I say unbelievable shit and no one ever gets mad

Photo by Christopher Myers

It is - remarkably - the 80th birthday today of "The Pope of Trash" Mr John Walters, creator of the outrageous classic films Pink Flamingos, Female Trouble, Polyester, Cry-Baby, Serial Mom and, of course, Hairspray, and icon for transgressives, outsiders and weirdos everywhere - me included.

All hail!

From an excellent tribute article by Max Weiss in his home-town's leading journal Baltimore Magazine:

Eighty-year-olds are not supposed to be cool. Wrinkles aren’t cool. Bad knees aren’t cool. AARP memberships are not cool.

And yet, on the eve of his 80th birthday, John Waters remains eternally, ineffably, indisputably cool.

He’s not the only old guy who’s cool, but he’s the rare old guy who has the ability to constantly reinvent himself...

...So what is it that inspires such devotion in Waters’ fans? And why do young people still think he’s cool?

“I don’t get up every day and try to be cool,” Waters says. “But I think as long as you continue to be in touch with young people, they’ll think you’re even cooler.” Another key, says Waters, is not to trot out the old “we had so much more fun in my day” canard.

“No, we didn’t,” he says. “They are having just as much fun.”

And he should know. Yes, Waters goes out to nice restaurants and goes to galleries and does fancy things with his fancy friends, but he also still loves to hang out at the Club Charles, with its famous motto, “I’ll Sleep When I’m Dead,” and go to heavy metal bars...

...And somehow, despite the edginess of his humour, he has never been cancelled. “I say unbelievable shit and no one ever gets mad,” Waters says.

This is partly because the audiences who attend his performances are self-selecting. “If you’re coming to see me you want me to [go there].”

Also, he says, “My whole show is about going to that edge. But I always make fun of myself first.”

It goes back to that inclusivity thing. Waters’ work is always about bringing people together - the squares and the outlaws, queer and straight, Black and white.

Even his tour merch displays that ethos: “Join the Cult.” He wants you to be a part of his joyful, iconoclastic club.

And honestly, who wouldn’t want to be a member?

I certainly would!

Many happy returns, John Samuel Waters Jr. (born 22nd April 1946)