A Quick Review of a Few Men’s Facebook Comments About Our New Play, Toxic Male Fantasy

Our new play hasn’t opened yet, but the conversation we hoped the show would spark has begun in earnest on Facebook. We think some of these comments are a little weird, but we’re interested to know your take on them too.

As part of our marketing strategy, we ran an ad using the show artwork, with several different versions of ad copy. This was one of the ads.

I’m Jim Hodgson, show director. I can see how the term “misogynist” could be considered a triggering pejorative, but in this case, it is warranted. It’s like calling the villain in a story about murdering people “a murderer.” That’s just… how the story is written.

Nevertheless, this ad touched a nerve with some apparently male Facebook accounts, presumably because they take offense. I say “apparently” because … I mean, who knows? Their profile photos are of human males but this is Facebook, after all. They could be robots or something.

Here’s a quick rundown of what they’ve had to say so far. First, there’s this guy who clearly gets it:

If you think it’s about you, there’s a good chance it is.” — Zachary A.

Great work, Zach. Honestly, this comment made us think there might be a fun, healthy response toward our show. We hoped it would spark a few laughs and maybe even some healthy conversations. Hopefully someone doesn’t come along and reply to your comment with a weird overblown diatribe that also brings race into it for some reaso… Oh.

“…If a bunch of Neo-Nazis made a blatantly racist theatrical play about violent black gangsters for the viewing pleasure of likeminded racists, wouldn’t that be unacceptable?

Imagine a black person seeing an ad for such a play on Facebook and being offended, then some smug asshole comes along and says “If you think it’s about you, it probably is” implying that if he’s complaining, he must be a violent gangster.

See how that works, see how sexist and bigoted you sound?” — Daniel A.

Lots to unpack here, Daniel. Sad to say we’re really not the folks to help you unpack it. We’re the cast and crew of a hilarious play, not… whatever would help this.

Well, at least Connor seems to kinda get it? Or does he?

“i’m fairly certain this is meant to be a parody of the stereotypical SJW narrative”[sic] — Connor L.

What is the stereotypical SJW narrative? Is it a story about the realm’s strongest warrior learning that she’s a character in a story being written by a man? Because if so that’s: (a.) oddly specific, (b.) a wild coincidence, and (c.) maybe a copyright thing?

Could it be that recurring narratives persist because they contain some truth? Smoke is the billowy mustache on fire’s upper lip. We heard that somewhere.

In any case, no, it’s not a parody. It’s just a hilarious play with a great cast and crew of pals from Atlanta, GA.

“Get this woke garbage outta here.” [sic] — Jase R.”

In Jase’s defense, we went into his room on his day off and read the above advertisement to him an hour before he would otherwise have gotten out of bed on his own. Our bad. Also, we let the cat out. And some other cat in.

“The wage gap is a myth.” — Steve J.

I think Steve’s just trolling here. If he were a student in a comedy writing class we’d probably advise him to raise stakes. If you’re going to say something untrue — and he has said something untrue — then you might as well make it fantastically untrue.

For next time, Steve J., maybe, “The wage gap is an alien wearing a clown suit and farting out of its — is that a proboscis or a sex organ? Both? — myth.”

“Just read the description. I think I’ll pass.” — John C.

Ok, but you didn’t pass. You stopped, typed a comment and then posted it. This is like shouting, “OKAY I’M LEAVING NOW” as you’re walking out of a cocktail party alone hoping someone will stop you.

Listen as a hush falls over the room. Everyone is waiting to watch you walk out, still alone, after such a desperate ploy. There, they think, but for the grace of God, go I.

“This ends in a gang bang of the lead female doesn’t it” [sic] — Kazi F.

We’re more in the laughs business than the sex business, but I realize that might be hard to understand for someone who isn’t getting either.

Long story short, folks, we’d love it if you’d come see our play. We’re interested to know what you think about the show we’ve built together and we’d love to have a chat about the way we present some of these topics. But all that is a lot easier to do after we’ve actually opened the show.

We play on Fridays in March and April 2020 at Village Theatre. You can grab your tickets here: http://toxicmalefantasy.com