The above video is part of a sketch from the tremendous HBO comedy show Mr. Show. In the sketch, David Cross plays a performance artist known as "Spank." Spank's intended performance for this crowd is to defecate on the American flag, an act of defiance against what he believes is the United States defecating on him. Unfortunately, he gets too nervous to move his bowels, so he instead tries to urinate on the flag, but, again, he is not able. He also cannot successfully vomit on the flag, and after one final failed attempt to defecate on it, Spank takes the flag to court for not letting him defecate on it.
The performative aspect of this sketch is Spank's defiling of the flag, but the twist is all in David Cross's portrayal of the character. If the typical theoretical performative act is to defecate on a flag as an act of rebellion/disgruntlement, the tweak of being unable to do so is a satire of performance artists. This is foreshadowed by the ineffectual, nonsensical slam poetry before the act (also, the fact that it is Mr. Show, and nothing is taken seriously). Cross is criticizing performance artists who are edgy for the sake of attention, as opposed to spreading a message ("I am a taxpayer who makes a living--a good living--shitting on things.") This is the pretty clear joke as soon as Cross steps onstage.
However, in true Mr. Show fashion, another complication is added when Spank cannot complete his job, presumably due to nervousness (although a lack of fiber and caffeine is also suggested). This performance artist is either afraid or unprepared. The only reason I'm entirely certain that the joke is either "performance art is bad" or "this performance artist is bad" and not "this performance artist's biological functions aren't working on cue" is the implication that this is Spank's whole act (i.e., shitting on flags, religious icons, etc.), which is a pretty dim performative act to begin with.
Plus, really, performance art is an untapped comedy goldmine, especially for a show with as much freedom as Mr. Show had.
I really liked this video! I found it particularly interesting because when I think of defiling an American flag, all sorts of images pop up in my head of flags being burned during times of war. So this was a nice comical twist on that. I also found it interesting that the topic of performance art is one that is well known enough to be parodied at this level. For some reason when I watched this video my first reaction was, "how common is it for non-theatre people to experience performance art?"
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