/FemaleTrouble'' (1974)
31	* ''Film/DesperateLiving'' (1977)
32	* ''Film/{{Polyester}}'' (1981)
33	* ''Film/{{Hairspray\|1988}}'' (1988)
34	* ''Film/CryBaby'' (1990)
35	* ''Film/SerialMom'' (1994)
36	* ''Film/{{Pecker}}'' (1998)
37	* ''Film/CecilBDemented'' (2000)
38	* ''A Dirty Shame'' (2004)
39	* ''Liarmouth'' (202X)
40	[[/index]]
41	----
42	!! "Tasteful tropes about bad taste":
43
44	* AlliterativeName: Tracy Turnblad, Francine Fishpaw, Dawn Davenport, etc.
45	* AlternateDVDCommentary: Provides it for ''Film/ChristmasEvil'', of all things. Also provided one for ''Literature/MommieDearest''.
46	* AffectionateParody: Of So Bad It's Good [[BMovie B-Movies]].
47	* BlackComedy: ''Pink Flamingos'', ''Female Trouble'' and ''Desperate Living'' all get gleefully twisted.
48	* BlackComedyRape:
49	** In ''Multiple Maniacs'', Lady Divine is raped by a giant lobster called Lobstora. [[MakesJustAsMuchSenseInContext For no apparent reason.]]
50	** The Chicken Rape in ''Pink Flamingos''. Made even worse by the fact that ''they '''actually''' raped that chicken''.
51	* BuryYourArt: Waters refuses to release his first three films in any format, and they have not appeared since their original showings. This may be in part due to their presentation; ''Roman Candles'', for example, consists of three separate reels of footage shown on three screens simultaneously, without sound, as a separate audio recording plays. This isn't something you can replicate on a DVD player (he did have ''Roman Candles'' transferred to videotape in the 1980s, using a 4-panel split screen, with one screen left blank, which he has shown at festival and academic screenings).
52	* CanonDiscontinuity: Did not include ''The Diane Linkletter Story'' in his filmography in his first [[{{Biography}} autobiography]] ''Shock Value''. May be a case of CreatorBacklash, as he mainly made it to test out a new camera he had.
53	* {{Cloudcuckooland}}: Baltimore and its suburbs.
54	* CreatorBacklash: He has gone on record stating that he regrets making ''Multiple Maniacs'' a full-length feature.
55	* CreatorCameo: He appears in ''Film/Hairspray2007'' as "the flasher who lives next door" during the opening number.
56	* CreatorKiller: His last film, ''A Dirty Shame'', was such a box office bomb that it prevented him from making more films including a Christmas film called ''Fruitcake''. It would take another 18 years before he'd get the chance to direct again with an adaptation of his first novel, Liarmouth.
57	* CreatorProvincialism: All of his films are set in Baltimore.
58	* TheDanza: He voiced the CampGay antique dealer John in ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'' episode [[Recap/TheSimpsonsS8E15HomersPhobia "Homer's Phobia"]]. On the episode's commentary he notes what an odd experience it was to voice a character whose name was John, who looked like him, and [[QueerCharacterQueerActor was gay]], but wasn't actually him.
59	* DoNotDoThisCoolThing: [[invoked]] Not his films, but he [[ParodiedTrope mercilessly parodied]] this in a theater warning which featured himself. He's supposed to tell the audience that smoking is restricted in the theater, but he does so by intentionally sending out mixed signals, like happily puffing on a cigarette himself and questioning the validity of the rule.
60	* GenreShift: ''Polyester'' was his first step toward the mainstream. It took him to ''Hairspray'' to actually get there, but, it is the earliest film of his that Creator/LeonardMaltin includes a review of in his books.
61	* GrossoutShow: Many of his films would qualify. Especially ''Pink Flamingos''.
62	* InsultBackfire: Rex Reed had hated ''Female Trouble'', to the point that in his review he had asked, "Where do these people come from? Where do they go when the sun goes down? Isn't there a law or something?" The quote was posted on the Waverly Theater poster, and in Village Voice ads for the film. When released on [=DVD=], this quote was on the front of its box.
63	* KeepCirculatingTheTapes:
64	** ''Mondo Trasho'' has yet to see DVD release due to rights issues (Waters took the soundtrack from his own records collection), but was released on VHS, making it rare but available.
65	** Same thing happened with ''Multiple Maniacs'' due to one of the songs.
