Yes, People Are Still Making ‘Brokeback’ Parodies

A group of Montgomery County College students won a county smoking-prevention contest; the ad the group made for the contest was slated to air on MTV.

Only, now it’s not, because the state refused a grant for the ad because it’s a parody of Brokeback Mountain. The state says it’s not because of the content (or that Brokeback is almost two years old now) and actually because the “message was lost.”

This is pretty tough to figure out:

The winning commercial shows a cowboy standing near a pickup truck, trying to sever ties with a cigarette. The commercial ends with the cowboy saying, “I wish I knew how to quit you. Why don’t you let me? It’s because of you I’m like this.”

The cowboy shows his teeth, now brown from smoking.

Uh, yeah, this does seem like it could be a pro-smoking message. (Oh, the ad was also “hard to hear.”) The ad, which wouldn’t have stopped anybody from smoking anyway, might still air on TV if the Coalition for a Tobacco-Free Montco can get private funds.

You don’t want to know what the ad based on Showgirls was like.

‘Smokeback’ ad will not air on MTV [The Intelligencer]

Quickies: Best and worst

• Hey, the little gay movie that could Brokeback Mountain got eight Oscar nominations. Although Crash — which was just okay — got six nominations, so who know what these things are worth nowadays. [AP via Philly.com]

• In a list of award nominations that are totally accurate, Son of the Mask got a whopping eight Razzie noms. Upper Darby’s own Jamie Kennedy cries a single tear. [AP via CNN.com]

• With Lynn Swann proving to be a tougher-than-expected challenger for Gov. Ed Rendell, the downside for Pennsylvania Republicans is a larger turnout in Southeastern Pennsylvania, which means more Democrats at the polls. And those are just the live ones! (Rimshot.) [Washington Post]

• Okay, somebody fess up: Needles in food products in a Lehigh Valley supermarket? What the hell? Who even has time to mess around with pranks like that when there’s so much to do…. in Beth..lehem… okay, maybe it makes sense. [AP via Philly.com]