La Ron S. Readus
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How Debbie Made Addams Family Values EVEN GAYER (VIDEO SCRIPT)
🕑 Added 2022-10-12 20:00:04 +0000 UTCThe theatrically released live-action Addams Family films were two of my favorites growing up
Being a 90’s baby, these movies were my initial introduction to the IP having never read any of the New Yorker comic strips, or the 1964 sitcom
As a matter of fact, the only thing I had to follow it afterwards were their animated crossover with Mystery Inc in The New Scooby Doo Movies and their own animated series that I religiously watched every Sunday on Cartoon Network
Now I was 3 years old when the first one was released in theaters, so I didn’t really see and remember it until I FULLY turned on as a human being, if you catch my drift.
And I enjoyed it so much that it quickly added itself to the list of movies I’d regularly quote at 4 years old, according to the home movies my mom recorded of me as courtroom evidence.
/specifically THIS line/ (Damn you, Addams!)
Yeah, my mom wasn’t really a fan of me screaming that line while sliding down my fisher price playhouse slide...
However, while the 1991 Addams Family movie has a special place in my heart because of HOW it introduced me to the world, I -- like countless others as you can imagine -- became absolutely OBSESSED with its 1993 sequel, Addams Family Values as I grew older.
The original always had a special place in my heart, but my enjoyment factor always rose considerably higher whenever Values was an option as opposed to Family
The introduction of baby Pubert was always hilarious, Wednesday and Pugsley’s summer camp b-plot was sublime
And then there’s the film’s villain Debbie Jellinsky, aka The Black Widow killer
(Muah) Perfection
However, it wasn’t until I became an adult and began to better explore both aspects of my queerness and the pop culture we tend to be attracted to...
/That this love for Addams Family Values -- specifically Addams Family Values -- is shared among a lot of us/
And when I found that out, I immediately asked myself...why?
That’s why for today’s lesson, I wanna explore what it is about Addams Family Values that makes it such a beloved cult classic among queer millennials and the like
That means looking into its history, how queer theory plays a part in everything...
And seeing how everyone’s favorite superficial blond-haired serial killer plays a significant role in everything kooky, spooky, and all-together ooky. Let’s begin.
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Hey, Readers. La’Ron here. Offering you analysis and perspective on your favorite bits of geek and pop culture media
If it wasn’t obvious from the intro, this video will in fact contain spoilers for Paramount Pictures The Addams Family and its sequel Addams Family Values. They’re both currently available to stream on Paramount Plus, so give them a watch before continuing here if you haven’t seen them yet and don’t want me to spoil pivotal points of them for you in this video.
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That’s the syllabus. Now onto the lesson.
So Why Addams Family Values?
That’s probably the question a lot of you are asking, and it’s a pretty fair one
After all, the original 1991 adaptation was magical on its own.
It was the media that introduced a lot of us to The Addams Family for the very first time, both the immediate and the extended family. And it was done in a gothically weird flare that was nothing less than grand.
/It’s story was even one of familial acceptance and belonging, with Fester being the focus, as he goes on this journey of feeling said love and acceptance from the Addams before regaining his memory of him ACTUALLY being related to them./
Both Family and Values, despite both of their plots revolving around Fester to a certain degree, have these themes of familial love and acceptance present in their storytelling, as well as strong messages regarding nonconformity in the face of societal pressures regarding what’s declared “normal.” So one would assume that BOTH films -- not just Addams Family Values -- would be worthy of having a cult following consisting of queer members.
And to say that the only reason why Values could be held in higher regard among said members is because of Debbie for reasons I’m gonna touch on later would be stereotypically presumptuous. But you know better than to immediately assume that right?
Because the REAL reason why Addams Family Values IS held in higher regard among queer fans in comparison to the first one, is because Paul Rudnick, the writer of Addams Family Values, wrote it that way
In a 2018 interview from the Hollywood Reporter looking back at Addams Family Values, Paul Rudnick -- as well as Anjelica Houston, Christina Ricci and Christopher Lloyd who played Morticia, Wednesday and Fester respectively...
