Automoderated users, Autopatrolled users, Bureaucrats, Comment administrators, Confirmed users, Moderators, Rollbackers, Administrators
213,790
edits
The Tyson Zone: Difference between revisions
removed the "Klaus Kinski" so-called example for the safety of the wiki - the statement was actionable under UK libel law
m (clean up) |
(removed the "Klaus Kinski" so-called example for the safety of the wiki - the statement was actionable under UK libel law) |
||
| (18 intermediate revisions by 9 users not shown) | |||
Line 1:
{{trope}}
{{quote|''Some celebrities allow their reputation to become so bizarre that any story about them is believable. These celebrities have entered '''The Tyson Zone'''.''}}
The term was created by commentator [[The Sports Guy|Bill Simmons]] in honor of heavyweight boxer [[Exactly What It Says on the Tin|Mike Tyson]]. Examples of Tysonic behavior include offering a zoo handler money to box a gorilla, threatening to eat an opponent's children, biting said opponent in the ring, saying you're ready to "fight [[Jesus]]", or blowing $300 million on [[Hookers and Blow|hookers, cocaine]] [[Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking|and an enormous collection of]] [[Crowning Moment of Heartwarming|pigeons]].<ref>The man loves the birds. Even before boxing.</ref> And yes, Tyson did ''all'' of these things ''and more''.
Line 9:
Related Tropes:
* [[All Men Are Perverts]]:
** [[Ephebophile]]: ''This'' makes it ''much'' worse.
* [[Ax Crazy]]: Some of the best occupants of the Tyson Zone are shining examples of this trope.
* [[Controversy-Proof Image]]: when a celebrity has built such a "bad dude" or "rebellious" image that any accusation of misconduct gets ignored or even ''helps'' their career instead of destroying it. Usually, but not necessarily, a pre-requisite to enter in the Zone.
* [[Memetic Molester]]: Or any other "[[Memetic Mutation]]" trope, but this one seems to fit the most.
* [[Old Shame]]: The public tends to remember bad things a celebrity does far longer than good things.
* [[Poe's Law]]: Same principle. A celebrity who enters the Tyson Zone for religious fundamentalism would be a straight example of both tropes.
* [[Weirdness Magnet]]: Not all who enter the Tyson Zone are crazy in their own right. Sometimes, the strange things just follow them.
{{examples}}▼
Compare [[Overshadowed by Controversy]], which usually follows this trope.
== Bill Simmons' List ==▼
▲{{examples}}
▲== Bill Simmons' List ==
The inaugural class named by Bill Simmons consisted of the following celebrities:
* Dennis Rodman
* [[The Apprentice (TV series)|Omarosa]]
* [[Courtney Love]]
* [[R. Kelly]]
* Landon from ''[[The Real World]]''
* Najeh Davenport
Line 28 ⟶ 32:
* [[Public Enemy|Flava Flav]]
* Brigitte Nielsen
* [[
* [[Billy Joel]]
* Andy Dick
* [[Lindsay Lohan]]
* [[Lindsay Lohan]]'s [[Stage Dad|dad]]
* Anna Nicole Smith
* Margot Kidder
Line 49 ⟶ 53:
* After [[Charlie Sheen]]'s much publicized 2011 cocaine binge, Bill Simmons himself suggested that it may be time for Sheen to become the new [[Trope Namer]]. Though he put a [http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmons/110204&sportCat=nfl hilarious condition] (4th question there) for Sheen to take Tyson's title—with the observation "[[Tempting Fate|Let's hope I didn't just challenge him]]".
** They even met in [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wIZ0GuTXMMQ this old clip from HBO]. [[Hilarious in Hindsight]]?
** Jossed after Tyson's performance at [[Comedy Central]]'s roast of Sheen. Charlie came off as collected and lucid, whereas Tyson was giggling like an axe murderer and at one point heckled
* Victoria Jackson (of ''[[Saturday Night Live]]'' fame) has become one these in the past few years by getting involved in the [[Conspiracy Theorist|Birther]] movement and complaining about ''[[Glee]]'' (a kiss between two male characters in particular) on television while waving a Bible around. Her Wikipedia picture also features her in a really bizarre outfit that cannot be explained.
* [[Robert Downey, Jr.]] came close to entering, but then [[Career Resurrection|turned his life around]] thanks to, of all people, [[Mel Gibson]]. He's since called for the same opportunity to be [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_AAJuynxnTQ extended to Mel].
