Cafe Minandang: Gay-Tease Fake Shaman with Gay and Superhero Scoobies

In Mu-sim, the Korean folk religion that predates Buddhism, female spiritual practitioners called mudang (shamans) perform rituals to cleanse you of sin, asks the gods for special favors, predict the future, and so on.  So naturally I was interested in the Korean series Cafe Minamdang, about a shaman who solves crimes, in spite of the disturbing icon of an overly-made up doll.

Scene 1:  Nam Han-jun (Seo In-guk), a rather feminine young man in a red suit, enters a giant tower hotel, followed by his assistant.  In his gigantic office, he drinks tea, sniffs on an air freshener, then uses a hidden camera to judge the physiognomy and auras of applicants for a managerial position: "He let someone else take the fall for him; she's a kleptomaniac; he's lying about his fluency in French."  A gender-atypical male shaman must be gay-coded.

When the Westerner Steve is interviewed, his aura is so strange that Han-jun can't read him remotely; he goes into the interview room and performs a shamanic ritual with a rattle and a fan.  Everyone is terrified.

The weird aura is not from Steve, it's from manager Ko Jun-won: "An angry ghost tells me that you coerced her into sex by promising her a full-time job, then fired her.  She killed herself because of you!"  The scoundrel is dragged out, and everyone applauds.  But why didn't Han-jun notice the angry spirit earlier?

Commercial:  Han-jun and his entourage skip through the streets of Mindamnang (apparently not a real place), spreading the word about his shaman service: parenting issues, romance, friendship, finances, any problem you have, he can solve. Plus, he says, he's the most handsome man in the universe!

Wait -- if he was just working as a consultant at the hotel, why did Han-jun have a gigantic office there?  I'm confused.

Scene 2: While groupies (both men and women) wait breathlessly outside his compound,  Shaman Han-jun finishes his shower (no beefcake).  He wakes up Hye-Jun, a woman who does surveillance for the National Intelligence Service out of his spare room, for some reason, and complains about her bad smell.  Obviously Han-jun is not interested in girls. 

After getting coffee from his even more femme assistant, Nam-dan (Baek Seo-hoo), Shaman Han-jun winks at the crowd of groupies outside the gate.  Two girls faint.  "Sometimes it's tiring being so popular" he complains. 

Scene 3: The Cafe Minandang is really a coffee house, serving only Americanos to the giggling groupies. A middle-aged man and a cop come in.  Assistant Su-cheul makes the cop wait outside, and leads the Middle-Aged Man through a maze of corridors to Shaman Han-jun's throne room -- he's sittng on a throne beneath pictures of Korean gods, holding a fan

Shaman Han-jun already learned his problem from internet sleuthing and deduction: Middle-Aged Man cheated on his wife with a woman who turned out to be a con artist, and stole all of his  company's money.

Scene 4:  Computer Girl conducts online research to find the con artist and her boyfriend.  Assistant Su-cheul is assigned the task of tracking them down.  He's busy on another case -- running alongside a "pervert's" car, then punching through the windshield!  But then he finds the con artists in a parking garage, carrying luggage, getting ready to leave the country.  

Scene 5: Back at the interview, Shaman Han-jun yells at the Middle-Aged man for sinning against the gods, and then forces him to perform various silly, humiliating rituals.  I know they are silly because Han-jun is a fraud; he doesn't really communicate with the gods at all.  When he hears from Assistant Su-cheol, he sends Middle Aged man down to the "north entrance of the parking garage."  Wait -- thc con artists are in the same building?

Middle Aged Man rushes down to the parking garage with two cops.  They don't believe in this shaman nonsense, but sure enough, the con artist couple emerge through the north entrance!  The cops are now true believers!  But he's a fraud

Scene 6: The two cops at work, discussing how great Shaman Han-jun is. Apparently they are main characters, played by Joon Man-sik and Heo Jae-ho (left).  A new recruit comes in, hidden so we don't see that it's a woman until the last minute.  They sneer and scoff at the idea of a lady cop, then tell her to go make coffee or file something while they rush off to a case. 

Scene 7: The two cops chasing a suitcase-carrying suspect through the warehouse district. Wait -- is this the con artist?  Did he somehow escape custody?  If it's someone else, why have them both carrying luggage?  Really confusing!