66	** In 2016, the film was restored and rereleased theatrically. It was issued a DVD[=/=]Blu-ray by Creator/TheCriterionCollection the next year.
67	* LysistrataGambit: He's recommended this as a way to promote reading.
68	-->"We need to make books cool again. If you go home with somebody and they don’t have books, don’t fuck them. Don’t let them explore you until they’ve explored the secret universes of books. Don’t let them connect with you until they’ve walked between the lines on the pages. Books are cool, if you have to withhold yourself from someone for a bit in order for them to realize this then do so."
69	* NoBudget: Most of his early works. To name one, ''Multiple Maniacs'' was made on $5000; it would have cost more, except a friend of his shoplifted the film stock.
70	* PopularityPolynomial: He's experienced a surge in popularity, due to a growing LGBTQ movement, the success of the ''Theatre/{{Hairspray}}'' musical and [[Film/Hairspray2007 remake of the film]], his book ''Carsick'', about him hitchhiking across the country and an episode of ''Series/RuPaulsDragRace'' centered around his movies.
71	* ProductionPosse: In 60s and 70s Baltimore, Waters was at the center of a group of countercultural oddballs, outcasts, and petty criminals called the Dreamlanders who acted in and worked on his films. Divine, Mink Stole, Mary Vivian Pearce, David Lochary, and Edith Massey are some of the most prominent.
72	* PromotedFanboy:
73	** A fan of the works of Creator/HerschellGordonLewis, especially ''Film/BloodFeast.'' He even got to act in the sequel.
74	** A fan of the ''Franchise/ChildsPlay'' movies, he got to be a victim of Chucky in ''Film/SeedOfChucky''
75	** He interviewed Lewis and Russ Meyer, another favorite of his, for his first autobiography, ''Shock Value: A Tasteful Book About Bad Taste.''
76	** In an episode of ''Series/{{Feud}}'', he got the chance to play Creator/WilliamCastle, another of his idols.
77	** Also to [[Film/TheAstroZombies Ted V.]] [[Film/GirlInGoldBoots Mikels]], as he narrates in a documentary about the man called ''The Wild World of Ted V. Mikels''.
78	* RefugeInAudacity:
79	** '''Yes'''. Screenings of ''Film/PinkFlamingos'' handed out vomit bags called "Pink Phlegmingos".
80	** Waters told film critic Dennis Dermody that vomit was like a standing ovation, and Dermody, who was working in one of the theaters at that time, said he'd had to clean up about three ovations a night.
81	* SelfDeprecation: Appears at the start and end of Music/TheLonelyIsland's song "The Creep", as apparently, to be a certified creeper, you need to look like Waters.
82	* StylisticSuck: All his films are intentionally trashy.
83	* TactfulTranslation: Brought ''Female Trouble'' to a film festival in Antwerp, Belgium. While describing the film, the translator became so appalled at what Waters was saying that she stopped translating and started telling the audience something completely different. Because Waters doesn't speak Dutch, he didn't know this was happening until someone told him afterwards.
84	* VulgarHumor: All over the place. RefugeInAudacity does not even ''begin'' to cover it.
85	* WhatCouldHaveBeen: John has a few examples of planned movies that never happened:
86	** As said above he was to make the Christmas film ''Fruitcake'' until the failure of ''A Dirty Shame''.
87	** John loves the movie ''Film/TheWizardOfOz'', to the point he started work on a film called ''Dorothy the Kansas City Pothead'', which would have had the cast lip syncing to a tape recorder, John even got a Press Release for the film but soon abandoned the movie with only a few minutes of film shot.
88	** Creator/AndyWarhol offered to produce Female Trouble but John refused as it would have been Warhol's movie and not his.
89	** The gap between ''Polyester'' and ''Hairspray'' was because John tried to get ''Flamingos Forever'' off the ground but in the end Divine's desire for serious roles and Edith Massey's death ended the chances, but the script appears in the book ''Trash Trio''.
90	** After Massey's death Waters attempted to bring ''Literature/AConfederacyOfDunces'' to the screen with Divine as Ignatius J. Reilly which never got far.
91	** Also in the 90s Waters attempted a movie called ''Glamourpuss'.' There were two different versions presented but in the end nothing came from it but parts were reused in ''Cecil B. Demented'' especially the movie's second name ''Raving Beauty''.

Context Creator / JohnWaters