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| Time for more "man on the street" shenanigans with Ed Wood. |
NOTE: This article continues my coverage of Ed Wood's When the Topic is Sex (BearManor Media, 2021).
The article: "Interview with the Man on the Street About Censorship." Originally published in Couples Doing It (Galley Press), vol. 1, no. 1, August/September 1972.
Excerpt: "When I was a kid we didn't have any television. We did have radio. But we weren't listening to the commercials. We were listening to the shows. I couldn't even tell you one cigarette commercial, or any other commercial that sponsored the shows in those days. But I smoke. I think it's some kind of a natural urge that kids get when they reach puberty. They start thinking about girls and they start thinking about smoking. The two seem to go together."
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| Did Ed Wood watch Archie Bunker? |
Reflections: Before I discuss the main portion of Ed Wood's 1972 article "Interview with the Man on the Street About Censorship," I want to say a few words about Eddie's introductions to his nonfiction pieces. As we've seen throughout When the Topic is Sex, Ed sometimes researches his articles fairly thoroughly and sometimes completely improvises them. When he writes without doing any research or quoting any sources, his introductions tend to be vague and noncommittal in a way that I find comical. Here, as an illustration, is how Ed Wood begins "Interview with the Man on the Street About Censorship":
Censorship is a much discussed subject in this modern world of the sexual revolution as well as political motivations and what or what not should be shown on television or written about in magazines and books. But all the answers seem to be coming from the EXPERTS in the field. Sometimes it is wondered who are these experts and how did they become experts in the first place? Others also expound as to how dare they say who should see or do what? But then censorship has been around almost as long as time itself. And there is a good possibility it will be remaining with us for sometime to come . . . certainly it will not be completely abolished anywhere in the very near future.
No kidding, Ed. This passage reminds me of Bart Simpson's many terrible school reports, when he's clearly put no thought or effort into the assignment at all but knows he must fill up time somehow. Think back to Bart's review of Treasure Island: "It's about these pirates. Pirates with patches over their eyes and shiny gold teeth and green birds on their shoulders." Then there was Bart's enlightening report on Libya: "The exports of Libya are numerous in amount." Ed Wood basically wrote like that, except he got paid for it and never had to stay after school.
Introductions aside, "Interview with the Man on the Street About Censorship" is exactly what its title promises. Eddie waylays some anonymous (nonexistent) gentleman to talk about the censorship of books, movies, TV shows, and magazines. This randomly-picked fellow wants us to know that he's well-read and keeps up with current events. "Now you ain't talking to some street character," he tells the interviewer. Somehow, while discussing censorship, their conversation veers off to numerous other topics: Judaism, VD, rancid meat, marijuana, Jimmy Cagney, etc. (I'm one to talk. This article is supposed to be about Ed Wood, and I devoted a paragraph of it to Bart Simpson.)
Based on this man's slangy speech cadence and unabashed candor, I pictured him a lot like Archie Bunker, which in turn made me wonder if Ed Wood watched All in the Family. My guess is that he did, since Ed consumed a lot of television in the '70s, and All in the Family was the nation's top-rated show back then. But the guy in this article—goddamn, I wish Ed had given him a name—basically expresses the opposite of Archie's worldview on numerous topics. He's against the criminalization of marijuana. He's opposed to all forms of censorship, even the prohibition of cigarette commercials on TV. He's vehemently in favor of sex ed, especially when it comes to teaching kids about the dangers of sexually-transmitted diseases. In short, he's the liberal Archie Bunker.
What's worth considering here is that Ed Wood is again portraying both the interviewer and the interviewee. They're both him. So when this unnamed man gives his opinions about religion or drugs or sex education in schools, are we actually getting Ed's own views on these topics? For what it's worth, the interviewer compliments his subject: "You sound like you'd be a model parent." Make of that what you will.
NEXT: "Sex Oddities and the Law" (1971)