Oklahoma's Webb of Weird

I’ll always be that weird girl. As an adult, I’m learning to embrace my quirks, but I I’ve always felt, and probably always will to a certain extent, like an alien sent to a strange world to study a group of people I don’t really understand. Thankfully, I’ve found pockets of fellow weirdos who make me feel seen—my creative and philosophical coworkers, my encouraging Dungeons and Dragons gang, my husband, who is almost as nerdy as me. But when I was a kid, when I thought I was utterly alone in my weirdness, I found comfort and a sense of belonging in the even more inexplicable worlds of Tim Burton.

Actor Michael Keaton returns to the titular role in Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, now streaming on Max. Photo courtesy Warner Bros.

The first time I watched Beetlejuice was like the scene in the movie when Lydia tries to get into the attic. She’s locked out by the Maitlands, but an eerie green light shines from under the door, and she knows she has to find out what’s happening on the other side. Once I got my first taste of ghosts, monsters, and the black-and-white creep circus that is the Tim Burton aesthetic, I couldn’t get enough. For the first time, I felt like I could relate to the strange and unusual depressed teen, or the misunderstood artist who happened to have scissors for hands, or the silly manchild who just wanted to ride his cool bike and make elaborate Rube Goldberg devices.

Burton hasn’t been the powerhouse of late like he was in the late ’90s and early aughts. After all, when you make your career out of not belonging, once you become a well-respected, extremely wealthy director, it’s much easier to fit in. But Wednesday, the Netflix spin-off of The Addams Family that features six episodes directed by Burton, seemed to be a return to form. So when the sequel to Beetlejuice came out in theaters a few weeks ago, I went to a showing opening weekend.

While Beetlejuice Beetlejuice had some moments that should have been left on the cutting room floor of the cartoon, let alone the movie—the literal Soul Train earned quite a few groans but not in a spooky way—the sequel certainly did justice to the original.

There’s one particular scene that might make Okies’ ears perk up. When it seems Beetlejuice will finally get the wedding of his dreams, er nightmares I guess, the song "MacArthur Park" written by Elk City native Jimmy Webb starts to play. It’s a very silly scene, there’s a literal cake that begins to dissolve in the rain as BJ and Lydia dance floating in the air, but it adds the perfect touch of pathos.

"MacArthur Park" by Oklahoma-born Jimmy Webb has a prominent placement in the new Beetlejuice movie. Photo courtesy Sasa Tkalcan/Helsinki Festival

In a September Variety article, Webb said that he’d never met Burton, but the director has a juke box in his house featuring "MacArthur Park." It’s an odd choice, to set the emotional climax of the film to a song that came out in 1968. In fact, the song itself is anything but traditional: It’s more than seven minutes long, it’s been turned into a disco hit by Donna Summer and a Jurassic Park parody by Weird Al, and, according to Webb, even fans wondered how it ever got played on the radio.

MacArthur Park is a weird song, for a weird movie, made by a weird man, who this little weirdo will always love. So, like all of our imperfections once we learn to love the freaks that we are, it is absolutely perfect.

Beetlejuice Beetlejuice is now steaming on Max.

Written By

Karlie Ybarra

Managing editor Karlie Ybarra loves to explore her home state—and meet many of its animal citizens—any chance she gets.