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Mexican
Eye For the Gringo Guy
by Maggie Van
Ostrand |
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According
to the show business trade paper, The Hollywood Reporter, "Queer Eye
for the Straight Guy," the megahit TV show whose stars are known as
The Fab Five, will soon have some light-hearted competition from Comedy
Central's "Straight Plan For The Gay Man," whose stars have already
been dubbed The Flab Four.
Three hour-long episodes of the new satire, are scheduled to air February
17, 2004, and will star Curtis Gwynne, Billy Merritt, Kyle Grooms
and Rob Riggle. Queer Eye's premise of homosexual men advising heterosexual
men how to dress, decorate, and behave in a civilized manner, will
be flipped upside down for this new show, produced by Borderline Productions.
Straight comedians will attempt to teach a succession of gay men how
to pass as heterosexuals, including "lessons in spartan home decorating,
oafish manners, less-than-fashionable wardrobes, and overdeveloped
ego to mask all personal failings," production executive Lou Wallach
told Reuters News Service.
Residents of Mexico who have satellite TV or Direct TV probably know
that the Comedy Central cable channel is best known for "South Park,"
The Daily Show with Jon Stewart," and reruns of "Saturday Night Live."
This show biz news report gave me an idea -- why not tape a show right
here in Guadalajara called "Mexican Eye for the Gringo Guy?" Jalisco
is already famous for the music of its Mariachi, why not for the morals
of its men?
Five Mexican men, whose talents have as yet been undiscovered, would
be interviewed by a Casting Committee comprised of local hotel and
restaurant owners, artists, politicians, bankers, and policewomen.
Relatives of candidates would be discouraged from applying for a casting
job.
The final selection of men, who will be referred to neither as The
Fab Five nor the Flab Four, will be dubbed Los Tipos Sabios. Each
weeknight and twice on Sundays they will choose a Gringo expatriate
and teach him such things as how to serenade a woman using only a
tuba, the financial advantages of having backyard bantams, the art
of lounge lizardry, how to strut while seated, and how to avoid your
wife's restaurant when dining out with your mistress.
Sponsors of this proposed television show will bring muchos pesos
to the Lakeside area and in fact bring an economic boom to all of
Mexico. This will turn NATO's giant sucking sound into a whisper.
Following the guaranteed success of such a show, the expats living
in Mexico could pose nude for a calendar, all proceeds of expected
sales to go to charity. People have done stranger things to raise
money, so why not show a little skin? And, since the older we get,
the more skin there is, this will only increase the anticipated contributions.
The nude calendar idea worked for the fishermen of Cape Cod, for elderly
school mistresses in Wales, and for Russian women amputees who advertised
their calendar on one of those porn channels. (Someone told me about
it. I certainly never watched it myself.)
So there you have my Big Idea For The New Year, and it ranks right
up there with the guy who kept trying to help hemorrhoid sufferers
and finally gave up when he failed for the final time with his Preparation
G. If only he had tried once more.
Copyright Maggie Van Ostrand
"A Balloon In Cactus"
March 7, 2004 Column |
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