{ "id": "ep5zffev2k", "slug": "brokeback-to-the-future", "title": "Brokeback to the Future", "updated": "2026-11-01", "topic_path": [ { "id": "culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture" }, { "id": "culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.genre-form", "label": "Films by genre, form, and subject", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.genre-form" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.genre-form.animated-shorts", "label": "Animated and short films", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.genre-form.animated-shorts" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.genre-form.animated-shorts.short-films-individual", "label": "Individual short films", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.genre-form.animated-shorts.short-films-individual" } ], "geo": [ { "id": "geo.us.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films.films.genre-form.animated-shorts", "label": "United States · 2001 to 2020: Animated and short films", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films.films.genre-form.animated-shorts", "path": [ { "id": "geo.us", "label": "United States", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us" }, { "id": "geo.us.t2001", "label": "United States · 2001 to 2020", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t2001" }, { "id": "geo.us.t2001.culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t2001.culture" }, { "id": "geo.us.t2001.culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t2001.culture.performance" }, { "id": "geo.us.t2001.culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t2001.culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "geo.us.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "geo.us.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films.films.genre-form", "label": "Films by genre, form, and subject", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films.films.genre-form" }, { "id": "geo.us.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films.films.genre-form.animated-shorts", "label": "Animated and short films", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.us.t2001.culture.performance.screen.films.films.genre-form.animated-shorts" } ] } ], "excerpt": "Brokeback to the Future, also called Brokeback To The Future, is a 2006 viral recut trailer by Emerson College's Chocolate Cake City pairing Back to the Future footage with Brokeback Mountain's score to imply a Marty-Doc romance.", "snippet": "Brokeback to the Future, also called Brokeback To The Future, is a 2006 viral recut trailer by Emerson College's Chocolate Cake City pairing Back to the Future footage with Brokeback Mountain's score to imply a Marty-Doc romance.", "node": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.genre-form.animated-shorts.short-films-individual", "markdown": "# Brokeback to the Future\n\n**Brokeback to the Future** is a 2006 viral parody trailer that re-edits footage from the *Back to the Future* film trilogy to present the characters [Marty McFly](https://www.edgepedia.org/marty-mcfly) and Doc Brown as secret lovers, in imitation of the trailer for [Ang Lee](https://www.edgepedia.org/ang-lee)'s 2005 film *Brokeback Mountain*.[1](https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/79d5/3aa2d0a798b96b72ed7ecf84c9ccd8d7d512.pdf) It was created by Jonathan Ade and Patrick De Nicola, students at [Emerson College](https://www.edgepedia.org/emerson-college) and members of the comedy troupe Chocolate Cake City, and became one of the most-viewed examples of the mid-2000s trailer mash-up genre.[2](https://time.com/archive/6676899/how-to-get-famous-in-30-seconds/)\n\n| Key fact | Detail |\n|---|---|\n| Format | Recut trailer: footage from the *Back to the Future* trilogy re-edited to mimic the *Brokeback Mountain* trailer[1](https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/79d5/3aa2d0a798b96b72ed7ecf84c9ccd8d7d512.pdf) |\n| Creators | Jonathan Ade and Patrick De Nicola, Emerson College comedy troupe Chocolate Cake City[2](https://time.com/archive/6676899/how-to-get-famous-in-30-seconds/) |\n| Created | January 2006, edited over one night after a dinnertime conversation[2](https://time.com/archive/6676899/how-to-get-famous-in-30-seconds/) |\n| Running time | 2 minutes 11 seconds[3](https://shortfilmsblog.blogspot.com/2008/11/brokeback-to-future-spoof-trailers.html) |\n| Tagline | \"It was an experiment in time but the one variable they forgot was … love\"[4](https://openaccess.city.ac.uk/id/eprint/4007/1/Invention%20Reinvention%20Final.pdf) |\n| Music | Gustavo Santaolalla's Academy Award-winning *Brokeback Mountain* score, including the track \"The Wings\"[4](https://openaccess.city.ac.uk/id/eprint/4007/1/Invention%20Reinvention%20Final.pdf) • [3](https://shortfilmsblog.blogspot.com/2008/11/brokeback-to-future-spoof-trailers.html) |\n| Reach | More than 3 million views on YouTube alone by 2006; a Google search for the title returned more than six million hits[2](https://time.com/archive/6676899/how-to-get-famous-in-30-seconds/) • [5](https://m.connectionnewspapers.com/news/2006/mar/08/mcfly-meets-ennis-del-mar/) |\n\n## Spoilers\n\n### Content and form\n\nThe video is a recut trailer, a genre in which creators splice footage from one or more existing films into a trailer for a film that does not and will not exist.