The Troma Solution, Continued

The Class of Nuke ‘Em High (1986) argues directly against leaving nuclear power plants unchecked by the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) and the NRC (Nuclear Regulatory Commission) in relation to the same Tromaville, New Jersey, setting found in The Toxic Avenger. As in Toxic Avenger, the opening establishes the toxic environment both condemned and ridiculed by these Troma films. 

But this time the film seems to respond to contemporaneous nuclear disasters such as the 1979 Three Mile Island reactor meltdown in nearby Middletown, Pennsylvania. The film also brings to mind the 1986 Chernobyl explosion and the successful protests against the Shoreham Nuclear Power Plant from 1979 until a plan to decommission the plant was approved in 1989.

Instead of taking a serious look at the dangers of nuclear power, as does The China Syndrome (1979) and Silkwood (1983), The Class of Nuke ‘Em High plays eco-horror for laughs. School jock Warren (Gil Brenton) and his cheerleader girlfriend Chrissy (Janelle Brady) are transformed by toxic “atomic” marijuana into comic eco-heroes who are perhaps less bumbling than Toxie.

Both The Toxic Avenger and The Class of Nuke ‘Em High beg the question, what’s so funny about environmental disasters? But they also point out a change of strategy—laughing about the environment and its degradation may not only stimulate awareness; that laughter might also point out a path toward change. In spite of their sometimes overpowering campy humor and horrifying violence, these Troma films show the consequences of disturbing a pristine ecosystem and offer a viable solution to greedy humans’ exploitation of the natural world. They may clearly be what Derek Armstrong calls “horror comedies,” but they may also serve as viable alternatives to the serious ecocinema of the 1970s and today.

This shift to eco-horror comedy occurs for at least three reasons. First of all, the genre has come of age and can now be satirized through comic versions like Toxic Avenger and Class of Nuke ‘Em High. These films also exploit their cultural and historical contexts, making us laugh, while also revealing everyday environmental disasters we need to address. These Troma films also reflect a movement from rugged individualism to a more communal approach to solving ecological problems, a change in the evolutionary narrative that reflects a movement from a tragic to a comic eco-hero. This evolutionary change also aligns with anthropological theories of laughter’s origin.

Examining the Toxic Avenger and Class of Nuke ‘Em High movies in relation to theories gleaned from cultural studies, anthropology, and examinations of the comic eco-hero may also demonstrate the positive results possible when a genre comes of age: a raised awareness of the disastrous consequences of environmental degradation.