06.01.08
A Sudden Challenge To Kimbo Slice’s Time Magazine Man Of The Year Candidacy
“Arguing against MMA may be on the wrong side of popularity, but the right side of history,” protests Sports On My Mind’s MODI, who after observing last night’s debut of EliteXC on what used to be considered the Tiffany Network, figures CBS is all too willing to pander.
MMA is violence’s greatest reality show. Yes, there are other examples — but even pro wrestling and TV are fake. And viewers KNOW they are fake. MMA supporters make a good very case that it is not more dangerous to the fighters than boxing, football, and other sports — but they are missing the point. The real issue is whether it is more dangerous to the VIEWERS as other sports. The brutal imagery IS barbaric and brings out the very worst in us — and our society. And now it is mainstream. Yes, imagery and marketing matters. The Internet clips that made Kimbo Slice such a phenomena in the first place matter. The symbolic “cage” matters. The “animal” references matter. The striking opponents while they are defenseless on the ground matters. The knees to the face matter. The excessive blood matters. It matters when fighters like James Thompson walking with grotesque “cauliflower ear” only to be popped into a pool of blood by the right and intentional strategic blow. It matters when CBS announcers excitedly exclaim “He batted that ear like a piñata!” It matters even more when kids are watching. And it matters when the spectacle is given legitimacy by the Executive Director — David Dinkins Jr. and son of New York City mayor. All of it matters, whether the fighter is seriously injured or not.
I don’t want to be a curmudgeon about UFC, but I honestly couldn’t agree more with this. The whole thing just makes me feel kind of sad and ashamed. I’m aware of the arguments in favor of it, and willing to grant that intelligent people could enjoy it. But this, I think, is the rare sport I just kind don’t want to know more about.
word for word, that’s exactly how I feel when friends tell me they’re having children.
“The real issue is whether it is more dangerous to the VIEWERS as other sports.”
Assuming he means ‘more dangerous to the viewers than other sports,’ no. It’s not. There is no way for a television or live audience to be harmed by MMA. Harmed by their own actions? Of course. By a SHOW? Please. If we’re to adopt the potential for mimicking as a legitimate danger, we’d better get started with auto racing.
Finally, the author hasn’t provided any discernible reason that the blood, ground strikes, cage, references, etc. “matter”.
David: I’m legitimately interested in reading your feelings about MMA. To date the sport’s opponents are operating on the intellectual level of MODI and John McCain.
Thanks for asking. I’m working on it, trying to sort out what I might actually want to say from what’s basically leftover brain-schrapnel from my crude Marxist past. It’ll probably be here, unless I mysteriously find myself with 1400 perfect words on it that I want to shop around to places that pay. Or unless I find myself with a bunch of “here is what your assembly lines have given you, America” fulmination. Suffice to say that it’s the promotion — the crudity and general condescension of it — more than the sport that turns me off. And that it turns me way off.
I think you’ve definitely got something there. The manner in which the sport is being successfully marketed is a sad indictment of the lowest common denominator.
“It’ll probably be here, unless I mysteriously find myself with 1400 perfect words on it that I want to shop around to places that pay.”
Technically, I believe a free appetizer coupon to T.G.I.Friday’s does count as pay.
Technically, it was a coupon to Pizzeria Uno, and I don’t go there because I don’t approve of their views on pizza.
It’ll certainly be here. I’ve got nothing to say, probably, that hasn’t already been said. I just want to wait and see how many more CBS executives get fired over programming the fucking thing.