Donkey show

For the comedy album by The Bob and Tom Show, see Donkey Show.

For the adaptation of A Midsummer Night's Dream, see The_Donkey_Show_(musical).

A bar in Boy's Town, Nuevo Laredo, Mexico advertising a nightly "donkey's show"

A donkey show is a form of sex tourism entertainment most often associated with Tijuana, Mexico, in which a local woman engages in zoophilia with a donkey.^[1][2]

Local taxi drivers offer tourists a ride to see a donkey show in the red light district.^[3] The shows are difficult to verify and may be urban legends, but anecdotal accounts are frequent.^[4][5] Author Jim Dawson writes: "No doubt there are clandestine clubs that have put these sordid floorshows on display, but if every man who claims he actually saw one is telling the truth, there must be a lot of bowlegged women hobbling around Tijuana."^[2]

The "donkey show" myth is deeply embedded in US popular culture, and it is occasionally given as a reason to visit Tijuana. From time to time one may come across naive tourists going up and down La Coahuila street, unsuccessfully trying to find the show.^[6]

More recently the term has been used to describe a situation that has become a "complete mess".^[7]

In media

• Losin' It is a 1983 comedy film starring Tom Cruise, Shelley Long, Jackie Earle Haley, and John Stockwell. Set in 1965, four rowdy teenage guys travel to Tijuana,^[8] Mexico to see a "Donkey Show"^[9] and to lose their virginity.
• A fictional account appeared in the 1984 film Bachelor Party with Tom Hanks. It had a quaalude-popping,^[10] cocaine-snorting donkey at the bachelor party ready to perform a donkey show, who dies of a drug overdose.^[11]
• In the 2005 book The Godfather Returns written by Mark Winegardner. In the story Fredo Corleone's wife Dustin Dunn insists they attend one. The passage reads: "on a whim, they'd headed to Mexico. When they'd gotten there, Deanna Dunn, insisted on going to see a donkey show. ... who thought that watching a donkey fuck a teenage Indian girl was a hoot."^[12]
• In the 2005 film The 40-year-old Virgin, Seth Rogen's character describes attending a donkey show in Tijuana.
• In the 2006 film Clerks II the character Randal Graves sets up a surprise going away party for his friend Dante Hicks, hiring "Kinky Kelly and the Sexy Stud", a donkey show which turns out to be homoerotic in nature.^[13] The reviewer Joel Siegel wrote that he was revolted by the scene in which the show is discussed and walked out of the movie.^[14] He said: "It was so foul and mean and repulsive. I finally realized I could not say anything positive ... I wasn't ready for this kind of smut ... I hope (director Kevin Smith) doesn't make any more movies."
• In the 2007 movie The Heartbreak Kid, Ben Stiller and Michelle Monaghan are tricked in to a small theater with false advertising but instead find a donkey show.^[15]
• In the satirical Cracked.com article 16 Secret Pet Peeves Of Famous Sidekicks, the idea is mentioned of Donkey, from Shrek, being taken to a donkey show.

