Stand Out: School Shooter Culture Jamming

What we can learn from a controversial scene in A Goofy Movie

A Goofy Movie (1995) is a controversial film. It’s a low-budget Disney film without any canon or representation during the Renaissance period. In my own opinion, A Goofy Movie is a train wreck, with the collision being a manifestation of embarrassment, cringe, and the 90’s zeitgeist of “cool” kids into skateboarding. It’s a bad film, and no one can watch the film with a straight face and not feel a rush of adrenaline.

However, the film has developed a cult status because of Disney’s wild and crazy portrayal of the 90’s teenager life. Why in the world does Goofy, a well-known brand character, become a cringeworthy suburban dad while trying to make his son Max even more embarrassed? The entire audience is watching an alien film about a fictional 1990s universe of dog people living out a dual life between what is cool and what is cringe.

I love the movie because of how bad it is. It has a huge influence on the way I see bad art, and how the audience equally feels embarrassed and queasy over a corporate representation of something that isn’t real. But importantly, in the zeitgeist of 1995, it was somehow okay to envision a teenage fantasy, to take over the principles boring talk on “science slumber parties,” and tell everyone in school you are cool with an amazing and somewhat offensive culture jamming of music-video style singing.

The stand-out scene in A Goofy Movie is the inverse of a school shooting. It’s a school shooting the audience desires.

I can’t stand it. Every time I watch this clip, I want to leave the room. Why does the nerdy Star Trek kid scream “Yo Stacey! Talk to me talk to me talk to me, baby!!” Is he trying to act like Roosh V and score another girl through the seduction of “game?” Even the name “Stacey” incites a caricature of a stupid white girl in high school. Why did the writers find this funny? I even made a YTMND in 2008 with this clip. I knew as a teenager this was a horrible film. As a fellow YTMND user in 2010, I got paid, even favored my site, and wrote “first comment on the best site ever.” This movie is controversial on many levels.

I can’t stand Principal Mazur either. William Shawn, portraying Mazur, has an atrocious voice. Meanwhile, Max and his friends are planning the biggest “zero-day” event behind the curtains.

And Pete is gonna film it on VHS!

They might as jump and start shooting up everywhere now. But no, they are planning something so lame and gay that if it was successfully done in 2023, it would be considered a domestic terrorist act, and everyone involved would hit a jail time of 20-plus years.

This 3-minute scene feels like forever. I can’t believe three dog kids are willing to create a “prank” against the entire school to prove something. It’s like the movie is celebrating being a queer misfit and that normies like Chads and Stacys will get burned by revenge one day.

The screen is pulled up. Both the principal and the audience are confused. Immediately Mazur falls through a trap door, as if they killed him on stage in the process.

The kids are shocked. And relieved that the fascist principle is killed.

Oh, and it gets better.

Robert Zimmeruski, as played by Pauly Shore, laughs hysterically over his death.

The kids become excited over Max’s TikTok video of lip-syncing to Powerline, all dressed up in cosplay.

Max does a dazzling dance, with further shock and awe.

And those Star Trek kids? They give each other a high five over this successful terrorist attack.

Meanwhile, Max’s love interest, Roxanne, is getting an inverted woman boner and immediately wants to fuck Max in his clownish Powerline attire, all while fulfilling her female fantasy of an unattainable romcom hypergamy.

After a few more dance moves, Max falls out of the screen, and onto the stage, where the audience is crying over his power. It’s a metaphor for something. I don’t know about the whole mimetic desire thing, but Max becomes real and still hides behind a mask. Why this part is absolutely cringe because not even the audience expected Max to fuck up this bad and still land on his feet.

And yes, it gets worse.

As Max approaches Roxanne, Robert sprays smoke, and yells “A little smokeage… owwowowoowoooo!!!”

It’s really hard to explain what happens next.

Max does this kind of breakdown seduction dance just for Roxanne and then gets close in her face which feels like he’s seducing the viewer instead.

It feels forced, and the entire climax of the dance. Like he’s gay for us.

As Max proclaims, “It’s a piece of cake,” a rope lifts him, as he flies through the auditorium.

He flies passes another “Stacey,” as she says “Wow! Who’s that guy???”

Max has successfully not only wooed over Roxanne but is wooing over random popular girls for committing an act of terrorism.

Max also grabs a basketball from a fellow “Chad” and shows his masculine skills by slam-dunking the ball to make everyone go crazy.

Holy shit.

The grand finale ends with Max trying to grab Roxanne’s hand.

But is ultimately stopped by Mazur, who survived the fall, and unmasks this fake Powerline as being Max, the true “good boy.” Max is mogged.

There is nowhere to turn. Max is a bleeding corpse after his thrill ride from “killing” so many students. It’s all over now.

Or is it?

This is the entire 3-minute scene in a 78-minute film. With this alone, so much could be said about “culture jamming,” “school shootings,” and the explosive nature of a sexual awakening in a 3-minute scene alone.

The concept that a Twitter user blows up over reposting popular memes or stating anti-liberal conundrums is rooted in Max taking over the school assembly with his Powerline roleplay. Such as “Bronze Age Pervert” creating a following around his love of everything to do with masculinity and creating an inclusive subculture around his curated aesthetics. For BAP, he is pranking the entire school, and showing who he is.

Taking the mask off, through “doxing” or public reveal, he has nothing to hide. It doesn't matter if BAP is gay or Jewish, because, for a second, he was Powerline for us.

We all want to be Powerline.

Max gives us the power to culture jam our ordinary environments with our shock treatment of originality. We want to disturb the public by staging a revolution. When we create internet personas, we roleplay a revolutionary that will make our imagined community excited about our performance. In a way, we become Powerline when we want to persuade the stupid there are better options than following another 20k subbed reactionary YouTuber making criticisms of Rick & Morty. It requires us to do a transgressive act of trolling to get our point across. It's a lot like coming out of a closet and being proud of one's unique sexuality.

The shitshow that is Twitter requires a Powerline stunt once in a while to redirect people into something new. Be it a new personality, a movement, or some meme, imagine those things performing a cringe and eccentric Powerline performance. The people desire it.

Maybe I’m stretching this a bit too far. I mean, Principle Mazur did call Goofy and said his son would be in “the electric chair” if he pulled another stunt like that. That is, Mazur would love to put Max in an electric chair right now if he had the power. And that means that while I’m celebrating Stand Out as a revolutionary act, I am also giving power to those who would commit a future school shooting! So why did Disney ever think in 1995, four years before Columbine, that it was a popular teenage fantasy to “prank” the school by hurting the principal and taking the stage as an imaginary pop star? How come this act isn’t the same as a school shooting, but is directly the action that three outcasts would do upon their school?

That’s why this scene is so bizarre. Max could have shot the principal and killed everyone in the audience. Instead, the audience wanted the principal dead as Max danced around it. In 2021, YouTube user Emperor Radiation made a parody edit where Max shoots up the school during the performance.

It’s the same energy.

We would love to take revenge upon society and show everyone we are cool. We have to troll or prank the daily routine just to show how much our criticisms and our Banksy-esque actions mean. Disney thought it was okay to have a secret stunt like this.

It may be a sadist fantasy. It’s something we all want to do. Every Twitter user is guilty of enjoying this mass shooting. We enjoy sadism the same we enjoy justice being brought upon the downtrodden.

Maybe it’s time for another stand-out prank!

-pe

4-3-2023