* Think for a moment: is there a role you wouldn't believe [[Nicolas Cage]] would take? Think for a moment more: is there something you wouldn't believe [[Nicolas Cage]] would waste his money on? The man bankrupted himself buying things like ''swords'' and ''a private island.''
* During the late 1990s and early 2000s [[Bill Murray]] acquired a body of [[Urban Legend]]s in which he would reportedly show up doing something completely unexpected -- like taking over as the bartender at a random couple's wedding or [https://www.billmurraystory.com/2019/why-is-bill-murray-running-the-cash-register/ working the register at a convenience store] -- almost always ending with Murray winking at the witness or otherwise acknowledging he's who he is, and saying "No one will ''ever'' believe you." (This reached a point where [https://www.billmurraystory.com/ a website] was set up to collect these stories.) With the proliferation of smartphones starting in the early 2010s, though, several such incidents were caught on camera, finally moving them out of the realm of urban legend and firmly into The Tyson Zone.
== Athletes ==
* Mike Tyson, the [[Trope
** This trope is invoked in ''[[The Hangover]] Part II'', where he asks to see the photos of the Wolf Pack's wild night by saying "I'm Mike Tyson. Nothing surprises me." And he ''still'' reacts to the pictures with a [[Mother F-Bomb]].
* Manny Ramirez.
* Ben Roethlisberger. It's not that you'll believe any story about things he did, but that [[Weirdness Magnet|you'll believe any story about things that happened to him]].
Line 65 ⟶ 70:
** 1987: At a pregame steak dinner for the Fiesta Bowl, Penn State shows up in suits. Miami shows up in full combat fatigues.
** 1991: The team's taunting of the Texas Longhorns in the Cotton Bowl Classic (most notably Randal Hill's touchdown celebration) is so flagrant that the NCAA creates [[Obvious Rule Patch|the "Miami Rule"]] to punish it. This, on top of receiving sixteen penalties over 202 yards, a bowl and school record.
** 1992: A bench clearing brawl with San Diego State includes [[Dwayne Johnson]] (yes, [[
** 2001: Against Boston College, a Miami defensive lineman records an interception, only for his teammate Ed Reed to run up behind him and steal the ball to take it in for the winning touchdown. (On a side note, 2001 Miami is considered by some to be the greatest college football team of all-time.)
** 2002: Najeh Davenport breaks into a woman's dorm room and is caught pooping in her laundry basket.
** 2006: Kellen Winslow is confronted by reporters for intentionally injuring an opposing player and has an epic freakout on camera, where he declares "I'm a fucking soldier!"
** 2011: Convicted [[Ponzi]] schemer Nevin Shapiro is caught for having lavished [[Sex, Drugs and Rock and Roll|strippers, prostitutes, alcohol and money]] on UM recruits for nearly 10 years.
== Directors ==
Line 80 ⟶ 85:
** Owned a pet chimp named Bubbles, for whom he would have custom suits tailored, since he frequently took the animal to public appearances. This was just one of many exotic pets he owned over the years, to the point that a [[Saturday Morning Cartoon]] and toy line based on them were being developed in [[The Eighties]].
** Created the Neverland Ranch mansion/zoo/amusement park complex to live in.
** Got '''set on fire''' due to a freak accident on the set of a Pepsi commercial, leading him to become dependent on painkillers for the rest of his life.
** Had giant statues of himself built and trucked around the world (including down the River Thames) to promote 1995's ''HIStory''.
** Had ''tons'' of plastic surgery, although [[Implausible Deniability|he denied most of it]] (it's generally agreed though that the narrowing of his face was due to weight loss caused by anorexia and lupus; the changes to his lips and chin and his multiple rhinoplasties are real). A related issue was how he chose to handle his vitiligo, which started destroying the pigmentation of his skin in [[The Eighties]]
** Dangled his then-infant son over a hotel balcony in Berlin so fans below could see him—although "Blanket" was largely covered by a real blanket when he did so, so what was the point?
** Never let his kids go out in public with him without masks or veils. His concern that the kids could be targets for kidnapping or worse ''was'' valid—but those masks and veils attracted a lot of attention anyway. (The masks disappeared after his death.)
Line 91 ⟶ 97:
* [[Lady Gaga]], although it's mostly due to her intentionally being as ridiculous as possible. Some think she's doing it to satirize an increasingly crazy entertainment/tabloid industry that is obsessed with this. Others... just think she's crazy. Still others point out that [[Take a Third Option|she could easily be both]].
