SHAZAM’S WEDGIE: A Story About Bullies
By Peter Bean
SHAZAM!!!! You’re suddenly six feet tall towering over the bully from school. Here’s the twist, you can save them, or you can let them die at the hands of evildoers. What do you do?
The DC film “Shazam!” is the latest superhero story to use bullying as a catalyst to show a main character is good through helping the bullied individual or gaining sympathy when they themselves are bullied. In this story, Billy Batson/Shazam (played by Asher Angel/Zachary Levi) is a foster child who befriends the bullied Freddy Freeman (played by Jack Dylan Grazer). Freddy is a fellow foster child and relentlessly picked on by two larger kids at school. These bullies are comically introduced driving their tweaked out truck over the curb and hitting Freddy with their bumper. Yup, they hit him with their vehicle. The Bullies proceed to beat Freddy with the crutch he uses for walking (as seen in the film’s trailer). Billy Batson’s hero quality is showcased here and he quickly beats up the larger boys single-handedly. In “Aquaman” it was fish helping the young Aquaman (played by Tamor Kirkwood) when he’s picked on by copy/paste bullies at the aquarium for talking to fish.
All this is fine. It’s fine. It’s character building 101 and simple plot points for films like “Shazam!” and many others when they mine the bully trope. My problem is that they use bullying as a vehicle for writers to get to a point: hero do good. They forget that for Freddy every day is a battlefield, physically and psychologically. You’ll never know the daily struggle of the bullied unless you’ve been at the receiving end. It’s the perpetual, uncertain question: will the bullies notice me today or if they do, will there be an audience to my humiliation. The best example of what it’s like to be bullied can be found in Shane Koyczan’s poem “To This Day” below.
Of course, “Shazam!” nor other films like it are stories that want to get into the depths of bullying. It’s worth noting that “Shazam!” is a well done, funny, and entertaining story, but if characters are bullied in films, certain things must be considered:
1. Bullies of all shapes and sizes: Superficial point, but there are more types of bullies in this world than bigger ones. The most terrorizing and psychotic villains of my life weren’t the largest.
2. There’s a reason for them: When bullies are in a story there’s always a reason for it, so pay it off in a meaningful way because it’s not trivial. If young Aquaman is bullied maybe show him standing up for someone else later. If Shazam’s friend is picked on don’t just crumple their truck, stand up to them. “Superman 2” has its issues, but a great example of bully payoff is when an adult Clark Kent stands up to the truck driver bully that beat him up earlier in the film.
3. It means more when you’re a kid: Freddy gets hit by a truck, beaten up, and “double-suitcase-wedgied,” yet the film depicts him as a relatively balanced kid who forgives his friend inadvertently causing said wedgie. Imagine Freddy is slightly more pissed at his superhero friend for causing that wedgie. Yet another humiliation at the hands of the villains in Freddy’s story. It gives Shazam emotional goals and payoff to do more than just wreck the bullies truck. Instead Shazam can stick up for his friend near the end of the film rather than the front; showing emotional growth. Yes, this is a popcorn movie, but I’d argue that a double-suitcase-wedgie is a traumatic experience. For the bullies it was probably just Tuesday.
There’s plenty of room for debate on how to deal with bullies and a magical wizard named Shazam may not deter bullies who bide their time to strike. It’s just important to remember that having the bully character allows story depth that’s often unused.
Remember, they bully you in life because they see a better person in you. They externalize their shortcomings as showcased in Key and Peele’s short about bullies below:
SHAZAM!!!! You’re suddenly six feet tall towering over your bully from school. You can save them, or you can let them die at the hands of evildoers in your superhero film. What do you do? Small “bully pay-back spoiler,” but in “Shazam!” they do get this answer correct. What do you do: lift them out of harm’s way with a payback double-suitcase-wedgie.
By Peter Bean
SHAZAM!!!! You’re suddenly six feet tall towering over the bully from school. Here’s the twist, you can save them, or you can let them die at the hands of evildoers. What do you do?
The DC film “Shazam!” is the latest superhero story to use bullying as a catalyst to show a main character is good through helping the bullied individual or gaining sympathy when they themselves are bullied. In this story, Billy Batson/Shazam (played by Asher Angel/Zachary Levi) is a foster child who befriends the bullied Freddy Freeman (played by Jack Dylan Grazer). Freddy is a fellow foster child and relentlessly picked on by two larger kids at school. These bullies are comically introduced driving their tweaked out truck over the curb and hitting Freddy with their bumper. Yup, they hit him with their vehicle. The Bullies proceed to beat Freddy with the crutch he uses for walking (as seen in the film’s trailer). Billy Batson’s hero quality is showcased here and he quickly beats up the larger boys single-handedly. In “Aquaman” it was fish helping the young Aquaman (played by Tamor Kirkwood) when he’s picked on by copy/paste bullies at the aquarium for talking to fish.
All this is fine. It’s fine. It’s character building 101 and simple plot points for films like “Shazam!” and many others when they mine the bully trope. My problem is that they use bullying as a vehicle for writers to get to a point: hero do good. They forget that for Freddy every day is a battlefield, physically and psychologically. You’ll never know the daily struggle of the bullied unless you’ve been at the receiving end. It’s the perpetual, uncertain question: will the bullies notice me today or if they do, will there be an audience to my humiliation. The best example of what it’s like to be bullied can be found in Shane Koyczan’s poem “To This Day” below.
Of course, “Shazam!” nor other films like it are stories that want to get into the depths of bullying. It’s worth noting that “Shazam!” is a well done, funny, and entertaining story, but if characters are bullied in films, certain things must be considered:
1. Bullies of all shapes and sizes: Superficial point, but there are more types of bullies in this world than bigger ones. The most terrorizing and psychotic villains of my life weren’t the largest.
2. There’s a reason for them: When bullies are in a story there’s always a reason for it, so pay it off in a meaningful way because it’s not trivial. If young Aquaman is bullied maybe show him standing up for someone else later. If Shazam’s friend is picked on don’t just crumple their truck, stand up to them. “Superman 2” has its issues, but a great example of bully payoff is when an adult Clark Kent stands up to the truck driver bully that beat him up earlier in the film.
3. It means more when you’re a kid: Freddy gets hit by a truck, beaten up, and “double-suitcase-wedgied,” yet the film depicts him as a relatively balanced kid who forgives his friend inadvertently causing said wedgie. Imagine Freddy is slightly more pissed at his superhero friend for causing that wedgie. Yet another humiliation at the hands of the villains in Freddy’s story. It gives Shazam emotional goals and payoff to do more than just wreck the bullies truck. Instead Shazam can stick up for his friend near the end of the film rather than the front; showing emotional growth. Yes, this is a popcorn movie, but I’d argue that a double-suitcase-wedgie is a traumatic experience. For the bullies it was probably just Tuesday.
There’s plenty of room for debate on how to deal with bullies and a magical wizard named Shazam may not deter bullies who bide their time to strike. It’s just important to remember that having the bully character allows story depth that’s often unused.
Remember, they bully you in life because they see a better person in you. They externalize their shortcomings as showcased in Key and Peele’s short about bullies below:
SHAZAM!!!! You’re suddenly six feet tall towering over your bully from school. You can save them, or you can let them die at the hands of evildoers in your superhero film. What do you do? Small “bully pay-back spoiler,” but in “Shazam!” they do get this answer correct. What do you do: lift them out of harm’s way with a payback double-suitcase-wedgie.