Revealed a bit of the punk-ish origins regarding the direction he took the sequel being its only writer, as opposed to how he handled the reworking of Caroline Thompson and Larry Wilson’s script for the 1991 original.
Along with mentioning the reasoning for naming the Addams’ newborn baby Pubert, he also said and I quote:
/“I did also want the movie’s name to be a response to the Republican Party’s constant harping on ‘family values,’ as if only conservatives could define a loving family. In Republican terms, ‘family values’ is always code for censorship and exclusion, and Republicans still refuse to respect or even acknowledge, for example, LGBTQ familes. I like to believe that The Addams Family is far more loving and accepting than their enemies”/
Now don’t get me wrong, Readers. There are definitely some of us out there who, upon reading this reveal said out loud:
“Yes, we know. It was pretty obvious...”
But you also have to realize that we now exist in a time period where subtlety, literary techniques and devices, and even symbolism are either ignored or can’t be bothered to be dwelled upon for more than a second...
Commentary the likes of Nostalgia Critic and CinemaSins are taken seriously with no steps taken to show that they don’t condone the behavior they help spawn...
And modern-day parables like Fight Club, Breaking Bad and even Rick & Morty up to season 2 have the majority of their fan bases gravitate toward and worship both the characters and ideologies that the stories in question are literally warning them about.
So while there’s definitely still people who appreciate and have room for both subtlety and subtext in media, some creators -- in order to make sure they get their point across -- make it pretty obvious, and then reaffirm it in interviews and the like for those who still choose not to see it.
As far as Values was concerned, Rudnick laid said commentary just as thick as it needed to be. And this was due to, once again, him being the only writer attached to the sequel as opposed to being brought in to rework Caroline Thompson and Larry Wilson’s script for the first one.
/And while he did squeeze in a bit of the commentary in the 1991 original when he was brought on board/ (Have you spoken to her parents?)
/The blatant commentary that accompanied the Camp Chippewa scenes in Addams Family Values not only drove it home that those who don’t fit the ideal American standard of whiteness and privilege will be considered less than second class citizens, with America having recently transitioned from the first Bush administration to the Clinton one upon the film’s release, but her rebellion of said standard -- along with Christina Ricci’s performance -- is also the main reason why the character of Wednesday Addams is so revered even to this day/
So thanks to the combination of interpreting and translating the work for ourselves and pretty much being given confirmation from the writer of the film...
Seeing The Addams Family be more blatant about being rebels against the “normalcy” of what was being propagandized as traditional family values in the second movie, spoke to not only queer individuals who felt the pressure of having to follow the heteronormative temporality that was -- and to a certain extent, still is -- being peddled as the norm...
But also how white privilege and classism affects people of color and those who don’t meet the expected standards that are set
So with this information, one can understand why in comparison to the 1991 film, 1993’s Addams Family Values is held in such high regard among queer folk.
But yet, despite this, there’s still one question we have to answer regarding ANOTHER reason why it is. And that question...
Is “What About Debbie?”
So remember when I said that if your IMMEDIATE thought regarding why Addams Family Values can be looked at through a queer lens was because certain aspects of queer culture can be easily associated with Debbie, that you should feel bad about it?
Well, I didn’t say that because said association doesn’t exist, because it does. All I was saying was that it shouldn’t have been your immediate response
I would be lying if I said that Joan Cusack’s Debbie Jellinsky doesn’t perfectly embody how diva worship began to transition into camp among members of the LGBT community.
And that’s pretty much because she checks off every box that resulted in how diva worship began to fall off and become a mockery of itself among queer men during the 1960’s and 70’s.
On the outside, Debbie has the glitz and glamor of white female celebrities from old Hollywood that allowed queer men to live vicariously through them.
