Hunt, revisited.

Returning to the Timothy Hunt narrative, we begin to find ourselves in a position we've seen before: "Just because (x) might not be true doesn't mean it's not happening.  This is a very real thing that someone is experiencing right now, and if you're not personally castigating Tim Hunt for his very misogynistic remarks then you're personally invalidating the experiences of others!" 

I'm glad that people are starting to see on many fronts that the attack on Sir Timothy Hunt for saying something stupid was misguided and led down the path of outrage by someone who has fabricated her career in a stupendous fashion.  It's truly amazing how some people can then find ways to vilify someone just to keep an untenable position going.  During a discussion with someone on the socials for this matter regarding how Tim Hunt has been "hung out to dry" by his colleagues and former support staff for this matter, a person who I respect and admire said "Look at his personnel file.  It's filled with complaints from students that were subsequently dismissed."

I asked this person point blank about where I could find Tim Hunt's personnel file.  I looked hard across the interwebs.  I could find no trace of the personnel file anywhere.  

This leads me to believe a couple of things: 1) finding the file would not occur unless someone in Connie St. Louis' camp found a way to get Tim Hunt doxxed (a web term for publishing the personal information of someone online) or 2) someone at an "alternative" news outlet like Jezebel decided to probe for the matter and either (a) fabricated the story, or (b) managed to obtain documents that had nothing to do with the substance of Connie St. Louis's false narrative and potentially violated journalistic ethics in doing so.  Either way, this is a scary situation.  We've now reached a point in the propagation of this false narrative where people are digging for anything and everything they can find to support the notion that a set of stupid remarks means someone needs to have their entire life ruined--personally and professionally.  

I've said for some time that I believe in the exchange of ideas, no matter how asinine they may be.  I do think that it's entirely appropriate for those who propagate terrible ideas or say stupid things to suffer social consequences for that same speech.  What I do not support and will never support is someone's entire life being wrecked for the sake of punishing them just because you disagree with their views.  That's where society, in its ever vigilant quest to abolish human interaction for the sake of keyboard lunacy, has headed.  Every single abhorrent thought, every contrarian opinion, every non-inclusive term used by a person--even if it's just once--means you must silence the unbeliever.  They must be stamped out.  They must be eliminated for their views.  They must be destroyed because they said something stupid.  

It's a scary world in which we live.    

In Memoriam: Rowdy Roddy Piper

Life takes you down weird roads some days, especially when you hit an age where your heroes start dying.  

I don't mean to start this by being dark, but with the deaths of first "The American Dream" Dusty Rhodes and now "Rowdy" Roddy Piper it really feels like death is starting to take entertainers from us who really helped shape the fabric of my childhood experiences, and that feeling resoundingly sucks.  

I first remember Roddy Piper's presence on "Hulk Hogan's Rock 'n Wrestling" cartoon.  I can't say much about it, but I do remember him as being one of the bad guys who really stuck out.  My first real wrestling experience with him started with his Bad News Brown feud for Wrestlemania 6.  Piper would later recount to Vince McMahon his idea for selling the bout: he planned to paint half his body black for the show.  You couldn't get away with that gimmick today, but Vince embraced it as a way of making the bit more controversial than ever.  Can you imagine the headlines that would pop up on all the outrage media sites like Slate, Salon, Jezebel, and so on?  Piper would probably be the subject of a Ta-Nehisi Coates thinkpiece for that act of moral treason alone.  

And yet that was what made Piper so special in the art form of professional wrestling.  He was committed to his craft, and committed to his bits, and would do damn near anything and everything to sell a wrestling match like it was something special.  Another point in mind that speaks to this was the infamous "Hollywood Backlot Brawl" with Goldust for Wrestlemania 12.  This ridiculous affair had everything from baseball bats to firehoses and a golden Cadillac involved.  There was a callback to the car chase from the OJ Simpson trial.  And yet it worked, because Piper put so much effort into making the performance special.  

Piper's work didn't just stay in the wrestling world.  His contributions to campy cinema will be forever remembered as some of the best.  "Hell Comes to Frogtown" was a great bit of cinema camp, but Piper's work in John Carpenter's "They Live" will last forever in various outlets.  South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone even recreated one of the best fight scenes from the movie in an episode of their show just to pay their respects to that film.  And people who see "They Live" inevitably end up parroting what is probably the most famous line of Piper's: "I have come to chew bubblegum and kick ass. And I'm all out of bubblegum."

Piper knew what it took to work a mic in the ring and out, and I always looked forward to every single "Piper's Pit" segment whenever I heard one was coming on RAW, Smackdown or otherwise.  Even when the bits floundered, you knew something special was coming whenever Piper would do an interview with a person, because of Hot Rod's inherent unpredictability.  You never knew what he was going to say or what questions he would ask, and that was what made it special.  I respectfully submit every WWE star that had an interview segment, from Chris Jericho's "Highlight Reel" to Christian's "Peep Show" to Edge's "The Cutting Edge" owes a thank you to Rowdy Roddy Piper for the ground he broke in each of those segments, and none of them were ever as good as "Piper's Pit" or even came close to them.  

Rowdy Roddy Piper's influence has been felt throughout almost every aspect of life, and that's what makes this particular passing so hard to swallow.  UFC Bantamweight Women's Champion Ronda Rousey asked permission of Piper before using the "Rowdy" moniker in her name and has dedicated her fight against Bethe Correia at UFC 190 to her hero.  Last night at Knox Vegas Comedy's Open Mic at Sassy Ann's, a kilt was draped over a steel chair for the entirety of the show--a fitting tribute to a man who made unpredictability, passion, and commitment to your craft so important to so many.  

Image credit Ashley Fantastic/Deconbrio

Rest in peace, Roddy Piper.  May you reap the rewards of your legendary career at the big pay window in the sky.  

It's gonna be hard to hear bagpipe music without tearing up now.