Rocky Horror Picture Show Callback Response

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Hey! I heard this movie was made in New York City! *group response* New York City? Get a rope!

Context

The informant is a cast member in a weekly performance of the Rocky Horror Picture Show that takes place on Saturday night at midnight. While the movie is being screened, there are many vulgar things the audience shouts back at the film at specific points. There are also actors on stage performing scenes from the movie as it is being played.

This particular callback happens in response to the character named Frank dieing.

Analysis

The screening of Rocky Horror Picture Show serves as a sort of festival for alternative and queer youth. By developing and memorizing all of the callbacks involved, audience members communicate their dedication and belonging to the folk group. Some callbacks are universal such as calling the character named Janet a slut and the character named Brad an asshole, but others are regional or specific to a particular cast. Therefore, based on the callbacks you are familiar with, you might be communicating your identity within your local community or an international one.

Rocky Horror Picture show is infamous for being a place for the vulgar and the taboo. Many of the scenes and callbacks are not deemed socially acceptable in the real world, even by the alternative community that find so much belonging in the show. In this way, screenings of Rocky Horror Picture Show serve as festivals in that they provide an opportunity for social norms to be turned on their head. In doing so, they may provide a socially acceptable form of release of tension just to return to reality or serve as a rehearsal for revolution.

This informant attributed this particular callback to a salsa advertisement in which a cowboy is in distress because he has run out of salsa. When he is given a less than sufficient replacement, he exclaims, “This stuff’s made in New York City?!” The rest of the cowboys respond by saying, “New York City?! Get a rope.” This pop-culture reference is an inside joke that is related to the scene taking place.