crush films?

[No Me Ayudes Compadre]

This note is from the Associated Press ( http://abcnews.go.com/wire/US/AP19990824_25.html ):


Lawmakers and animal rights activists are calling for a ban on the production of ``crush videos,'' films for viewers who get sexually aroused by watching women smashing rats and other small animals.


Have I been gone too long? I've never heard of this. How widespread is this problem?

[Nickrz]

Wow. Me too. I wonder if they have a gerbil version?

[Ukulele Ike]

The women in the films wear spiky high heels and use them to slowly impale small rodenty critters. I'm not sure how the activity is worked into a greater plotline.

PS: Don't ask how I know this.

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Uke

Oh, God, now y'all know what I REALLY do for a living . . .

[Nickrz]

Flora, why don't they call them "impale" films then?

[Frankie]

its been a while since i've rented any....ummmm...."adult entertainment", but thats just sick! Sheesh...Give me hot girl on girl action anyday!

[Big Iron]

I was just about to post on this -- truly sick and inhumane stuff. To jail with the lot of 'em, for a good long while.

[According to Pliny]

It occurs to me that this was probably a pretty small problem until somebody decided there needed to be a law.

I can imagine all the adult internet sites revising their menus in the next couple weeks:

Teens
Lesbians
S&M....
Crushing

[torq]

I heard this on a radio show yesterday. They were interviewing a guy who makes these. He uses insects (he specifically mentioned cockroaches), and said that sometimes it was done with high heels, sometimes with platform shoes, sometimes barefoot... I don't recall him mentioning tennis shoes, bowling shoes, or clown shoes, but I suppose they can't be ruled out.

I got the impression that he had seen, or was at least aware of, some involving rodents (rats and/or mice). He didn't seem to have ever heard of one which used a guinea pig (and indicated that he personally thought that would be going too far), and he was openly sceptical about the claims that there were some which involved puppies or kittens or... get this... MONKEYS.

He also said that he estimated there were maybe a couple thousand people with this particular fetish.

It sounds to me like one of those "causes" where, even if you alienate for life everyone who approves of it, you lose like two votes, and you get to make it sound like you're some sort of hero for opposing this dire threat to the moral fabric of the country.

One thing I think is funny: if a law is passed, and it does apply to insects, there are a LOT of movies which will need to have certain scenes cut from them: Men in Black, Starship Troopers, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom...

[Seraphim]

Here's two more articles:
http://www.latimes.com/CNS_DAYS/990824/t000075348.html
http://www.msnbc.com/news/304153.asp

I agree with torq--how are they going to prosceute this? If it becomes illegal to "create, sell or possess any 'depiction' of animals being tortured, maimed or killed for commercial purposes" as it says in the nbc article, would that mean fishing videos would become illegal? After all, being suspended from a hook and left to suffocate on land is fairly gruesome, wouldn't you say?

[astorian]

I'm holding out for a video where a naked girl plays "The Bells of St. Mary's" by hitting musical mice with hammers.

[Nickrz]

This gives a whole new meaning to the phrase
"I've got a crush on you."

From today's BBC News:

"Hollywood legend Mickey Rooney is calling for a ban on the production of "crush videos" - films for people who get sexually aroused by watching scantily-clad women smashing rats and other small animals. "Put a stop, won't you, to crush videos," said the 78-year-old entertainer and animal rights activist at a news conference in California."

Now, on the other hand, I'd pay good money to see a woman in spike heels stomping the life out of Mickey Rooney . . .

[BurnMeUp]

I thought Mickey Rooney WAS a rodent

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To deal with men by force is as impractical as to deal with nature by persuasion.

There was an actual vaudeville performer, later described in one of Jack Finney's books, who had cats lined up in cages, with fake tails hanging down. He'd yank the "tails" and meow a tune as he hopped from cat to cat. That seems to be the origin of those Muppet sketches.

[No Me Ayudes Compadre]

Not to mention Navin Johnson's crusade against Mexican cat jugglers.

[rjk]

Doesn't this thread really belong with the "squirrels" one in this forum?

:;



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Bob the Random Expert
"If we don't have the answer, we'll make one up."

[rjk]

Damn! What I really meant was ;).

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Bob the Random Expert
"If we don't have the answer, we'll make one up."

[BoBettie]

Pluto- Thanks for the congrats..I almost fell off my couch when I saw that this weeks question was mine...I sent it in so long ago I didn't even remember it for a second or two!
Ah, yes..the Which Doctor...that was one of the funniest skits I've ever seen..I wish I had it on tape now- you could never be in a bad mood after watching it!

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An optimist sees an opportunity in every calamity; A pessimist sees a calamity in every opportunity.

[BoBettie]

This is totally bizarre, but speaking of crushing small animals, I wonder if Jim Henson was into this phenomenon...I clearly remember an episode of the Muppet Show where a guy muppet had a bunch of cute little fluff ball muppets- all lined up in a row, like a xylephone...he played "Oh,E,Oh,A,A, Bing, Bang, Walla Walla Bing Bang" (does anyone know what the hell I'm talking about?) by smashing them with a hammer..Each hit he made, the corresponding fluffy muppet would yell out "OH" or "EEE" or whatever their appropriate note was.
Please don't think I'm crazy...it really happened...or maybe my husband has been renting porn from that store on Sesame Street again...

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An optimist sees an opportunity in every calamity; A pessimist sees a calamity in every opportunity.

[pluto]

Zette -- The title of the song is "Witch Doctor" by Dave Seville (of Alvin and the Chipmunks fame).

p.s. Congrats on your question!


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"non sunt multiplicanda entia praeter necessitatem"

[Alphagene]

There's also Lew Zeland, the muppet who'd throw fish around indiscriminately.

Come to think of it, I do remember hearing about crush films a few years back. Except they were called "smush" fims. I recall earthworms being the smushees.

I hope this media attention doesn't raise the "snuff film" specter again.

[According to Pliny]

I remember that Muppet skit, zette! It was a ripoff of a Monty Python gag.

[whc.03grady]

I apologize profusely for not being able to directly cite this, name names, etc., but this is no urban legend:
A couple from around here (it was either Omaha or Council Bluffs, IA) got their house searched by the cops for one reason or another. During this search (which I believe was not related to the topic at hand), the fuzz found stacks of videos that turned out to be of this couple, doing it, on top of bunnies and cats and even dogs. It seems that they'd even go to the pound to get new victims, singling out old or sickly animals. Some of the animals were dead by the time the act was complete. Pretty goddamn sick. I think they were meth-heads.