There were so many weird layers to this. A square, sanitized version of a counter-culture (that we now know would curdle into the ur-square Reaganite boomer yuppie culture), deployed to make an older performer seem hip in a “How do you do, fellow teens?” tone-deaf way. BUT that older performer was actually a closeted member of a population whose existence was genuinely counter-cultural during such a repressive time, and that identity is tacitly expressed in the camp qualities of the performance and production.
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