So a little background about me: I'm an American man in my 30s and I've been into WAM in some shape or form as long as I can remember. I think Elvira in Mistress of the Dark flashdance parody was my WAM "big bang", but there was all sorts of small things here and there. basically If there was gooey stuff and people getting messy with it, my attention was piqued. And then puberty and the UMD and the rest is (alarmingly fastly accumulating) history

But something I have slowly come to realize is that there seems to be a correlation with mess/WAM with campy vibes. Elvira is a perfect example. She's almost like parody goth. The big hair, the makeup, the outrageous outfits, obviously the humor, scenarios, and dialogue itself. But pretty much anything that's "over the top", excessive, super colorful, super ridiculous. The 60s Batman show, the entire decade of the 1970s lol, fucking Hammer Horror films, and lately (what's got me finally posting about it), the Tokusatsu genre of Japanese films/TV shows.

For those unfamiliar, Tokgusatsu is basically Japanese sci-fi/fantasy/horror entertainment, starting with like Godzilla and then into stuff like Ultraman, the Super Sentai rangers (power rangers based on it). But I realized part of what interests me about Tokusatsu.... is the same over-the-top, completely outrageous (and hyper-stimulating possibly?) "campy" style of presentation. It's zany, it's colorful, it's maximalist, almost surreal (I'm also into like David Lynch type shit, also very wild and over the top but in more a surrealistic, artsy way).

And then there's WAM. I've heard people here and elsewhere talk about how for some of us the interest might have a lot to do with the way stuff like pies or slime is hyper-stimulating? Huge sensory stimulations. Colors, textures. Piezone is a perfect example, but it's been a staple in WAM aesthetics as far back as I can tell. The 90s British stuff really gets it. Messyfun, WAM watchers, and up to today, for my money the best stuff is the extremely, excessive stuff like Babaslimes or whatever.

Mainly just wanting to get these thoughts off my chest about it, but wondering if anyone else has noticed the same thing, that WAM and "camp" totally go together

Hell yeah. I always have time for cheeseball monster movies, classic video games, 80's and 90's thrash metal, etc. It's part of who I am.

Hell yeah dude, that stuff is exactly what I'm talking about. 80s horror, metal, like Def Leppard "Pour Some Sugar On Me" vibes, haha. glam metal music videos. Was a little before my time but it all fits in. Actually yeah I kind of left that out: Glam rock is another big part of it, but for me it's like T. Rex, David Bowie, KISS, 70s shit. That's awesome

Well now you're talking my language!

Campy has always been an artistic medium I enjoyed. Didn't matter the format. Music is was Hair Metal bands like Quiet Riot, Ratt, Twisted Sister. Movies it was Monty Python, Troma, B Horror Movies. TV it was Benny Hill, GLOW, Wrestling (WWF Attitude Era Specifically), British Sitcom TV, Married With Children, Simpsons and South Park.

In a lot of ways, it has influenced my "Run and gun" production style that I've adopted for shooting skateboarding and extreme sports videos. That "Over the top/In your face" presentation that was both crazy, unbelievable with elements of humor.

The good news is much of that still carries to this day. For instance the music video for "Redneck" by Lamb of God has much of the humorous elements I tend to enjoy in employing and interestingly as you mentioned has a VERY LIGHT cake in the face shot but still

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqdZpxkzNvc

Fantasy

Bonkers, off the wall, disconnected from reality fantasy. The kind that lols at physics.

Everything Everywhere All At Once was a great example of that.

The Final Fantasy series of video games has some pretty good examples of that. Here's a machinima video splicing together some random scenes from various FF IPs to create a music video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z_b-TEckmeo

Physics? What's that?

In my head, there's a whole Splatter Island story, which uses characters that have appeared on Splatter Island. Wish there was an easy way to get it out of my head into a medium other people could see. I'd love to make a movie, but that's not going to happen. Writing is an option, but 1. my prose is wordy and 2. as someone who can't accurately read other people's emotions, I don't think I'd be able to write any into them.

This is why Scott Pilgrim has got to be one of my favorite movies. Aside from the whole "lol @ physics", mentioned earlier, they were able to graphicly represent emotions, so I got super invested. Without that, they have to be heavy handed in order for me to "get it". If it's anything less subtle than the gif I've attached, I'll miss it.

I like the film Freddy got Fingerd starring Tom Green. That should tell you all you need to know about my sense of humor

I think enjoying campy movies is an understatement in my situation. If you are aware of or have seen the movie Llamageddon for example, you are talking my language.

"Daddy would you like some sausage, Daddy would you like some sau-sage-es"

I have realized that many of us are really into pro wrestling.

I think there is a small factor of beautiful women being on live TV with the potential each week to wind up a mess at any given moment, as we have seen time and time again.

Given the fact that both the Monday Night Wars and Attitude Era (Ruthless Aggression Era has some moments) has given us some of the most spectacular WAM events on camera such as Miss Kitty vs Ivory Mud Wrestling Match or who can forget the Godwins slopping Sunny?

Now? Eh....it's hit or miss

I think there's beauty in absurdity. Instead of being normal it's off the walls bonkers. It's more fun that way.

Going on the watchlist lol


Damn, that's interesting, and now that you mention it seems like I've noticed the wrestling crossover appeal, and yeah now that I think about it, that's totally in the ballpark. Everything is outrageous and over the top, including kinda like that public humilation anxiety that's present in sports period of course, but arguably is heightened in the same way as everything else in Pro Wrestling. Some of the hottest WAM ever comes out of WWE clips like what's her face in the pudding lol, the fuckin mop bucket clip, lots of pretty good pie-ings, etc


Gotcha about reading emotions. And that makes sense about Scott Pilgrim, I've seen that and you're right, never thought of it, the film does portray emotions and states of mind in a very expressive, animated way. Love that movie for that.

A WAM movie I've thought for a long time, would be amazing. I feel like ppl like Baba Slimes are edging towards it, or even Messygirl is pretty cool with the scripting and scenes a lot of the time. But I would love to see like a 90 minute "lost in a bad dream" (or series of them) film, or maybe like a Dante-esque "hell", but it's WAM punishments lol. But good god anything approaching a feature length project would be such an investment. But it would get hella attention, I would think.

Everything Everywhere All At Once totallyyy had that chaotic, anything could happen, wild colors, wild designs, beautiful unpredictable insanity thing going on. Yeah it definitely hit a few of the buttons in what I'm talking about, for sure


Absolutely, perfect example. Peggy Bundy... omg if I could afford it I would order a custom with someone to see a Peggy Bundy WAM scenario, she's up there with Elvira for me in WAM-able hotness

You kidding? There isn't a day that goes by that I wonder how on earth do you have Christina Applegate and Tia Carrere in the same room catfight it out in mini skirts and NOT come up with a good excuse to have them roll around in the mud?!