[1](https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/79d5/3aa2d0a798b96b72ed7ecf84c9ccd8d7d512.pdf) It restructures *Back to the Future* to highlight what one scholar calls the erotic tension in the Marty/Doc relationship, using clips taken out of context, such as the two characters hugging or gazing into each other's eyes.[6](https://cpb-ap-se2.wpmucdn.com/blogs.ststephens.wa.edu.au/dist/a/1857/files/2018/02/Back-to-the-Fifites-rlye6l.pdf) • [3](https://shortfilmsblog.blogspot.com/2008/11/brokeback-to-future-spoof-trailers.html)\n\nThe parody works by closely imitating the conventions of the *Brokeback Mountain* trailer: modified title slates in the original's white-text-on-black style, slow fades, poetic intertitles, and [Gustavo Santaolalla](https://www.edgepedia.org/gustavo-santaolalla)'s acoustic guitar score laid over the science fiction footage.[7](https://abcnews.com/Entertainment/Oscars2006/story?id=1680323&page=1) • [8](https://era.ed.ac.uk/bitstream/1842/9469/2/Hesford2013.pdf) Its title cards include \"FROM THE PRODUCERS WHO BROUGHT YOU BROKEBACK MOUNTAIN,\" \"IT WAS AN EXPERIMENT IN TIME,\" \"BUT THE ONE VARIABLE THEY FORGOT WAS LOVE,\" and \"A TRUTH THEY COULDN'T DENY,\" and it reproduces the star-name credits and the [Universal Pictures](https://www.edgepedia.org/universal-pictures) presentation card of a real trailer, ending with the Chocolate Cake City credit.[8](https://era.ed.ac.uk/bitstream/1842/9469/2/Hesford2013.pdf) Daniel Hesford, a film studies researcher at the [University of Edinburgh](https://www.edgepedia.org/university-of-edinburgh), argues that the effect relies on this performative observance of trailer format rather than simple juxtaposition, creating a readable pseudo-narrative that gives the spoof its affective power.[8](https://era.ed.ac.uk/bitstream/1842/9469/2/Hesford2013.pdf)\n\n## Creation\n\nThe video began as a joke title. In January 2006, Ade and De Nicola, roommates at Emerson College in Boston, were trading ideas for *Brokeback Mountain* spoofs at a dinnertime conversation; when De Nicola suggested \"Brokeback to the Future,\" the room laughed, and the pair decided the next day to make a trailer for the fictional film, to debut at a comedy show they were organizing that weekend.[5](https://m.connectionnewspapers.com/news/2006/mar/08/mcfly-meets-ennis-del-mar/) They watched all three *Back to the Future* films back-to-back in one evening, taking notes on any words or gestures that could be repurposed, then spent a night of editing producing the finished trailer.[5](https://m.connectionnewspapers.com/news/2006/mar/08/mcfly-meets-ennis-del-mar/)\n\nThe pairing had a structural convenience: the third film in the trilogy, *Back to the Future Part III*, is set in the Old West, which De Nicola described as seeming like fate for a cowboy-romance parody.[5](https://m.connectionnewspapers.com/news/2006/mar/08/mcfly-meets-ennis-del-mar/)\n\n## Spread and reception\n\nThe pair first showed the video nervously at their comedy show; De Nicola compared the crowd's reaction to that of [Boston Red Sox](https://www.edgepedia.org/boston-red-sox) fans when the team won the 2004 [World Series](https://www.edgepedia.org/world-series). Friends pressed the troupe to put it online, and by the next morning it had received 2,000 hits. Someone posted it to boingboing.net, from which it reached YouTube and became an international success.[5](https://m.connectionnewspapers.com/news/2006/mar/08/mcfly-meets-ennis-del-mar/) Ade told *Time* that a friend posted it to YouTube and \"after that point it got away from us\"; the video was viewed more than 3 million times on YouTube alone and inspired dozens of knockoffs, including *Lazy Brokeback* on [Saturday Night Live](https://www.edgepedia.org/saturday-night-live).[2](https://time.com/archive/6676899/how-to-get-famous-in-30-seconds/)\n\nThe video drew national press coverage in the Wall Street Journal, the [Boston Herald](https://www.edgepedia.org/boston-herald), Newsweek, and the Boston Globe, among other outlets, and MTV expressed interest in working with the troupe.[5](https://m.connectionnewspapers.com/news/2006/mar/08/mcfly-meets-ennis-del-mar/) NPR's Bob Mondello described it in February 2006 as being at the crest of a wave of mock trailers, noting that *Brokeback Mountain* was the most-satirized film of the moment because its nearly wordless, hyper-romantic preview was easy to mimic.