/From the way she keeps her hair to the way she keeps the white of her stylish dresses white in the midst of living in the Addams estate, Debbie’s persona both resembled and represented the various actresses in the 1920’s that not only became an avatar for queer men, but also were made the heroines of stories written by queer men in a time when they couldn’t tell them./
Then we learn of her intentions with seducing Fester along with what she’s willing to do in order to get what she wants, and we properly see that transition from diva worship to camp following the Stonewall riots in her character
Now the reason why this transition happened in the first place is pretty much thanks to the phrase “never meet your heroes.”
As you can imagine, the romanticization of diva worship began to lessen with the passing of time. This also depended on how the celebrity in question presented herself or how the celebrity in question revealed how she felt about having a fanbase of mostly queer men.
By the time the 60’s and 70’s arrived, the queer youth at the time didn’t look at them as the proto-gay-liberation leaders the generation before them saw them as.
They saw the concerts where they were completely disheveled, drunk or high. They heard Bette Davis call one of her queer 12 year old fans a pansy, saying she’d rather off herself if her son turned out that way. They saw Faye Dunaway’s portrayal of Joan Crawford in “Mommie Dearest.”
So instead these queer youths began to mock them, labeling them as obsolete and exaggerating the personalities that were usually associated with them. And because drag survived this transition due to its ability to accommodate the exaggeration for comedy and naturally has room for large personalities, this form of camp is widely known among queer communities
Nowadays, there seems to be room for both when it comes to diva worship and camp. There are stars that are idolized and whose lives are lived vicariously through members of the LGBTQ community, but there’s an appreciation of the over-the-top personalities the divas of yesteryear spawn from certain drag performers and personalities.
/People can see the appeal that comedy films like Death Becomes Her provides, appreciating the glitz and glamor the two main leads represent while also cackling at how vile and messy they are as they watch the two deteriorate into nothing./
And then, of course, there’s the Real Housewives franchise. And I think...that’s all I need to say on the matter.
Debbie in Addams Family Values, however, seems to be a perfect blend of both diva worship and camp.
Because while everything about how she presents herself visually checks the boxes of a queer individual finding appeal to the character-slash-performer’s world as opposed to their femininity, aspects surrounding Debbie’s mania as the Black Widow killer are also appealing toward a handful of queer individuals who just love mess, even if said aspects about Debbie’s personality properly fit into the realm of camp.
/Being able to get Fester to reject his family just by doing a seductive pose is absolutely camp, yet at the same time being able to pussywhip someone like that is an ability that is also absolutely coveted./
/Blowing up her entire house in an attempt to kill Fester while she calmly waits in the car is absolutely camp. Meanwhile fast-forward three years later, and we’re cheering on Angela Basset’s Bernadine from Waiting to Exhale for setting the car of her cheating ex-husband on fire with all of his expensive-ass suits inside./
/Not to mention the queer fans of Lady Gaga and Beyonce practically cheering when the two kill off everyone in the diner in the music video for Telephone/
And once she’s no longer trying to seduce Fester and convinces him to marry her, a lot of Debbie’s lines are ABSOLUTELY campish. Lines like this:
/Give me a kiss, give me a 20/
And this:
/I want you dead, and I want your money/
But you’d be surprised to learn that there are people who unironically love Debbie for this -- for everything I just mentioned
Because as a modern-day representative of both diva worship and camp, Debbie’s selfishness and gold-digging ways plays into a power fantasy.
/Just like I explained the support of Wanda’s decisions in WandaVision in my video explaining that correlation, it becomes a conduit to allow inner frustrations and desires to be vicariously explored without harming others via diva worship, while also allowing and acknowledging the very display of it to prove just how campy it is./
But that’s only ONE aspect regarding how Debbie fits into the queerness of Addams Family Values, because we still have to take into consideration that everything Debbie does and represents -- diva worship and camp aside -- still plays a very important role regarding the Addams Family’s rebellion of so-called traditional family values that Paul Rudnick wanted to challenge. And despite Addams Family Values being a comedy, that role is a tragedy
Because when it comes to Debbie in Addams Family Values, in reality...
