I Hope They Serve Beer In Hell

I have sat back and watched the kooks protest me and the major media present their side as if it had validity. I have ignored the slander and libel they have hurled at me, and for the most part I’ve just stuck to what matters: Making my fans laugh. But there comes a time when you have to stop ignoring the bullshit and make a stand, and for me, that day is today.

Yesterday, in response to a small minority of butthurt kooks, the Chicago Transit Authority pulled the “I Hope They Serve Beer In Hell” ads from all their buses. In response, I issued the statement below to the press:

Tucker Max responds to the CTA decision to ban ads for “I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell”

CHICAGO and LOS ANGELES – In response to Thursday’s announcement from the Chicago Transit Authority that it would immediately ban more than 250 bus ads for the film I Hope They Serve Beer in Hell, Tucker Max is issuing a statement about it to the media:

“Blow me.”

The recent ban is the culmination of a two month long effort by angry anti-male groups on college campuses. What began as a series of protests at a movie screening in North Carolina has grown into a multi-state campaign designed to label the movie a promoter of “rape culture.” This week the group took advantage of the movie’s advertisements in Chicago to bring more attention to themselves at the expense of the movie.

“This is the perfect example of a ridiculous group of kooky activists bullying the media into propagating a minority viewpoint. They’ve purposely manipulated my work — which is a satire and a comedy — to further their own agenda and shamelessly exploited the rape and domestic violence issues to get national attention,” said Tucker Max, co-writer and producer of the film.

The CTA’s decision to pull the bus advertisements was undoubtedly related to the email and telephone campaign promoted by SAFER CAMPUS (Students Active for Ending Rape) and an article published by Chicago Reader in which the author predicted the ads would be removed while simultaneously admitting that he’d not actually seen them.

“All I have to say to these kooks and trolls is blow me. You can slander and libel me on the internet or attack my advertisements but you will not shut this movie down. Not under any circumstances,” Max said.

In response to the loss of audiences in Chicago, Rudius Media and Darko Entertainment, the two companies behind the film, are announcing that they are doubling their internet advertising budget and expanding print and television ads to other more open minded cities.

Max was adamant that he not only doesn’t hate women, he loves them, “That’s the question I have constantly asked that the protestors have never addressed, because they can’t: ‘If my art is misogynist and promotes violence against women, then why are half my fans women?’ They don’t answer the question because they can’t. Women are not stupid. They would not support me if I hated them, and the fact that they come out in the hundreds of thousands to buy my book and go to my movie is proof that I not only love women, but my art is in fact pro-woman. The facts are on my side because I am right.”

Max concluded with, “Fuck those protestors if they can’t a take a joke.”

To expand a little bit on the press release:

1. Here are some of the ads in question:

Seriously??? REALLY?? This is what you are mad at? An obvious and funny double entendre? If you are pissed off over this, you are pitiful, and if you think that ad promotes violence, you are just stupid.

2. We are intentionally spending more money to not just promote the movie, but place these ads. If you run a website or have any place that print ads can go, and you like these ads, think they are funny, or just like to get paid money, contact my assistant Ian Claudius (ianclaudius@gmail.com), and let’s talk.

3. What really kills me is how quick everyone is to judge something they have never seen! We have now screened this movie for 26 audiences, and not one rational person has come out of the movie thinking that it is degrading to women or advocates anything other than fun and humor. In fact, wait until you see the movie–the two strongest, smart characters in the movie are women. How ridiculous is it to condemn and condone art that you have NOT seen?

4. I am fully aware that this may actually help my cause by getting news, but honestly, that is not the point. We as a culture have become so fucking politically correct and afraid of saying anything that anyone might get the least bit upset over, that entertainment has become this stripped down and bland bullshit. Fuck that. Why do you think so many people respond to my book and movie? Because it speaks the truth in a way that so few do today. I hate watered down shit humor, and I won’t be a part of it.

I have been on the road promoting this movie and meeting thousands of fans a day for over a month. I am so exhausted I sleep standing up at this point, so I’m sorry if this post wasn’t as eloquent and full of zingers as I can sometimes do, but being tired and pissed will do that to me. But I wasn’t going to let this pass.

The movie opens in most of the country on September 25th, one week from today. If you hate these anti-fun PC idiots as much as I do, there is a simple way to tell them to fuck off: Go see the movie.

**UPDATE: The response we’re getting has been huge, and for as many web-savvy people that have written in, there have been even more who just want a pic to pass around to their friends or post on their blog. So I’ll make this as easy as possible, here are all the ads on Flickr–feel free to save, share, or post these anywhere. And in response to the CTA’s bullshit, we’ve decided to run these:

And if you’re doing something like this, be sure to let Ian know, and he’ll send something out for your time and effort.