In just one day of online existence, the
Funny Or Die video “Prop 8­ — The Musical” has received more than 1.2
million hits. The comedic song-and-dance diatribe about the California ballot
initiative to define marriage as existing only between a man and a woman stars a
cast of dozens, including John C. Reilly, Neil Patrick Harris, Maya Rudolph, and
Jack Black as Jesus Christ.
See more Jack Black videos at Funny or Die
The musical itself is the brainchild of Marc Shaiman, the composer of the
film and stage musical “Hairspray,” as well as some of the filthier songs in
“South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut.” Assembled in a week, it’s also the
result of a process that began when Mr. Shaiman, who splits his time between New
York and Los Angeles, alerted
his friends and colleagues that Scott Eckern, the musical director of
Sacramento’s California Musical Theater, had donated money to a Yes-on-Prop 8
campaign. The proposition has already passed, and Mr. Eckern has since
resigned, so what has Mr. Shaiman gained from this video? He discusses the
creation of “Prop 8­–The Musical” in a Q&A below.
How did your mass e-mail message about Scott Eckern and the
California Musical Theater end up spawning this video?
I sent an
e-mail to a lot of people, anyone who’s in my phone book, and said, “Can you
believe this guy?” I’d rather almost not talk about him and that situation
anymore, because he’s certainly gone through enough. But that e-mail, one of the
people it went to was Adam McKay [a co-founder of FunnyOrDie.com]. He wrote me back,
basically, just saying, “Why don’t you write a song about it for Funny Or Die?”
Which was like, the slapping-my-head moment. Oh yeah, why didn’t I think of
that? Or why didn’t I do that in the first place?
It took a few weeks to calm down enough to be able to find the humor in it
all. So once he planted that seed in my head, I basically went the next day to
the piano and started to write – a week later we were filming it.
Is this the first time you’ve created a viral video for the
Internet?
I’m so old, I can’t remember. To this extent, certainly. I
have done things that have ended up on the Internet. Luckily, nothing sexual.
Yet. But the night is still young.
How do you feel, given that it took the passage of Proposition 8 to
motivate you to create a video opposing it?
In my credit, it says,
“Written (six weeks too late) by Marc Shaiman.” I mean, yeah, it’s totally
bittersweet. Barack Obama’s ascension just had us all so giddy. We were thinking
of how to film it, and I said, “Well, maybe that first section should be all of
us on a hill, with poppies, and it snows and we’re put to sleep, and then the
Proposition 8 people are looking through the crystal ball, like the Wicked Witch
of the West in ‘The Wizard of Oz.’” Because that’s what happened. We stupidly
allowed ourselves to be lulled into a sense of, everything’s fantastic now, look
– everything’s changing. And this couldn’t possibly be voted into law. This is
just like some little pesky thing that we’re swatting at, and it will go away
immediately.
How did you react to the news that Mr. Eckern had resigned from the
theater?
There’s certainly nothing joyous about being partially
responsible for a man resigning from his job. I mean, I did not ask for his
resignation, nor would it be my place to ask for someone’s resignation. He
resigned, though, and I was part of that, and that is a very heavy weight, and I
don’t take it lightly. But it has certainly opened up our eyes, and made me get
off the couch and out on the street with a picket sign, for the first time in my
life. And it felt fantastic.
So this experience has made you more of an
activist?
Yeah, I was marching in New York, and that was just the
greatest experience. And of course this video is just a viral picket sign. And
hopefully funny. I hope that doesn’t get lost. I hope that’s what most people
get out of it.