Bat Boy



April 21, 2001



BOB GARFIELD: The headline read: Bat Boy Found in Cave. The Weekly World News, one of the less-respectable supermarket tabloids, ran the story back in 1992. The Bat Boy it referred to wasn't crouching next to the on deck circle; it was a half human-half vampire that kept popping up. Last year the paper ran a photo of Bat Boy endorsing Al Gore for president, giving him a love bite on the shoulder, which might explain a few things, and recently Bat Boy has spent his waking hours playing to sold out audiences in Bat Boy, The Musical at Union Square Theater in New York. On the Media's Alicia Zuckerman reports.

ALICIA ZUCKER

MAN: Ah, the Weekly World News, the paper that since 1979 has brought us stories about Big Foot, space aliens, the Loch Ness Monster, not to mention the three-breasted woman who conveniently married the three-handed baseball player from Venezuela. Bill Sloan used to be an editor at the National Enquirer. His new book is called I Watched a Wild Hog Eat My Baby, a colorful history of the tabloids and their cultural impact. He says Bat Boy's move to the stage is a boon for the folks at the Weekly World News.

BILL SLOAN: I think that the people at, at Weekly World News are really excited about this because even though Bat Boy is a made up character, it still lends an aura of respectability to the paper.

ALICIA ZUCKER

MAN: Bat Boy is not made up, according to Weekly World News managing editor Leskie Pinson.

LESKIE PINSON: Why would we want to do that? The verisimilitude of 47 pages would be thrown away if we tried to run some kind of a crazy phony story on one page, so it's not worth it for us.

BILL SLOAN: I know that's not true. I know that Bat Boy is a creation.

ALICIA ZUCKER

MAN: Cynics like Bill Sloan don't rattle Pinson. He insists that his paper's coverage of Bat Boy is very real and very expensive!

LESKIE PINSON: You know we're a little bit different than some news organizations. They say they never pay for their stories. "We would never pay for a story!" some of 'em say. We know, but hey -- when it's a big special like the space alien shaking hands with the presidential candidate or the Bat with Al Gore, we're not afraid to go sometimes 6 figures, maybe 8 figures if you count both sides of the decimal point for a photograph like that.

KEYTHE FARLEY: I love the Weekly World News. I've been a fan since I was-- in college and first discovered the paper. It's just so-- rich.

ALICIA ZUCKER

MAN: Farley and Brian Fleming wrote the script to Bat Boy, The Musical. It all started during the shooting of an independent film in which Farley was starring and Fleming directing.

KEYTHE FARLEY: We were just sitting around the camp fire at night after the shoot drinking beers and making up stories about Bat Boy. About two years later we couldn't have a party or have people over to the house without them asking for Bat Boy songs. We'd written a couple of novelty songs, a couple of little silly ditties about Bat Boy and people just fell in love with the idea of a Bat Boy who sang.

CHORUS SINGING TO BAT BOY: HOLD ME BAT BOY! HOLD ME BAT BOY! SCRATCH ME, BAT BOY! SCRATCH ME, BAT BOY! WON'T YOU HELP ME THROUGH THE NIGHT? MAKE IT ALL TURN OUT ALL RIGHT?

ALICIA ZUCKER

MAN: They started with a small production in Los Angeles. It took off. Now it's the hot new show in New York with a cast recording made earlier this month. Fittingly for a show whose theme is ripped from the headlines of a tabloid, the opening night party drew such notorious celebrities as Monica Lewinsky, Woody Allen and Soon Yi Previn. But the show's message, explains Farley, is actually pretty wholesome.

KEYTHE FARLEY: Early on we played with the idea of a tabloid world for Bat Boy, and there was an early draft of the show where Bat Boy had had a--rags to riches to rags story where he sort of was discovered in a cave and then became this rock star and-- spiraled out of control and, and we just found that it didn't have as much meaning for us; it didn't have as much depth for us as the story of how a Bat Child would try to fit into society and he wants to be human, but the's half-beast. I like to say there's a little Bat Boy inside each of us. The question is what are you going to do with him?

ALICIA ZUCKER

MAN: Farley says the plot is modeled after Greek Tragedy. The show is a cautionary tale about scapegoating, acceptance and personal growth. With the help of a veterinarian's wife and daughter, Bat Boy goes from a feral, demented-looking version of Eddie Munster with fangs and Star Trek-like pointy ears to an articulate and polite, Bible-quoting, ascot-wearing gentleman who goes by the name of Edgar. He learns to speak instead of squeak with the help of BBC language tapes, so in the town of Hope Falls, West Virginia Bat Boy ends up with a British accent.

BAT BOY SINGING WITH BRITISH ACCENT: I WILL DO YOUR LAUNDRY AND I WILL MOW YOUR LAWN LET ME FILE YOUR TAXES, I AM A CPA...

ALICIA ZUCKER

MAN: Though racks of the Weekly World new stand in the theater lobby, the musical production of Bat Boy is taken a lot more seriously than its print counterpart. Last year it pulled down an award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. But don't think the paper hasn't benefitted from the show's success. When Farley and Fleming set out to immortalize Bat Boy, they had to buy the rights from the Weekly World News. Each time his name and image appear in the paper, so do two little letters: TM -- Bat Boy is trademarked. Can you trademark a real person? There was no TM next to Al Gore's name in that photo op with Bat Boy.

WOMAN SINGING TO BAT BOY: THOUGH WE'RE NOT HERE [...?...] I'LL MAKE HIM FEEL THE SAME... For On the Media in New York, I'm Alicia Zuckerman.

WOMAN SINGING TO BAT BOY: AND YOU WON'T BE THERE SO TEACH US HOW TO LOVE YOU AND ONCE THE NIGHT IS THROUGH....