Tuesday, April 13, 2004

As I mentioned, I went to a barbeque potluck hosted by the marvelous Matt Cooper and his lovely wife Lisa this weekend. They have a really fab apartment (with furniture that's not from Craigslist - puts my pad to shame) and make some tasty BBQ chicken. However, the food was only the secondary purpose for this get-together. Coop was showing us all what is perhaps the funniest documentary this side of Trekkies: Hands on a Hardbody. (This is not a porn.)

This movie, which could have only been made in Texas, records a contest in which participants compete to win a brand new truck by standing with their hands on it... for days. They can eat and go to the bathroom, but not sleep or lean on the truck. We meet about a dozen of the contestants in interviews before the competition, and then the cameras record them as they slowly drop out from leg pain, exhaustion, inability to cope with heat and mosquitos, and delirium. The treatment is never mocking, and although we all howled hysterically at the toothless Janis, her equally gnarly husband, and the backwoods philosophizing of Benny, a winner from years before returned to compete again, he was, in the end, right; this is "a human drama thing." If you can get a copy (they go for a lot on Ebay), watch this movie. I've not laughed so hard since Bad Santa.
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