Lucy Garcia

December 12, 2021

Armando

Theatre History

Futurism and Gen Z, How Theatre Survives

Attention spans are shortening. This extends far into the realm of theatre. The Futurist

movement, created by Italian theatre makers in the early 20th century felt that there needed to be

a distinct change in how theatre was presented; to put it simply, less fat, more meat. A hundred

years later and there is a similar shift still taking place, but instead of on a stage its inside a

screen. New forms of media entertainment have become short as can be. With the popularity of

vine skyrocketing in the early 2010’s, and Tiktok today amplifying the everyday joe into

superstardom- it’s easy to pinpoint that its fast pace and short time length directly relates to its

popularity. But how does a theatrical movement from a century ago relate to the obsessively

popular apps of modern times? In this essay I will analyze how futurism is compatible with short

form media like Tiktok and Vine, and how new media influences modern theatre.

Futurist theatre is an Italian movement can be summarized best by this quote from its

manifesto, written by Filippo Tommaso Marinetti: “We affirm that the world’s magnificence has

been enriched by a new beauty: the beauty of speed.” It is also absurd by nature. There is a clear

lack of context and a set of rules that must be followed to fit into the futurist manifesto- similar

to the time constraints of apps like Tiktok and Vine which give creators roughly six seconds to a

minute and a half to get their point across. This mold provides a perfect formula for creativity

and innovation. Tiktok especially is a modern futurist movement in a way because there are
many subsets dedicated to new art, new technology, and new music. Tiktok, however, is harder

to reference because it generally uses audio clips alone to generate popular context. Which, in a

way, is another constraint to the art. The audio clip provides a set context, such as the lyric “’cuz

if you try to hide, it doesn’t go away” from the song “Little Dark Age” by MGMT [2]. This song

clip is generally used in reference to people doing body transformations but still identifying that

the external changes only helped their self-esteem so much. However, dramatic themes are a less

common way to provide entertainment through short term media such as this, people generally

prefer to laugh.

Modern humor (which is now occasionally referred to as “memes”) provides little to no

context in both the set up and delivery. Part of them require context to understand, such as the

iconic vine quote: “Hi, welcome to Chilis.” Completely devoid of any external context such as a

“set” or “costume”. Adam Perkins appears stiff and penguin-like in his underwear. Phone in

hand he says the iconic line [3]. However- where is the context? All that we, the American

audience, get from this vine is that he is repeating what hosts say at the Mexican restaurant chain

Chilis. It’s completely absurd already, but the reference to a national chain keeps it within a

culture of understanding: his immediate peers would know what Chilis is. However, to a person

who doesn’t speak English- or even doesn’t know what chilis is- it is not funny in the same way.

There are many vines from other languages/cultures that are funny to Americans because they’re

just funny- the audience can infer what is happening based of assumed context, the editing could

be funny, the voices and tones could be cause for the laugh. However, there are also ways for

content creators (even accidentally creative people) to incorporate jokes that make little to no

sense whatsoever with absolutely zero context. A good example of content creators that
capitalize on jokes within this category would be Casey Frey. A snippet of lines from his one of

his videos reads as follows [4]:

“Hey, Casey can you hand me a napkin?”

“Why would I give you a napkin if you are not my king?”

“We are half-brothers, Dremont. Dremont the curious as mother would

call you- stupid bloke.”

“The only thing I’m curious about is boys.”

“A name but quartered has but three parts clever and one-part coward.

Cunt. Stupid cunt. Look at you and your cunty face. Fuck.”

Although most comedic/theatrical videos on platforms vine and Tiktok have no budget

(or even effort) there is still room for creativity. Even the weirdest, most absurd media can make

way for artistic and stylistic choices. Although not a form of social media, but a good example of

how a short form media on a larger scale can be widely popular. The Eric Andre Show, which is

a popular American comedy series that generally runs for about eleven minutes that began in

2012 is hosted by comedian Eric Andre. The show’s premise is to spoof the general format of

late-night talk shows but in a dirty, rundown environment with a catatonic host that is either

genuinely bodily disguising or at a base level disarming. Popular segments of the series include

“interviews” with celebrities that consist of Eric increasingly finding ways to illicit a large

reaction from his (typically unsuspecting) guest; another is when the show comes up with ways

to generally disrupt a person’s day by impossibly dumb circumstances. An example of this

would be creating a mock focus group consisting of real people only to be interrupted by Eric in

disguise as a crashed landed sprite-sponsored parachuter or an undercover host of the surprise

(also fake) prank show: Fartsplosion [5].