She Could’ve Had It All.
What do I mean by that, you ask? Well let’s take into consideration everything that Debbie represents, versus everything that the Addams family represents.
Debbie is a selfish, self-centered, money hungry serial killer. Now put aside the aspects of diva worship she represents right quick and compare her to what ELSE is presented in the film.
/You’ll see that everything about her -- from her appearance to her expensive tastes and lifestyle -- is easily reflected and presented somewhere else in the movie. I’m of course talking about the preferred attendees of Camp Chippewa and their upper-class parents, all being represented with blond hair and blue eyes/
Thanks to Rudnick’s statement about what his intentions were when he wrote Values, it’s obvious that these children and their parents are supposed to represent what's allowed as exceptional and fits into the standards of society...
/Versus how pretty much every other minority or disabled child at the camp is tossed to the side while Wednesday, Puglsey, and Joel rebel against these standards despite fitting certain aspects and repeatedly being punished for them./ (20 Grand for summer camp, he’s mister woo-woo?)
Now that we know that these characterizations were done on purpose, we can see that Debbie is -- despite her mania and psychopathy -- someone who subconsciously seeks acceptance into the grouping of the standards that are set thanks to them being pretty much everywhere, and that the Addams regularly rebel against.
/And, to a certain extent, that mania and psychopathy REVOLVES around said desire/ (MA-LI-BU BAR-BIE!)
Meanwhile the Addams Family, despite her attempt at keeping Fester away from them, have been nothing but loving and supportive of Debbie.
/They even clock the inner monster -- the true Debbie -- and have so much respect for it/
But despite the kindred spirit between her and the immediate Addams family, Debbie is still a slave to the conventional mindset of the privileged values that the film presents. And because she’s a slave to it, she’s disgusted by all the actual love and support that they bless her with.
And to make things more ironic, they see the subconscious obsession she has with using her unconventional means -- her “inner Addams” for lack of a better phrase -- in order to live an extravagant life under these privileged values, taking Fester with her because she can’t successfully kill him.
/That’s why while the electric chair scene at the end of Act 3 is a great example of the family showing this support to her when confronted with Debbie’s selfish delusions, the best example in my opinion is everyone’s favorite read from Morticia Addams/ (But Debbie, Pastels?)
If Debbie wasn’t so keen on resembling an image of 90’s white upper-class idealism, wasn’t repulsed at the Addams being a healthy reflection of her inner self, and y’know...actually genuinely loved and had feelings for Fester, she’d probably still be alive
/Instead, the path she took because she got a Malibu Barbie as a kid ended with her looking like a Cynthia doll owned by Angelica Pickles./
Conclusion
Not only is there so much good stuff in Addams Family Values, but the reading of it under a queer lens is absolutely refreshing once you apply it
And thanks to there being solid proof that it was both named and written the way it was in order to combat an angle of heteronormativity that has been weaponized by the likes of white privilege and classism, there are so many ways we can actually read it with this prescription.
However, I’m sure that despite the writer stating otherwise, there’s definitely gonna be a group of people who will have NO problem loudly stating “The Addams Family movies aren’t gay!” or “Stop trying to make EVERYTHING political!”
/And if that’s the case Readers, I urge you to remember what the Addams Family credence is in the first movie/ (We gladly feast on those who would subdue us. Not just pretty words)
But I digress, Readers. Your homework assignment for the day:
Write in the comment section below which live-action Addams Family movie is YOUR favorite.
Or, if you feel like sharing with the rest of the class, if there’s a film or television show you grew up with that, thanks to confirmation from someone who helped create it, allowed you to look at it in a brand new light.
Whichever question you decide to answer, I’d love to know your thoughts.
/A HUGE shoutout to my Patrons both big and small for helping make this channel possible.
Make sure you check out the card at the end of the video to join, or click the link to it or any of my affiliates in the description box below.
But until then, this is Readus 101. Class dismissed./