[9](https://www.kuaf.com/npr-news/2006-02-10/not-coming-to-a-theater-near-you-satire-trailers?_amp=true) More than thirty *Brokeback* parodies circulated online by April 2006, edited from films including [Forrest Gump](https://www.edgepedia.org/forrest-gump), Top Gun, City Slickers, and [The Lord of the Rings](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-lord-of-the-rings); gay groups were divided, with some leaders objecting to the humor and others arguing that it opened a public conversation about homosexuality that had previously been off limits.[10](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/brokeback-spoofs-spur-anger-praise-18-04-2006/) The Guardian observed that the mash-up wave, far from harming Ang Lee's film, benefited it handsomely as free publicity.[11](https://www.theguardian.com/media/2006/apr/17/mondaymediasection.digitalmedia)\n\n## Fair use and copyright\n\nBecause the video combines copyrighted footage from Universal's *Back to the Future* with music from *Brokeback Mountain*, it became a standard example in legal writing on fair use and user-generated content. Pamela Samuelson, a law professor at the [University of California](https://www.edgepedia.org/university-of-california), Berkeley, cited it in her 2009 Fordham Law Review article \"Unbundling Fair Uses\" as a fan-created parody made for entertainment without a profit motive.[12](https://georgetownlawtechreview.org/frozen-fanfic-and-a-flexible-approach-for-fair-use-in-the-digital-age/GLTR-11-2016/) The Electronic Frontier Foundation cited it in a 2008 rulemaking comment as one of the most popular trailer mashups, viewed more than 5 million times, arguing that such noncommercial remix videos are transformative commentary and should be recognized as fair use.[13](https://www.transformativeworks.org/our-projects/legal/eff-comment/) Commentators have noted that the fair use argument is strongest for the film clips and more contestable for the synchronization of copyrighted music.[14](https://illinoislawreview.org/wp-content/ilr-content/articles/2008/5/Lee.pdf) No litigation against the video is recorded in these sources, and the Center for Media and Social Impact's Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Online Video cites the mashup as an example of emerging viral popular culture.[15](https://cmsimpact.org/code/code-best-practices-fair-use-online-video/)\n\n## Scholarly readings\n\n[Academic writing](https://www.edgepedia.org/academic-writing) has treated the video as more than a joke. Michael D. Dwyer, a film and media studies scholar, uses it in the epilogue of his 2015 book *Back to the Fifties* as evidence, alongside the comedy *Hot Tub Time Machine* (2010), of a contemporary impulse to both enthusiastically re-live and critically re-examine the cultural attitudes of the Reagan Era; he argues that the video opens up new potential readings of *Back to the Future* and encourages skepticism toward pop nostalgia's construction of history.[16](https://academic.oup.com/book/5998/chapter-abstract/149377223) Miguel Mera, a musicologist at [City St George's, University of London](https://www.edgepedia.org/city-st-georges-university-of-london), analyzes it as an example of re-invention in which Santaolalla's score acts as a pre-existent signifier that glues together the postmodern bricolage and reshapes the audience's perception of the borrowed footage.[4](https://openaccess.city.ac.uk/id/eprint/4007/1/Invention%20Reinvention%20Final.pdf) Scholars of recut trailers also cite it as a famous instance of the form, one that advertises a hybrid film that can never be obtained.[17](https://figshare.utas.edu.au/articles/chapter/Extended_Attractions_Recut_Trailers_Film_Promotion_and_Audience_Desire/23060627)\n\nThe video's influence outlasted its moment. A decade after its release, Slate noted that it had recast the Doc Brown–Marty McFly friendship as a *Brokeback Mountain*-esque saga of secret love, preceding later fake trailers for the same trilogy.[18](https://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2016/02/18/back_to_the_future_s_would_be_prequel_has_a_cleverly_tense_fake_trailer.html) Scholars of the Brokeback parody wave describe how, over the course of the phenomenon, the signifier \"Brokeback\" detached from Ang Lee's film and became a synonym for homosexually inflected parodic discourse, with *Brokeback to the Future* as one of the first and most prominent examples.