The cops are out of shape, and can't keep up.  Suddenly The New Recruit rushes past at super-speed, leaps over a truck, and grabs the perp.  Four of his cronies, armed with lead pipes, jump out of a van and attack.  She clobbers them.

Back at headquarters, Computer Girl and Shaman Han-jun are watching.  He gets a goofy expression: a superwoman!  Just his type! "I'm in love," he announces.  Darn, I figured he was gay.

Beefcake: None.

Gay Characters: Shaman Han-jun gay-teased us right up to the moment where he fell in love with superhero New Recruit.  Maybe the super-femme assistant?

Superheroes: Assistant Su-cheoul and the New Recruit exhibit superpowers straight out of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but there's no indication that they are actually superheroes.  I'm confused. 

My Grade:  Han-jun is a sham shaman; his rituals are ridiculous; people who believe in him are superstitious fools.  This strikes me as rather disrespectful of the real spiritual tradition.  C.

Sad Sack

When I was a kid, I loved Harvey comics' supernatural titles, Casper, Spooky, and Hot Stuff having science-fiction and espionage adventures in the Enchanted Forest.  In a pinch, I didn't mind the kids-with-crazy-obsession titles, Little Dot, Little Lotta, and Richie Rich.  But I never even picked up Sad Sack.  

Military humor -- gross!  It was the middle of the Vietnam War.  Our fathers and older brothers were dying in Vietnam, or burning their draft cards and going into exile in Canada.  Who wanted to be reminded of all that?

But recently I came across an old book, The Sad Sack.  Apparently the character existed before Harvey Comics, in a pantomime strip published by Sergeant George Baker in the military magazine Yank during World War II.  The Sad Sack (short for "Sad Sack of Sh*) was a classic schmiel, beset-upon by bad luck, but tough, masculine, and sexually active (although here he's paying a woman to iron his pants).




Two hardcover compilations of Sad Sack strips appeared in 1944 and 1946.  There was a radio series (1946) starring Herb Vigran and a movie adaption (1957) starring Jerry Lewis.

Harvey took over the franchise in 1949, giving Sad Sack a voice, a nebbish personality, and surprisingly, a lot of shirtless and semi-nude shots (although he didn't have much of a physique).

 He was now a permanent private at Camp Calamity, so he would never go to war (like Beetle Bailey and Gomer Pyle), and he had a coterie of friends and superior officers, notably Sarge.

Sad Sack and Sarge have a "antagonistic best friend" relationship similar to that of Beetle Bailey and Sgt. Snorkel, with the same homoerotic subtext.

There were many spin-off titles, including Sad Sack's Funny Friends, Sad Sack's Gobs n Gals, Sad Sack and the Sarge, and Sad Sack Laugh Special.  Sounds like Archie spin-offs like Pals n Gals, and Laugh.

I never knew whether Sadie Sack was Sad in drag or just his girlfriend, but she turns out to be his female identical-twin cousin.  Rather a gender bender.

The Sad Sack title continued to be published for over thirty years, ending only when Harvey Comics folded in 1982.   so somebody was interested in Sad's chubby physique and buddy-bonding with the Sarge.

Just not me.

"Unfiltered": Brazilian Social Influencers, with a Gay Couple

 

In the old days, advertisements would be incorporated into the plot of the radio or tv program: "Before we discuss the problem of the week, let's have a cup of Maxwell House Coffee.  It's really the best coffee, isn't it?"  Today social influencers get paid for pausing their podcasts or TikToks or whatever to praise a product.  If they have 10,000,000 followers, they will reach more people than a tv commercial.   Still, the process seems bizarre to a Boomer who can barely handle Facebook, so I was interested in the Brazilian series Sem Filtro (Unfiltered).

Scene 1: College student Marcely listens to her favorite influencer, PI Love, bragging about her 20 million followers.   Then she goes into an economics class where a professor is asking about a huge, complicated mathematical formula.  Suddenly she has an epiphany: no more boring, useless college classes!  She's going to become an influencer like PI Love!  

Scene 2: Establishing shot of Ararinhas, Brazil. Marcely explains the idea to her two friends, Gustavo (a femme gay guy) and Rubria (a chubby drag queen).  They discourage her: it's a very competitive market.  Everybody with a cell phone thinks they can become an influencer. "But Sandrinha is making so much that she quit her job!"  I dig the representation, but where are all the masculine-presenting Brazilian hunks? 

