If he hadn’t become a filmmaker, visual artist, fashion model, ordained minister, puppeteer and poet, John Waters might have carved out a decent career as a bumper sticker slogan writer for Baltimore’s tourism industry.
He made a splash years ago with a slogan that he dreamed up for the Chamber of Commerce to use for his hometown: “Come to Baltimore and Be Shocked!” And it did.
In recent years, Waters has suggested that the city capitalize on the attention it got from “The Wire,” the HBO series from David Simon that presented Baltimore in a less-than-flattering light over five seasons, from 2002 to 2008.
Instead of relying on upbeat phrases such as “The Greatest City in America” and “The City That Reads,” Waters suggested that elected officials lean into Baltimore’s notoriety with: “The Wire: It’s Still Like That.” He also has suggested comparing Baltimore to the Wicked Witch’s castle in “The Wizard of Oz” with road signs at various entrances to the city that warn: “I’d Turn Back If I Were You.”
Last weekend, while hosting the annual Mosswood Meltdown punk rock festival in Oakland, California, Waters offered an update on his Wire-related slogan.
“I tell the politicians in Baltimore: Be proud of our notoriety,” he told the West Coast crowd. “Put a new bumper sticker out that says: ‘The Wire’: It’s Even Worse Now.”
Acknowledging one’s quirks and foibles with humor has been a recurring theme in Waters’ books, films and spoken-word shows. He has consistently argued that it’s more effective for people to admit to their flaws than try to gloss over them.
In “Hairspray,” Tracy Turnblad “stands for anybody ever that was hassled for being different in any kind of way, who takes what they were hassled by, exaggerates it and wins,” Waters said on a recent episode of the Las Culturistas podcast. “That’s all you can do. If they use something against you, own it, grab it, say ‘Yes I am,” and then make it work.”
People around the world know about Baltimore because of “The Wire,” Waters told hosts Bowen Yang and Matt Rogers.
“Let me tell you, ‘The Wire’ in Japan, they love it,” he said. “It’s internationally one of the most known and loved things about Baltimore. It’s one of the best TV shows ever now. So why do we hide that?…Let’s embrace it.”
I love John Waters but his idea of celebrating and promoting the worst aspects of this city strongly suggest that he has lost it.
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