[19](https://www.researchgate.net/publication/273598755_Spoof_trailers_hyperlinked_spectators_the_web)\n\n## References\n\n1. [Fake and fan trailers, Transformative Works and Cultures (2014)](https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/79d5/3aa2d0a798b96b72ed7ecf84c9ccd8d7d512.pdf)\n2. [How To Get Famous in 30 Seconds, Time (2006)](https://time.com/archive/6676899/how-to-get-famous-in-30-seconds/)\n3. [Brokeback to the Future: Spoof Trailers, The Short Films Blog (2008)](https://shortfilmsblog.blogspot.com/2008/11/brokeback-to-future-spoof-trailers.html)\n4. [Miguel Mera (2009). Invention/Re-invention, Music, Sound, and the Moving Image](https://openaccess.city.ac.uk/id/eprint/4007/1/Invention%20Reinvention%20Final.pdf)\n5. [McFly Meets Ennis Del Mar, Connection Newspapers (2006)](https://m.connectionnewspapers.com/news/2006/mar/08/mcfly-meets-ennis-del-mar/)\n6. [Michael D. Dwyer, Back to the Fifties (PDF excerpt)](https://cpb-ap-se2.wpmucdn.com/blogs.ststephens.wa.edu.au/dist/a/1857/files/2018/02/Back-to-the-Fifites-rlye6l.pdf)\n7. [The Oscar for Best 'Brokeback' Parody Goes to ..., ABC News (2006)](https://abcnews.com/Entertainment/Oscars2006/story?id=1680323&page=1)\n8. [Daniel Hesford (2013). The Art of Anticipation, PhD thesis, University of Edinburgh](https://era.ed.ac.uk/bitstream/1842/9469/2/Hesford2013.pdf)\n9. [Not Coming to a Theater Near You: Satire Trailers, NPR (2006)](https://www.kuaf.com/npr-news/2006-02-10/not-coming-to-a-theater-near-you-satire-trailers?_amp=true)\n10. ['Brokeback' Spoofs Spur Anger, Praise, CBS News (2006)](https://www.cbsnews.com/news/brokeback-spoofs-spur-anger-praise-18-04-2006/)\n11. [Mash hits, The Guardian (2006)](https://www.theguardian.com/media/2006/apr/17/mondaymediasection.digitalmedia)\n12. [Frozen Fanfic and a Flexible Approach for Fair Use in the Digital Age, Georgetown Law Technology Review (2016)](https://georgetownlawtechreview.org/frozen-fanfic-and-a-flexible-approach-for-fair-use-in-the-digital-age/GLTR-11-2016/)\n13. [Comment of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Organization for Transformative Works (2008)](https://www.transformativeworks.org/our-projects/legal/eff-comment/)\n14. [Lee, University of Illinois Law Review (2008)](https://illinoislawreview.org/wp-content/ilr-content/articles/2008/5/Lee.pdf)\n15. [Code of Best Practices in Fair Use for Online Video, Center for Media and Social Impact](https://cmsimpact.org/code/code-best-practices-fair-use-online-video/)\n16. [Epilogue: The Futures of Nostalgia, Back to the Fifties, Oxford Academic (2015)](https://academic.oup.com/book/5998/chapter-abstract/149377223)\n17. [Extended Attractions: Recut Trailers, Film Promotion and Audience Desire, University of Tasmania](https://figshare.utas.edu.au/articles/chapter/Extended_Attractions_Recut_Trailers_Film_Promotion_and_Audience_Desire/23060627)\n18. [Watch the Clever Fake Trailer for Would-Be Back to the Future Prequel, 1.21 Gigawatts, Slate (2016)](https://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2016/02/18/back_to_the_future_s_would_be_prequel_has_a_cleverly_tense_fake_trailer.html)\n19. [Spoof trailers, hyperlinked spectators & the web, new media & society](https://www.researchgate.net/publication/273598755_Spoof_trailers_hyperlinked_spectators_the_web)\n\n---\n*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Films by genre, form, and subject › Animated and short films › Individual short films*\n\n*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*\n\n*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*\n\nLicense: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license\n", "same_as": [], "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/brokeback-to-the-future", "markdown_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/brokeback-to-the-future.md", "license": { "name": "Edgepedia Community License 1.0", "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license", "summary": "Free with credit, commercial use included. AI training is open to everyone. For other uses, organizations over USD 100M in revenue or 100M monthly users license separately.", "spdx": "LicenseRef-Edgepedia-Community-1.0" }, "credit": "\"Brokeback to the Future\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/brokeback-to-the-future. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "credit_md": "\"[Brokeback to the Future](https://www.edgepedia.org/brokeback-to-the-future)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), [https://www.edgepedia.org/brokeback-to-the-future](https://www.edgepedia.org/brokeback-to-the-future). [Edgepedia Community License 1.0](https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license).", "credit_html": "\"Brokeback to the Future\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/brokeback-to-the-future. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "speakable": "Brokeback to the Future, also called Brokeback To The Future, is a 2006 viral recut trailer by Emerson College's Chocolate Cake City pairing Back to the Future footage with Brokeback Mountain's score to imply a Marty-Doc romance." }