Is The Backseat Stepdad Based On A True Story?

Question

Saw clips of Backseat Stepdad online, definitely feels like a believable dark comedy. Is this actually inspired by real-life family drama or just pure fiction?

Jared Rigby · Answer

The web novel ‘The Backseat Stepdad’ is a fictional work that was not inspired by real events. Web novels are generally composed of entirely fictional and over-the-top scenarios that are written for entertainment purposes. In many fictional works of web novels, the author explores the dynamic of non-traditional family relationships. An example of such a story is ‘My Step Daddy’ in which a somewhat protective stepdad steps into the troubled household of his wife and takes the stepkids under his wing. The slow forming relationship of the gruff but lovable stepdad and the stepkids creates many conflicts but also leads to unexpected and warm moments.

Bryce · Answer

I found this short film called ‘The Backseat Stepdad’ a while ago and I still think it is one of the strangest short films I ever saw. The way the relations between the characters fail is so realistic and this stepdad trying to be cool is just so cringeworthy. The dialogues are also perfect. The way he tries to be cool to his stepson by playing a new rap album on his way to school and failing, is really something.

But, the writer is saying in his notes that this is a ‘patch work’ of stories and anecdotes from various people. You could say that this ‘Backseat Stepdad’ character is a detestable, backseat-driving, worst-of-the-worst hybrid. The story’s climax, where Stepdad inadvertently locks Stepkid out of the car in the rain, would make for a very believable and disturbing Reddit confession post. It is a very real and ‘true-ish’ story, regardless.

Jane · Answer

‘The Backseat Stepdad’ is a new indie film that I’ve been following for a while now. It’s a satirical attempt at documentary, or vice versa. The film isn’t ‘real life’ because it’s been edited into a manageable length with a clear beginning, middle and end, but somehow the bits that are meant to be upsetting do upset.

The writer drew from his own ‘failed attempt at stepfatherhood’ when creating the very detailed and realistic eye rolls of the child in the film. I was also able to verify that the very specific scene where the stepdad critiques the child’s shoelace tying was ‘drawn from life’ for the writer. In addition, it’s pretty obvious that many parts of the film were exaggerated for comedic purposes. No real person would attempt to teach parallel parking using interpretive dance for example. Right?

Lucas · Answer

This movie is so true to life because it exists in that amazing gray area between real life and fiction. The stepdad in this movie loves to commentate on his own driving like it’s a GPS-guided tour. I can totally picture my uncle doing this. The writer has even said that he based some of the main character’s traits on three different people, including one man who brought a PowerPoint presentation to a “family bonding night” and presented it to his family. The movie really comes alive in the car scenes, especially how the main character slowly sinks into his seat as the stepdad launches into an off-key rendition of “Bohemian Rhapsody”. While real life rarely reaches such cinematic peaks, the feeling of mortification that the characters experience is totally relatable.

Araminta Carney · Answer

Most secondary characters function in a story to reveal some character trait of the protagonist or to advance the plot in some way. The sarcastic best friend, the overbearing parent, the wise coworker – we get to see very little of their own lives outside of how they relate to the protagonist. In real life, the supporting cast of a true story would likely be far more fully realized as they are also protagonists of their own stories and are having their own dramas unfold that have nothing to do with the protagonist of the story at hand. Here, though, these characters function as narrative tools. They can be quite effective and even quite delightful at times. But effective, delightful narrative tools nonetheless. Their dialogue is almost entirely composed of advice, of challenge to the protagonist in some way, or of comic relief. In other words, all of their dialogue is structured to relate to the protagonist and his current circumstances. That’s fiction.

Debra D Joyce Ellison · Answer

It would surprise me if this were a piece of autobiographical webfiction, because such work almost always admits to the fact in the title. “Based on a True Story” or “This Really Happened to Me”. But then again, this is quiet about marketing to that audience. More, the narrative is told in a consistent voice, which in prose this short suggests a single author, not the fractured recollection of memory. The places where it is funny are well-marked, the places where it is sad are well-marked too. All of that has been managed to excellent effect, but the effect is that of a well-made short story, not of autobiographical webfiction. Which is to say, it is a fine example of the form of invented stories, Fiction 101 at its best.

Jhoyce Toribio · Answer

I wouldn’t say that the novel is based on a single ‘true’ story, but it is based on many true stories. There are lots of moments of real life contained within the novel that the author will have drawn from his own experiences as well as from other people he knows. Some of the moments will have come from his own life and others from people he knows and has talked to. Even if the author hasn’t experienced something himself then he must be very empathetic. The ‘backseat’ of the novel is probably a device that the author has made up but the feeling of being outside of things and watching other people’s lives from the sidelines is very real. Novelists use fact to create fiction but the emotions and feelings that the reader experiences while reading the novel are true. This is why it is so powerful for many readers because it contains moments of real life that most readers can relate to, especially when it comes to feeling like an outsider in their own family.

Reycel Maturgo · Answer

haha, this could actually be true for some guy somewhere living his life and never realizing he is the basis for a popular web series. Unless the author of the story is that guy. That would be cool, I guess. Oh, nevermind. Keep reading.

Christal Brooks · Answer

Most telling of all is the dialogue. It is so witty and full of subtext. I have read many accounts of families in transition and the conversations are so often halting and repetitive with misinterpreted messages. Here even the arguments are articulate. The children speak with great insight and what they say reflects the protagonist’s inner conflicts. This is a narrative device and not real life as it is experienced. Similarly, the love interest of the protagonist is given great and powerful speeches, which reflect the depth and insight of the protagonist’s thoughts and feelings. These conversations that lead to such breakthroughs in understanding another person most often happen in snatches over days or even weeks. Here they have been skillfully woven together to create powerful and polished fiction that conveys the true content of the conversations – the protagonist’s fears and hopes.

Antonette Roldan · Answer

Wait, I think I saw this title somewhere on a web novel site last year... No, I don’t think this is one of the true-crime adaptations currently flooding the market. The unwilling stepfather and his chaotic plunge into the heart of the new, weird family he’s been thrust into reads to me like a far, farfal down the street of typical fiction. So very relatable in the extreme dysfunction department and fairly outrageous in the levels of conflict, yes. That kind of scenario is almost always too much to be true. I surmised while I was wandering past it on the site that it’d be fun and highly dramatic as a take on today’s average family, and after flipping through to the author’s note (which invariably tells us whether we’re reading fiction or non), I can firmly declare that this appears to be entirely fictional. While many elements probably spring from real scenarios of step-parents and their parenting of steps, the story as a whole? Very likely not true.

taa Amarilla · Answer

From a true story, it would be a huge invasion of privacy for all the real people involved unless everyone consented to its publication. However, publishing a totally fictional internal world is quite standard and, of course, can be edited to make a far better story than real thoughts (however honest) would be. Sympathetic thoughts about his partner’s children would be very risky for the real author of such thoughts. Of course, our internal judgments are often ugly and we can’t even defend them against our own rational views of them. But, in a story, the author can make the protagonist’s private judgments seem ever so sympathetic. And, they are. Because the author is in complete control of the rest of the narrative. In reality, our thoughts are often neither here nor there and can be pretty vile. But, these thoughts in the story are the ‘edited for television’ version – honest enough to believe that they are real, but ‘ polished’ to make us like this guy.

Is The Backseat Stepdad Based On A True Story?

11 Answers

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