I don't often pimp films in my diaries--I believe I've only done it once before. But boy, do I have a film for you. A friend and I were looking for something to watch on Netflix the other night, and the title Mortified Nation caught our attention. We read the description, and it looked like it could potentially be interesting, so we gave it a watch. I don't know what we were expecting, but whatever we were expecting wasn't what we experienced. Nonstop laughter, punctuated only by occasional tearjerk moments, ensued. I'll talk more about the film, but first, take a look at the trailer, which summarizes its purpose better than I could.
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So, if you couldn't watch the trailer, what Mortified Nation revolves around is the "movement" known simply as Mortified. Mortified began in the 1990s when Dave Nadelberg found a terribly embarrassing love letter he wrote from childhood and shared it with his friends. As his friends laughed at and with him, he soon had a vision of adults doing this on a larger scale. Now, Mortified events take place in cities all over the United States, and essentially what happens is this: People who have already "auditioned" (not the right word, but they have to be cleared by producers) appear on a stage and read painfully embarrassing entries from their childhood diaries or journals to the audience, which is usually roaring with laughter. From the Mortified website:
Hailed a "cultural phenomenon" by Newsweek and celebrated by This American Life, The Today Show, The Onion AV Club, Entertainment Weekly and beyond, Mortified is a comic excavation of the strange and extraordinary things we created as kids.
Witness adults sharing their most embarrassing childhood artifacts (journals, letters, poems, lyrics, plays, home movies, art) with others, in order to reveal stories about their lives. Hear grown men and women confront their past with tales of their first kiss, first puff, worst prom, fights with mom, life at bible camp, worst hand job, best mall job, and reasons they deserved to marry Jon Bon Jovi.
[...]
HOW MORTIFIED WORKS:
UNEARTH. You dig up some embarrassing childhood artifacts (old letters, lyrics, journals, cassettes, artwork, plays, etc)
CONTACT. You request a producer's session on our site's "participate" section
EXCERPT. We meet up and help you find excerpts to share on stage
FRAME. Once we find enough excerpts, we help you frame them with a context that reveals a personal story
SHARE. You share the results on stage
IMPACT. Someone in the audience returns home, inspired to unearth their own childhood artifacts
Through the diary entries, and beyond the hysterical laughter, stories of personal tribulation and growth are told. They're stories
anybody can relate to, because we have all been in these children's shoes in one way or another.
The documentary follows Mortified events in cities across the country, featuring hilarious and moving public readings, in addition to getting deeper into the participants' personal stories. The stories range from the girl who wanted desperately to be kissed by a boy to the boy who couldn't accept that he was gay to the aspiring rocker who read his (horribly misogynistic and equally embarrassing) lyrics onstage. The one that probably moved me the most was the lesbian who read diary entries from the period in her adolescence when she was being abused by her mom and struggling with her sexuality at the same time. Between her writing, "When will I like boys and why don't I yet?" and the love notes to her future husband whom she wanted to carry her away from her terrible life at home, it was a tearjerker. She decided that she was only going to make her life better with hard work and education, and she ended up graduating at the top of her class--and being accompanied to the commencement ceremony by staffers at the homeless shelter she was living in. On a lighter note, she was also the Chi Chi's customer of the month because she had a crush (which she didn't acknowledge as a crush in the diary, of course) on a waitress.
The stories on Mortified Nation are more than funny and awkward--they tell important stories about survival and growth. Because, as is aptly noted in the documentary, the things these kids were writing about were everything to them.
Now, some clips. Thankfully, the clips posted online are some of my favorites. We'll start with the girl I mentioned above who needed to be kissed.
I wish they'd included more of this guy, but this is good, too. Here's Garry, or the kid who struggled to accept that he was gay. In the film, Garry reads about his first same-sex experience in his later teens--with a guy he met on a "Gay Dads Looking for Sons" chatroom.
Just one more, but there are more clips here. Here is the kid who was a hopeless romantic and an aspiring gangster rapper at the same time.
Anyway, if you enjoyed these clips, please do yourself a favor and go watch Mortified Nation. It's available for streaming on Netflix and is so worth your time.
TOP COMMENTS
April 25, 2014
Thanks to tonight's Top Comments contributors! Let us hear from YOU
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From a2nite:
Dems have good ideas but are bad at messaging. This comment by Jimdotz is a good example of good messaging to me.
From Puddytat:
An excellent supposition by AnnetteK is promptly replied to by Rashaverak to create even more funny. Enjoy.
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TOP MOJO
April 24, 2014
(excluding Tip Jars and first comments)
Got mik!
1) Let's get this viral. by Free Jazz at High Noon — 172
2) At this point by TDDVandy — 160
3) Living in a bubble by Dave in Northridge — 146
4) since he is so big on heritage by entlord — 137
5) Bundy is 1 or 2 cycle story--Neutrality is a long- by RFK Lives — 132
6) Perhaps even more basic than this by Dallasdoc — 130
7) Is anyone truly suprised by MarlboroStan — 130
8) Of course, for folks who were paying closer by entlord — 112
9) They don't GO to jail by ruscle — 111
10) Black men go to jail by SamLoomis — 110
11) A comment so right, I will tip it twice. by CS in AZ — 110
12) Oh, the irony ... by niemann — 109
13) So he doubled down on the comments by Vita Brevis — 102
14) I am learning a lot of history from this guy. by voracious — 102
15) Throw 'em an anchor. n/t by CDH in Brooklyn — 101
16) Shit, just put 'em on TV by Yellow Canary — 98
17) Hannity thinks he is by entlord — 98
18) As good at this is we need MUCH more soon by Lefty Coaster — 93
19) I like the feds' response so far. by agnostic — 92
20) I don't know this guy & don't listen to this band by voracious — 91
21) The modern Reoublican Party, however, by brooklynbadboy — 89
22) Hahaha, read the delusional supporters by SamLoomis — 88
23) Since the Kochs are the Federal Government of by Gooserock — 88
24) Seriously ?! by Chacounne — 87
25) The not-so-funny thing is, by MTmofo — 87
26) Reminds me of when by AnnetteK — 85
27) Just wondering by Diogenes2008 — 82
28) Yeah, it kept the family structure together, by mahytabel — 81
29) With all the children we are aborting, I wonder by CaliSista — 80
30) bundy has a point. A true tale here by joynow — 79
31) that is what has Hannity screaming by entlord — 79
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TOP PHOTOS
April 24, 2014
Enjoy jotter's wonderful PictureQuilt™ below. Just click on the picture and it will magically take you to the comment that features that photo. Have fun, Kossacks!
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