Shut Up Little Man: An Audio Misadventure

The one venue at the True False Film Festival that has never sold out for any event is The Missouri Theater, so when I saw that Shut Up Little Man: An Audio Misadventure was playing there, I decided to queue up for it. I knew going in that it was about an underground movement in the late 1980s, which is something I have always been fascinated by, and nothing at True False has ever let me down, so I decided to go ahead and see it. I was not disappointed.

The "Shut Up Little Man" phenomenon started when Eddie Lee Sausage and Mitchell D began recording their bickering neighbors. When they gave copies of the tapes to their friends, the recording began to multiply through underground tape trading, and soon the neighbors had become infamous. As these things often do, the arguments began to inspire art in the form of comics, play, and movies. Before long, the story was being adapted into a film by three different groups of people.

While the film is interesting, witty, and hilarious, it also provides a sad commentary on our society. As the tapes play out, it becomes obvious that the two men are miserable, even if it is only when they are drunk, and you begin to wonder what kind of person laughs at this horrible misery, after which point you remind yourself that you too were laughing.

The film eventually boils down to a very honest portrait of Mitchell D and Eddie Lee Sausage, that shows them not as people seeking to take advantage of their neighbors, but instead as two young college graduates caught up in curiosity. The results of their curiosity have been wide spread and versatile, but they were not the intent of the boys recording the tapes late at night. The two were acting more as anthropologists than as manipulators, and thirty years after the fact they do feel sorry for all that has happened as a result of their tapes.

While the style is varied throughout the film, and the subjects are at times hard to watch, the film is ultimately an enjoyable one. The story is honest, and the filmmaker provides a fresh perspective on the situation. If you get the chance to see "Shut Up Little Man: An Audio Misadventure", I would highly recommend it.