Thank You Mask Man

I, too, would be lying were I to say that Thank You Mask Man made perfect sense to me. But I'm going to take a stab at it anyway. In some sense, I think Thank You Mask Man is a commentary on the mutability or triviality of public opinion. The rapid fire changes of the townspeople's opinion of the Mask Man (from 'beautiful person' to 'asshole' to 'fag') seem ridiculous when all the Mask Man is trying to do is to help them out. But as soon as the leader's opinion changes (seemingly for no reason), so too does the opinion of the 'mob.' This is particularly noticeable at the end, when all the characters gather together to drive out the Mask Man, when, just a short time before all they wanted to do was thank him.

This 'mob mentaltiy' is also detectable in the 'coming of the Messiah' scene. As soon as something/someone new (and consequently more exciting) pops up, the townspeople are ready to forget entirely about the Mask Man, except to shun him and drive him out of town.