In Defense of “Bad Art”

I had this terrible realization recently.

I have absolutely abhorrent taste in media.

Prime example, my childhood autistic obsession band was Bon Jovi, and it proceeds to get worse. I primarily listen to podcasts that are a guy reading scary stories to fall asleep to. The television shows I tend to watch skew toward crude adult animation — Bojack Horseman is as introspective as I usually get. My favorite film is the cinematic masterpiece A Goofy Movie, starring the esteemed character actor Goofy.

I have certainly tried my hand at music criticism, but there is good reason why I title those articles “Music Reviews Nobody Asked For.” I am well aware that my recommendations don’t hold a lot of water solely based on the fact that my preferences in music are notoriously awful. Pitchfork would laugh me out of their offices if I ever attempted to contribute anything to their publication.

My point being, I am not a bastion of good taste.

But I had a realization recently. Perhaps art doesn’t have to be necessarily objectively good to be entertaining.

I wrote a little recently about the phenomenon known as outsider art, art created by folks whom the established industry has decided to exclude for whatever reason. Perhaps the creator is wildly mentally ill, which is an unfortunate situation a lot of creatives find themselves in. Maybe they’re not rich or attractive enough to break into the business proper, or perhaps they don’t even want to be famous. Whatever the case is, there is a wealth of art out there that many people will never experience because it’s not being promoted by the taste-makers with money and influence.

And that’s really kind of sad, honestly.

How many Taylor Swifts are trapped in a trailer park somewhere? How many amazing film ideas will never get made because they’re stuck in the noggin of a burger flipper? How many paintings, how many books, how many podcasts will go unfinished because the creators behind them have to work three jobs to keep their homes?

Creativity is our birthright as human beings. I work with autistic children as part of my day job, and one of the first things any kid autonomously does is create. As soon as a child can hold a crayon, she is doodling all over everything she owns, and as soon as she can speak, it won’t be long until she starts singing too. But then life happens. We get that sense of creativity kicked out of us eventually, between unsupportive parents and closed-minded teachers. I’ll never forget when I was working as a paraprofessional with children with special needs, and I helped a little boy color his snowman pink. That was the color he chose. But his teacher punished both of us for thinking outside the box, and my heart broke for that kid. We punish creativity.

In a world where we can just beep-boop anything that comes to mind, human creation is even more precious, and the beautiful thing is that it doesn’t have to be good to be entertaining. A week or so ago, my wife, roommate, and I went to a secondhand electronics store and found a strange DVD collecting dust. The film was called Gypsy Vampire’s Revenge, which is not exactly the most politically correct title, and the cover was, well…

But something compelled us to grab it. And when we popped it into the DVD player at home, we were presented with one of the most bananapants movies we’d ever laid eyes on. It made The Room look like an Oscar winner. It looked like it was filmed with a first generation iPod and the plot was damn near incomprehensible, but something occurred to us while we were watching it together. People made this. Someone put their heart into this film, and even if it’s not a masterpiece, it’s human.

Maybe that’s what we need more of.

I feel like people hesitate to make anything because it’ll never measure up to the output of major studios with all the financial backing and big names attached. But if that godawful movie could hold the attention of my entire household, maybe you don’t need fancy shit to make something cool. All you need is a vision and the determination to make it happen.

More than ever, we need human art. It doesn’t have to be perfect. All it needs is heart.