Thong Girl Forever

Twenty four years ago, News Channel5 employee, Nashville tour guide, and musician Glen Weiss turned forty and felt it was time for a big life change. In a self described “drunken stupor”, he got an idea: what if there was a hot, female superhero in a bikini who shot lasers from her behind?

He held onto that idea, and now almost twenty five years later Weiss is the creator of two short films, two feature films, a web series, a video game, and a musical revue. Thong Girl—the beautiful and brilliant Assistant District Attorney and superhero—is their star. Weiss has made international news with the franchise, even having a local law named after his titular character. I’ve gotten to know him over the last week, and been fortunate to hear of how it all happened from the man himself.

THE BUILD UP

Weiss’ time working at News Channel5 inspired an interest in film and television production and gave him the platform to begin his franchise. Thong Girl’s first appearance was on the network’ sketch comedy show Stubby’s Place, which Weiss wrote for. He introduced the premise in a 7 minute short film, and convinced another talented coworker to get involved. Weiss’ friend (who worked master control at the network) was also a comic artist, and through their collaboration, the Thong Girl comic books were born. Soon, he found himself going to comic book conventions. Oftentimes, the pair would hire a woman to wear a bikini, play the role of Thong Girl live, and greet convention goers. They were very popular, with adults and children alike. Weiss laughed remembering one little girl who said, “Thong Girl, when I grow up I want to be just like you.” 

It wasn’t until his third Thong Girl film (and first feature) in 2006 that he “got the Mayor in trouble, and everything took off.” Weiss’ crew had effectively gotten unrestricted access to the Gallatin municipal building from then-mayor Don Wright who was letting them film in his office. Wright, however, hadn’t told anyone else in the building this was happening—apart from the fire chief. The result was a media tempest brewed on the wild internet of the early aughts: Weiss thanked Wright for allowing the crew to use the building on his blog. As the mayor was up for reelection, someone searched his name and found that a film called Thong Girl 3 was recently filmed in his office, and the news spread.

The first inkling that something strange was happening occurred when the host of his blog called to say he’d had three million hits in two days and needed to buy more bandwidth. A few days later, seven million. Eventually, he had to migrate to a larger host. 

Meanwhile, people in Gallatin were picketing the mayor’s office and the Palace Theater where Thong Girl was set to premiere. The Tennessean reported on the scandal. Jay Leno mentioned the ordeal in his opening monologue. Before long, the story reached Beijing Youth Daily. Wright wasn’t reelected, and Thong Girl 3 did not have a premiere at the Palace Theater—but it did sell out its opening night at the bar three doors down the street.

The very public, international reaction rattled the quiet town of Gallatin. “The town council decided they wouldn’t let this happen again,” tells Weiss. They created a new law just for this situation which prevented anyone from filming in the municipal building without their approval. This is how the “Thong Girl Law” came to be in Gallatin, Tennessee.

MORE TO DO

Since the Gallatin debacle, Weiss has made another feature, Thong Girl 4. It was the first film in the franchise that he let someone else shoot. A self-described, “control freak,” Weiss explains that he “had never been great at anything, but always wanted to be good at a lot of things… to be able to do everything was a thrill.” He admits, however, that Thong Girl 4 looked a lot better because the new cinematographer had better cameras. Sometimes, you have to delegate a bit. 

Eighteen years later, Weiss and the Thong Girl team are still selling movies. He quit his job at News Channel5 in 2019, but just two months ago he quit his job as a Nash Trash tour guide after twenty three years. Additionally, he’s been running a photography and video studio—1087 Studios—for ten years now. However, he’s ready to sell it and move on from most of that. “I want to move to New Orleans and play trumpet on the street,” says Weiss. He wants the simple life: living in an RV with his wonderful dog Archie. He still wants to be a tour guide—though this time around, he'll guide ghost tours in the haunted catacombs of the Big Easy.

Weiss is a man who unapologetically does what he loves, and does it because he loves it. When a friend once asked him why he didn’t abandon Thong Girl and become a “serious filmmaker,” his answer was simple: “‘Cause that’s no fun. This is fun!” He’s never been concerned with renown, awards, or anything else he'd glean from more serious work. “You’ve got to do what you love, without worrying about what people think all the time,” he urges. “That’s what shows through… the fact that you love what you’re doing.” He firmly believes that whatever you build when following this core value, the people who really appreciate it will be the ones you actually want around.

WHAT ABOUT THONG GIRL

As for Thong Girl, she is alive and well. Most recently, Weiss decided to do the only thing he hadn’t yet done: a musical. He wrote a two act musical in its entirety, featuring sixteen original songs, and titled it Thong Girl the Musical: The Final Chapter. Only two months before the show, however, his funding fell through.

“Instead of acting like it never happened, I decided to condense it down to a musical revue,” tells Weiss. With a story narrated by Mayor Richard Boner, Thong Girl: Night of Thong and Dance was performed on Friday, August 30th at the Texas Troubadour Theater. It featured six of the nine original dance numbers, an orchestra, and cartoon shorts. It was a great success, and fulfilling for Weiss despite the obstacles—he’s been a fan of musicals since he was a kid, when his mother would take him to see them in theaters. 

He’s not done yet, either. Three cameras shot the musical revue, and Weiss intends to edit a sizzle reel soon. He has a friend in Providence, Rhode Island who wants to host the show at his two hundred seat theater. And the full musical may still get an adaptation: Weiss is in talks with a retired Broadway pianist to workshop the show to be performed in New York City. Things may be a bit quiet right now, but he’s a man who stays busy, and has to stay doing what he loves. If all goes well, even more people will be able to enjoy Thong Girl in all its musical glory, singing along with songs like Lasers Out My Ass.