Cut to Marcely burning bridges, by quitting her paid internship: "This job sucks and doesn't match my abilities."  Welcome to the work world, girlfriend.   

Not to worry, she tells her friends, she's already got an influencer gig: Fernandinho (Pedroca Monteiro) is paying her to introduce the Sheik Happy Meals at his new Arab restaurant.  (Left: Pedroca is gay in real life, and married to Michel Blois)

"So, does your Mom know about this?"  "Of course not! I'm not going to tell her until after I'm rich and famous!"

Scene 3: Marcely's Mom and sister come in. Character dump: Mom complains about everything, and openly prefers younger sister Lohana.  Drag Queen Rubria (Thamyris Borsan) is a permanent houseguest.  

Ex-Husband Mumu (Ora Figueiredo) comes in, and Mom starts yelling at him for spoiling the girls -- well, the older girl.  Goddess Younger Sister deserves to get anything she wants. Then she complains about Marcely's boss Fernandinho: his previous restaurant sold sushi stuffed with Nutella. 

Scene 4: The Arab restaurant.  Ferdnandinho, culturally appropriating an Arab outfit, gives Marcely a Sheik Happy Meal: "But don't open it until your live stream at 8:00 pm."

Then Gay BFF Gustavo (Pedro Ottoni) picks her up in his van, and they meet with influencer Sandrinha.  Gustavo has a hula girl bobbler on his dashboard and a gay pride flag on the wall.  Mixed signals, dude!

Ulp: Sandrinha didn't really quit her job.  She made ony $30 US from influencing last month. 

Marcely is not dissuaded.  She quotes the Five Pillars of PI Love: Don't settle; go for it; it's possible; I did it; and you can, too.  Rather banal advice.

Scene 5: They drop off Sandrinha at her job -- a beauty shop, I think.  Love Interest Max (Maicon Rodriguez) comes out to flirt, but is blocked by his comment that "you don't seem the influencer type."  

Driving on, Gay BFF Gustavo yells at Marcely for not sealing the deal with Coworker Max.  "I can't -- he has a girlfriend."  "A Canadian girlfriend."  So, fake?

Scene 6:  First step in being an influencer: makeup.  Marcely borrows some from her Perfect Sister  Lohana. 

Next step: a place to shoot.  She tries "the association," Gustavo's van, the barber shop, the grocery store where Mom works.  In the end she has to do it at home, while Mom is out. 

Complication: Ademar, the owner of the grocery store, accidentally tells Mom about the influencing gig.  She rushes home to kill Marcely (figuratively, I hope).

Scene 7: In the bathroom, Marcely begins her livestream and opens the Happy Meal: a jumble of kibbes ( she tries to hide her disgust), sfihas (even more disgusting), and a surprise desert, a turd (actually kofta covered with Nutella). Whoops, she can't eat it!  It accidentally falls into the toilet, and...and she breaks down and tells the truth about the other disgusting dishes.

Mom comes in, yells at her, and confiscates her cell phone.  

Scene 8: Morning.  Marcely, Little Sister, and Drag Queen Rubria sleep in the same room.  Rubria never seems to get out of drag, so I'm guessing that she is actually transgender.  

Fernandinho  meets her to yell that she's ruined his Arab Happy Meal business. The only orders he got last night were from people wanting to use the nutella turds as props in nasty videos.  But everyone on the street is staring: she's famous!  

Gustavo and Mom's Boss work together to convince Mom to relent and allow Marcely access to social media again.  "She's brilliant!  She has no filter!"  Ok, but she has to go back to college, too.

She tries, but...there's that horrible economics class.  No way!  The end.

Beefcake: None.

Gay Characters: Marcely's BFF Gustavo. He doesn't do anything gay in this episode except display a Pride Flag and be feminine, but that could change.  Rubria is probably a cishet character.

Heterosexism: Marcely has a brief Love Interest flirtation.

Poop Joke:  I could have done without the poop references, especially when it gets replayed over and over.

Update: In Episode 8, Gustavo starts dating Carlos, the assistant to influencer PI Love.  So two hand-fluttering femme stereotypes.  They do make a cute couple, however, and they kiss several times in Episode 10.  Marcely's Dad is also gay.

My Grade: B.