Dwarf A Timeless Relationship Between Content And Cult

Onboard the Dwarf:

A Timeless Relationship Between Content and Cult

Cult media has always been as difficult to accurately describe as the large variety of material it can cover. Sometimes it is defined by nostalgia and a long history, others are defined by passionate naivety on the part of the creator (or, in contrast, the deliberate decision to make something garishly “bad” of moral or aesthetic quality). However, shared by films and shows of every genre and style is the presence of a committed audience who interact with the source material in ways that are considered non-normal or even obsessive by larger society. How these fans interact with the source material can become the defining trait of what is and isn’t considered cult media. In

Instead of hiring classically-trained actors, the characters were instead played by a poet, a dancer, an impressionist, and a stand-up comedian. As it would turn out, comedy and live performance would be a core part of the show’s origins, and consequently what would turn a low-budget, little-known sci-fi comedy into a cult favorite in Britain. Just when Red Dwarf would introduce serious and even traumatising events (like Lister being told everyone he knew was dead), humour would be used to snatch up the moment and push it on to the next plot point. This dancing along the boundary of genre is quite common is cult media. Cult tv and films “blur and push the generic conventions they are supposed to respect. They do this by mixing genres, exposing and/or mocking a genre’s unwritten rules satirically, or hyperbolically exaggerating those rules” (Mathijs and Mendik 2). Red Dwarf displays this beautifully by using science fiction as the backdrop and comedy as the tools to tell the story, each aspect influencing the other. Even when the humour was a bit too crazy (for instance, fighting a theme park full of malicious wax figures), the sheer oddity could be successfully pulled off because this was Red Dwarf, and Red Dwarf could not be accused of peculiarity if that was the foundation on which it was

“Many celebrations of cult movies are in fact live-events, within an atmosphere akin to theatrical performance, in which ‘being there’ and ‘being part’ become important,” say Mathijs and Mendik (4). Red Dwarf offered something even better; the chance to be part of a live studio audience. Unlike most shows which required well-behaved viewers who could laugh or react only when appropriate, Red Dwarf went for authentic reaction, both for those viewing it and those performing. In later seasons when the live audience was reinstated, much to fan delight, participation was even more encouraged, including “gurning to camera. 25-year-old in-jokes. A lot of corpsing. The cast go and sit in the crowd during pre-recorded scenes. Llewellyn stays in character. Someone asks to lick Lister” (Holland). These live events, then, are particularly special and coveted by cult fans because it adds a sense of witnessing something extra-textual, and yet still belonging to the story. Not just the canonical plot, but in this case, their own relationship with Red Dwarf and its cast of wild characters, as well as fellow audience members who belong to the same