* [[Ozzy Osbourne]]. The [[Cloudcuckoolander|self-proclaimed]] [[Satan|Prince of Darkness]]. About half of this image was self-cultivated, rather like [[Michael Jackson]] (except for the image of sheer craziness rather than bizarre mystique) and the rest is due to bad decisions resulting from drug and alcohol binges.
* [[Yoshiki Hayashi]], [[Hideto Matsumoto|hide]], [[Taiji Sawada]]... hell,
* [[Gackt]].
* The late [[Wu-Tang Clan|Ol' Dirty Bastard]].
Line 98 ⟶ 104:
== Other ==
* Christian Weston Chandler, creator of ''[[Sonichu]]''. Among other bizarre things, this person...
** Entered a ''Parappa the Rapper'' promotional contest to win a female friend's affection, lost, and made a video of himself shooting a photo of the contest winner
** Drew crude pornographic artwork of himself and said female friend, which drove her off
** Attempted to solicit sex from girls at his college by standing around holding signs, which actually got him in trouble with the college staff and law enforcement
** Ran into [[Understatement|numerous]] altercations with online trolls from [[4chan]] and [[Encyclopedia Dramatica]], to the point there is a wiki and [[Kiwi Farms|a forum]] still tracking his antics
** Posted a video of himself humping a blow-up doll while yelling the pseudonym of a suspected troll posing as a prospective girlfriend
** Drew the mock trial and brutal executions of a group of people responsible for a parody of ''Sonichu''
** Got banned from a local game store for racism and yelling at children
** Got arrested (along with his mother) for allegedly trying to run over the owner of the aforementioned store with their car before being sentenced to community service
** Began identifying himself as a lesbian woman after being introduced to the controversial webseries ''Feminist Frequency'', at which point he began taking hormonal supplements, grew out his hair, [[Artistic Licence Biology|attempted to grow a vagina through hypnosis]], and [[Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick|got his taint pierced]] and called the piercing an "unclit"; the piercing later got infected and had to be removed
** Protested Sonic's redesign in the ''Sonic Boom'' series by vandalizing copies of ''Rise of Lyric'' at GameStop and macing an employee on his way out, for which he got arrested again
** Posted photographs of his taint online when the piercing re-opened and became infected, thinking he finally grew a vagina
** Repeatedly made Facebook posts calling for the killing of various members of the United States government
* [[Muammar Gaddafi]], a ''[[Libya|country's]] [[The Dog Bites Back|former]] ruler''.
** See also: [[Zimbabwe|Robert Mugabe]], [[Uganda|Idi Amin]] and [[Turkmenistan|Saparmurat Niyazov]].
* The late Seattle
* [[Older Than Radio]] example: [[Marie Antoinette]]. She was viewed as a symbol of the decadent monarchy and nobility that was running France into the ground, with the final straw being the [[wikipedia:Affair of the Diamond Necklace|Affair of the Diamond Necklace]], in which a prominent courtier was tricked by a con artist into buying the priceless trinket under the impression he was doing her a discreet favour. There was no proof of her involvement, and most historians feel that she had nothing to do with it, but her reputation was so bad that nobody doubted it. She and the monarchy lost what little credibility they still had with the French people, and [[The French Revolution]] broke out a few years later.
* [[Stage Mom
* The entire state of [[Florida]], so much that we even have [[Only in Florida|a trope]] about it.
== Fictional examples ==
* The Stig from ''[[Top Gear]]'' is often hyped this way in-show. This does include his other relatives.
* [[Mad Scientist]]s in ''[[Girl Genius]]'' are on the far end of the zone. As in, when they do something out of line, people only ask whether it's ''completely'' out of it. While discussing how the Heterodyne pretender must be trying to shut down their [[Malevolent Architecture|sentient and extremely dangerous]] ancestral castle:
{{quote|'''Vole''': De pipple of Mechanicsburg vould ''not'' ekcept dot as proof dot she iz a Heterodyne.
'''Gil''': No, neither would ''my father''.
'''Vole''': ...not unless she danced nekked through de ruins vile trying to shoot down de moon... turned all de ''tourists into monsters'' - and den built a very dangerous fountain out of ''sausages''.
(beat)
'''Gil''': Well... ''yes'', that goes without ''saying''.}}
{{reflist}}
Line 113 ⟶ 138:
[[Category:Fame and Reputation Tropes]]
[[Category:Sports Story Tropes]]
[[Category:{{PAGENAME}}]]
| |||