Madison, of course, is the Moscow of the Midwest, the Berkerly of the Cheese State. Pink Flamingo is also a gay movie by Jon Waters, and that may have had something to do with it.
May have, but I do remember the Bascom Hill Pink Flamingo prank—
“The idea was sparked by a 1979 prank when pranksters on campus put out 1,008 of the birds.”
On the first day of classes, September 4, 1979, Madison students awoke to find that more than 1,000 pink flamingos covered the University’s Bascom Hill.
I was just a child, of course...
More here:
http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/museum/artifacts/archives/001660.asp
Pink Flamingos is about a family competing to be The Filthiest People Alive. Seems appropriate.