The Tyson Zone: Difference between revisions

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(removed the "Klaus Kinski" so-called example for the safety of the wiki - the statement was actionable under UK libel law)
 
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Related Tropes:
* [[All Men Are Perverts]]: Thethe easiest way for a man to enter the Zone is with a bizarre/violent sex life. If nothing is known, salacious rumors will do.
** [[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.
 
Compare [[Overshadowed by Controversy]], which usually follows this trope.
 
{{examples}}
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The inaugural class named by Bill Simmons consisted of the following celebrities:
* Dennis Rodman
* [[The Apprentice (tropeTV series)|Omarosa]]
* [[Courtney Love]]
* [[R. Kelly]]
* Landon from ''[[The Real World]]''
* Najeh Davenport
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* Andy Dick
* [[Lindsay Lohan]]
* [[Lindsay Lohan]]'s [[Stage Dad|dad]]
* Anna Nicole Smith
* Margot Kidder
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* [[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 NamersNamer]].
** 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]].
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** 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, [[WWEWorld Wrestling Entertainment|The Rock]]) chasing the mascot into the stands.
** 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.
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** 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]]—he: after the disease progressed to a point where he couldn't easily cover it up with brown makeup, he bleached the restvisible areas of ithis skin to an alarming whiteness.
** 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.)
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== Other ==
* Christian Weston Chandler, creator of ''[[Sonichu]]''. Among other bizarre things, this manperson...
** 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''
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* The late Seattle restaurateur Ivar Haglund was notorious for his [[Crazy Awesome]] stunts. Buying the local TV station to give yourself an excuse to sing Norwegian folk songs for an hour a week? Sending the City Building department a protest in metered rhyme? Taking a baby seal in a pram to meet Santa? Running for office and getting elected as a joke? ''Underwater billboards?!'' Yeah. The local newspapers never knew what he was going to pull.
* [[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]]s and pageant parents in general. One recent{{when}}infamous example is that of Kerry Campbell, who allegedly gave her eight-year-old daughter Botox injections, then defended this practice (claiming it was never too early get your child cosmetic surgery to "get rid of the lines") and claimed that other pageant moms practiced this as well. The fact that the whole story turned out to be fake did nothing to dispel it.
* The entire state of [[Florida]], so much that we even have [[Only in Florida|a trope]] about it.