Best Week Ever, a show on VH1, has made a mockery of Tobago, amid calls by pastors in the sister isle to ban Sir Elton John from performing at the 2007 Plymouth Jazz Festival.
By Kristy RamnarineIt was only on Sunday that the pop star performed to a sold-out audience of more than 20,000 fans at New York's Madison Square Garden to celebrate his 60th birthday. Former US president Bill Clinton introduced the veteran artiste to a standing ovation.
For half-hour each week, the VH1 television show makes fun of the week's current events and pop culture. The producers use news, music video, television and film clips to provide ample evidence of how silly celebrities, politicians, sport figures, and others caught in the news spotlight can behave at times.
Tobago was in the spotlight last Friday, when the controversy over John's upcoming performance was featured among other clips of international celebrities.
In a clip called "Performance Anxiety", the narrator said the "country" of Tobago was scared to let John perform because he would turn the population into gays. This was accompanied by photos of Caribbean residents having their "Best Village-type" folk wear replaced by stereotypical homosexual outfits.
Then two comedians joked that Tobago had not yet recovered from the time American drag performer Ru Paul had sexual intercourse with the president and that "To-bay-go" or "To-bahg-o's" problem was not "gays" but that no one knew how to pronounce the name of the country.
However, the ridicule does not stop there.
International web loggers and bloggers are also calling for tourists to boycott vacationing in Trinidad and Tobago.
A web log posted by Chuck Yarborough, a Plain Dealer columnist, read: "If you're looking for open-minded vacation spots, you might want to cross Trinidad and Tobago off your list. Word out of England is that there is a movement afoot in T&T to scuttle Sir Elton John's headlining turn at the Plymouth Jazz Festival, which runs Friday-Sunday, April 27-29 in Tobago.
"With that kind of welcoming committee (and with apologies to author Erskine Caldwell) Sir Elton might want to rethink any trip along Tobago road."
Blog websites supporting John had many comments from persons, among them: Snarky Gossip: "So who knew? Going to a concert apparently makes you gay. I have one Elton John record, maybe that's the reason behind why I am tempted to kiss other girls, wear a mullet, and try on many, many sleeveless plaid flannel shirts. OR MAYBE PEOPLE ARE JUST IGNORANT @$$ CLOWNS. I'm going with that second one."
Suite 101: "I'd like to initiate, if no one else has already, an official boycott of Tobago by all performers. Any country whose church leaders try to block an Elton John performance because they fear his mere presence on the island will turn residents automatically and magically gay is too backwards to deserve any cultural visits by artists from around the world."
