Are you having a crappy Monday, readers? Well, here’s something that’s sure to cheer you up: video of John Waters’ address at Outfest in Los Angeles last week, which we discovered via Movieline and which has already made our day. The Pope of Trash has always been good for a sound bite, but this speech is particularly wonderful in that it finds Waters shouting out the queer and radical influences of his youth, from Jean Genet to Kate Millett. Earnest as it was, though, the talk was still filled with plenty of hilarious, politically charged quips. Click through to watch the clip and see some of our favorite quotes.
“In the ’60s I was a Yippie, and I would go to all the riots the same way the kids go to Occupy Wall Street today — you know, to get laid and have sex and take drugs.”
“I think we need to go further today — I think we need Act Bad, you know, and prove that ‘terrorism’ isn’t always a bad word if we use humor rather than violence, if we use wit instead of bullets. What happened to the cutting-edge tone of gay people? Can’t we use it against our enemies instead of against ourselves?”
“Maybe it’s time that we use humor for political actions. If there’s a local politician against gay marriage, let’s send scary drag queens to his house to yell fashion insults at his wife.”
“If you’re in Hollywood and you’ve taken a script to the studios and they say it’s too gay, well get your gay screenwriter friends and go back to the studio and yell out the grosses of all their hetero flops.”
“Everybody wants to be an outsider today. I’m sick of being an outsider. I want to be an insider and an outlaw.”