It seems the Halifax-produced comedy series Trailer Park Boys has some unlikely fans in the form of U.S. evangelical leader Jerry Falwell Jr. and his friends.
The Christian news site Pulpit & Pen has posted a now-deleted Instagram post and video of “some sort of Trailer Park Boys cosplay/themed party” on a yacht, with Falwell dressed as Julian in a black T-shirt and unzipped jeans, with the character’s ever-present rum and coke in his hand.
Or at least it looks like Julian’s omnipresent rum and coke. In the Instagram post, Falwell writes, “More vacation shots. Lots of good friends visited us on the yacht. I promise that’s just black water in my glass. It was a prop only.”
wut is happening pic.twitter.com/8iEOr9EeRQ
— Robert Downen (@RobDownenChron) August 3, 2020
Son of the late televangelist and powerful right-wing conservative Jerry Falwell, Falwell Jr. is the president of Lynchburg, Va.’s evangelical Christian institution Liberty University, a post he attained upon the death of his father in 2007.
The Pulpit & Pen piece also calls attention to what it calls “the more obvious elephant in the room” and the fact that the photo shows Falwell with his arm around a woman who is not his wife, commenting, “To say that this behavior is unbecoming and scandalous for a president of a Christian university is an understatement.”
In the video which accompanies the piece, Falwell and his friends are shown on a yacht dressed up as most of the main denizens of the show’s Sunnyvale Trailer Park, including the main trio of Ricky, Julian and Bubbles, plus Mr. Lahey, Randy, Barb, Lucy, Trinity, J-Roc and Sarah.
In a post on Twitter, singer and actor Bette Midler said the image “sprained my eyeballs” and called the woman dressed up as Lucy “the best Peg Bundy impersonator I’ve ever seen!”
Help! I tried to look anywhere not-alarming in this Jerry Falwell Jr. photo and I sprained my eyeballs! People are coming up with all kinds of kooky theories about this pic, but I’ll just go ahead & say it. That is the best Peg Bundy impersonator I’ve ever seen! https://t.co/Eq7SkM0Xxd
— bettemidler (@BetteMidler) August 4, 2020
An article in the Guardian notes that the costumes of Falwell and his companion violate Liberty University’s dress code regulations, while Pulpit & Pen questions his apparent fandom of the “raunchy and crass Canadian TV show” which is available globally via Netflix and “is known for the copious amounts of sex, drug use and cursing.”