 The aesthetic of The Eric Andre Show consists of dirty 70’s-80’s themed sets with

lackluster special effects. It is supposed to look cheap and homemade on purpose, to indicate an

ironic and self-aware riff off of American late-night television. They are both making fun of

people who would create the surprise prank show “Fartsplosion” but are also the people coming

up with it and releasing it into the world. However, it’s not just Eric Andre creating these uber

short TV shows. Another popular one, on YouTube, was called All Gas, No Breaks by

independent journalist Andrew Callaghan, although now the show is called Channel 5 with

Andrew Callaghan [6], averaging about 10-15 minutes per episode. Andrew interviews a wide

range of people, with a hilarious editing style. At times the topics are serious, but generally it is a

reflection of real people living within the United States.

Short form media in general is huge. Stemming from the increasingly short attention

spans of newer generations, and a preference for faster, more action-packed stories, younger

audience enjoy the time constraint in creating media for an audience. They want people to watch

in the same way that the thrill of being discovered drives consistent innovation. People still re-

watch the highly addictive vine complications on Youtube, which can range anywhere from ten

minutes to two hours long. Although Youtube compilation is not “short form” the actual videos

are under six seconds so many different skits, jokes, and circumstances can happen with a high

re-watch value because they are quotable but mostly forgettable. Additionally, the jokes

themselves can gain traction. During the 2020 pandemic, what started as a joke turned into an

almost full-fledged musical [7]. Ratatouille the Musical began with a simple suggestion and

became a massive, global group project filled with an A-list musical theatre performing cast with

the goal of raising money for the fight against Covid-19.

 New media affects theatre because it is much more readily available than live

performance. Many schools in the USA cut funding to their theatre programs and artistic

afterschool activities- this leaves a lot of people unable to connect to that artform. Additionally,

ticket prices tend to be high, so there is also a level of socioeconomic class dictating what art one

is exposed to. Visual media, however, tends to fit in the palm of one’s hand and can help expose

people to many new ways of thinking; for better or for worse. Broadway turns to capitalize on its

partnership with Disney, the line between each other slimming day by day, meaning that its

theatres are turning out long, full length productions that are from movies that have been

developed years ago. A lot of originality is lost this way, with new media a new form of futurism

can take place.

There are many ways to be creative, oftentimes the users on these apps seem to challenge

each other to come up with something that is more aesthetically pleasing or unique than the rest

of the videos with the sound clip. I believe that this competitive spirit amongst young and

emerging adults creates an environment where new ideas can flourish. The idea of theatre within

itself can change and grow- it doesn’t have to die out with a catchy show tune but be reborn into

something completely new. Maybe performance art becomes more popular, which seems likely

based on generation Z’s penchant for activism, contextless jokes, and visually pleasing

designs/dances. There is an active interest in cases like the Menendez brothers from 1989, which

could make way for documentary theatre. All of this is to say that futurism is the next wave of

common, modern theatre because it is already here, just on a little screen in front of us.
WORKS CITED

1. Betascript Publishing. (2011). Futurist manifesto.

2. Little Dark Age TikTok Compilation. Youtube.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5z5-

zjvBds&ab_channel=TiktokRabbit

3. Adam Perkins, Vine.https://www.youtube.com/watch?

v=qsLFF9LfJ_I&ab_channel=ICONIC.

4. Casey Frey, https://www.youtube.com/watch?

v=qD8eEWLM87s&ab_channel=CrackCrowKyle%5BSpare-6%5D

5. Adult Swim, Eric Andre (2021) The Eric Andre Show, https://www.youtube.com/watch?

v=-I2uLOVA4gE&ab_channel=AdultSwim

6. Andrew Callaghan, (2021) Channel 5 with Andrew Callaghan

https://www.youtube.com/watch?

v=65uuGA2xGwg&ab_channel=Channel5withAndrewCallaghan

7. Ratatouille The Musical, (2020) https://www.youtube.com/watch?

v=pXF2KfkFYTU&list=PLT_F1CzNvrgSkcq4o3UkZCQ54q729hrup&ab_channel=Rata

touilleTheMusical

8. Heath, C. (2021, November 27). The menendez brothers – cold-blooded killers or

misunderstood victims? The Telegraph. Retrieved December 15, 2021, from
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2021/11/27/menendez-brothers-murder-2021-
lyle-interview/