References

1. ^ "Foreign Affairs". Los Angeles Magazine 45 (6). June 1, 2000. http://books.google.com/books?id=W18EAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA103&dq=%22donkey+show%22+mexico&ei=jY7US8fxMKa4ywSK2py7DA&cd=9#v=onepage&q=%22donkey%20show%22%20mexico&f=false. Retrieved 2010-04-25. "... 'the donkey show,' which highlighted a Catherine the Great-style coupling between ..." 
2. ^ ^{a b} Jim Dawson (1999). Who Cut the Cheese?: A Cultural History of the Fart. ISBN 1580080111. http://books.google.com/books?id=RLSXmhudzOQC&pg=PA155&dq=%22donkey+show%22+mexico&ei=jY7US8fxMKa4ywSK2py7DA&cd=10#v=onepage&q=%22donkey%20show%22%20mexico&f=false. "There was a time when guys would boast of having seen a girl-and-donkey show in Tijuana, Mexico. No doubt there are clandestine clubs that have put these ..." 
3. ^ New West. 1981. http://books.google.com/books?id=CUIcAQAAIAAJ&q=donkey+show+mexico&dq=donkey+show+mexico&hl=en&ei=KIzUS4PNN8OAlAfoqPHsDA&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CDgQ6AEwAA. "One of the drivers offered to drive me to a donkey show. In Tijuana's past the donkey show was always rumored to exist, ..." 
4. ^ "Ethnic, sexual slurs pervade bar". Denver Post. June 8, 2005. http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=DP&p_theme=dp&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_topdoc=1&p_text_direct-0=10A9D60C5B674690&p_field_direct-0=document_id&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&s_trackval=GooglePM. Retrieved 2010-05-21. "Although donkey shows in Tijuana and other border towns are impossible to verify , the Internet is rife with anecdotal accounts of brothel bestiality. ..." 
5. ^ "On the Borders". Chicago Tribune. March 17, 2002. http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/chicagotribune/access/110574124.html?dids=110574124:110574124&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&type=current&date=Mar+17,+2002&author=&pub=Chicago+Tribune&desc=On+the+borders&pqatl=google. Retrieved 2010-05-21. "I did ask Ricardo Lizarraga about Tijuana donkey shows. He laughed. I havent heard the donkey show rumor in years he said. It's like an urban legend ..." 
6. ^ Alejandro L. Madrid, Alejandro Luis Madrid-González (2008). "Where's the Donkey Show, Mr. Mariachi? Reterritorialing TJ". Nor-tec rifa!: electronic dance music from Tijuana to the world. Currents in Iberian and Latin American Music (illustrated ed.). Oxford University Press US. pp. 16, 115, 145, 217 (footnote 2), 220 (footnote 41). ISBN 9780195342628. http://books.google.es/books?id=Q2W6uYsvqroC. 
7. ^ Jonathon Green (2005). Cassell's dictionary of slang. Sterling Publishing Company. http://books.google.com/books?id=5GpLcC4a5fAC&pg=PA428&dq=%22donkey+show%22+sex&ei=sqfzS6XUEZXakQSzncnZBw&cd=2#v=onepage&q=%22donkey%20show%22%20sex&f=false. Retrieved 2010-05-21. 
8. ^ Maslin, Janet (1983-04-08). "Losin' It". The New York Times. http://www.nytimes.com/1983/04/08/movies/losin-it.html. 
9. ^ Bender, Steven (2003). Greasers and gringos: Latinos, law, and the American imagination. NYU Press. pp. 67,117. ISBN 9780814798874. http://books.google.com/books?id=anv9M7ZIwnsC&lpg=PA67&dq=%22Losin'%20It%22%20donkey&pg=PA67#v=onepage&q=%22Losin'%20It%22%20donkey&f=false. Retrieved 2011-04-23. 
10. ^ Freedman, Richard (1984-07-06). "'Bachelor Party' Is Just A Bit Better Than Par For Summer Entertainment". Spartanburg Herald-Journal: pp. D3. http://news.google.com/newspapers?id=ezwsAAAAIBAJ&sjid=cM4EAAAAIBAJ&pg=5518,1905976&dq=bachelor-party+donkey+tom-hanks&hl=en. Retrieved 2010-05-27. 
11. ^ Bachelor Party (DVD). 1984. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0086927/. 
12. ^ Mark Winegardner (2005). The Godfather Returns. p. 252. http://books.google.com/books?id=oxnEQ29L2LgC&pg=PA252&dq#v=onepage&q&f=false. "Last night, they'd taken their wives and gone out on the town, such as it was. On a whim, they'd headed to Mexico. When they'd gotten there, Deanna Dunn insisted on going to see a donkey show. Charlotte, at least as of this morning, ..." 
13. ^ Clerks II (DVD). 2006. http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0424345/. 
14. ^ Kevin Smith. "My Boring Ass Life". http://silentbobspeaks.com/?p=263. Retrieved 2010-04-25. "I can’t fault Mr. Siegel for feeling 'revolted' (his producer’s description of Joel’s reaction) by our flick; in truth, there is a donkey show in it, and I recognize that brand of whimsy might not be for everybody. Film appreciation is very subjective, and maybe Joel just isn’t into ass-to-mouth conversations." 
15. ^ Leavenworth, Jesse (July 21, 2006). "When A Critic Walks Out Of A Movie. Siegel Blasted For Noisy Clerks II Departure". Hartford Courant. http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/courant/access/1081126681.html?dids=1081126681:1081126681&FMT=ABS&FMTS=ABS:FT&type=current&date=Jul+21,+2006&author=JESSE+LEAVENWORTH;+Courant+Staff+Writer&pub=Hartford+Courant&desc=WHEN+A+CRITIC+WALKS+OUT+OF+A+MOVIE+;+SIEGEL+BLASTED+FOR+NOISY+`CLERKS+II'+DEPARTURE&pqatl=google. Retrieved 2010-05-21. "According to a New York Post story Wednesday, [Joel Siegel] chose Option 3. The film critic for ABC later told a Post reporter, "It was so foul and mean and repulsive. I finally realized I could not say anything positive . . . I wasn't ready for this kind of smut . . . I hope [director Kevin Smith] doesn't make any more movies.""