Bored with the slots? Check out the latest entertainment offering at my local gambling hole, the Foxwoods Resort Casino.
For $20 (or $18 in Foxwoods “Dream Points”), gamblers can enjoy “BODIES REVEALED,” a traveling museum exhibit featuring rubberized human cadavers frozen in cutesy sports poses.
I’ve been a relentless critic of competing corpse shows. Let’s just say that I am no fan of playing with dead people like they are action figures. And that the mad scientists who make these creepy corpse action figures are not fans of mine.
Maybe I was brainwashed with all the God talk and respect-for-life babble in Hebrew School. But dipping human flesh in plastic and posing it with soccer balls and tennis racquets is UNETHICAL. And perhaps even a tad bit evil.
Even if they have the permission slips to do it.
Check out the contrite disclaimer on the official BODIES REVEALED site, which no doubt refers to fears that China may have found a new way to make political dissidents disappear:
Premier Exhibitions’ suppliers certify that the specimens in the BODIES REVEALED exhibitions have been donated by the deceased or their authorized family member for education and that the specimens died of natural causes. Premier employs a retired anatomy professor and a biological anthropologist to examine the specimens and they have never found any evidence of trauma associated with bodily injury. Premier cannot, however, independently guarantee the origins of the specimens.
But my favorite public relations BS has to be the marketing of this exhibit as the ultimate dieting aid. From the Foxwoods Resort Casino Press Room: “Authentic human specimens illustrate the damage caused to organs by over-eating and lack of exercise. The Exhibition will change the way people see themselves. It is designed to enlighten, empower, fascinate, and inspire.”
Any way to buy one of these obese human figurines to stick next to your treadmill?
Darren Garnick's Culture Schlock 