Some former wrestlers are, in addition to being somewhat buffoonish and quick to dole out blogging advice, quite sensitive about the "gay thing"

I've learned over the course of my life that of all the forms of athletics that guys participate in at the high school and collegiate level in the United States of America, the most sensitive to criticism of their sport are wrestlers. I have a few friends here in New York who've wrestled competitively (I knew no one back home who did...it's not really a big sport in Louisiana) and the most surefire way to get a rise out of them, always and without fail, is to question, even in a joking manner, the legitimacy of the sport, and, and this is what REALLY gets a rise out of them, to question the sexuality of the people who participate in it. Doing so will usually lead them, the former wrestlers, to challenge you to a wrestling match on the sidewalk or on someone's front lawn, so that they can show you, you know, just how un-gay wrestling is. Let's face it folks, wrestling is, in the words of one of my many gay male friends, "gayer than Cats."

So when I used the photo below in a post a wrote about the Olympics and then proceeded to cite it as evidence that the sport was "fundamentally gay," I knew that I'd get an angry email or two from former and current wrestlers, and boy did I.



Specifically, this is what I said in that post about wrestling and the above...

Because NBC and the trifling dipshit geniuses that run the place decided that they were going to fingerfuck everyone else in the ass, that's why! Just like the guy in the photo above! (By the way, if you ever doubted for a moment that wrestling was fundamentally gay, look no further than this photo)

A few hours later I found myself in an email exchange with a guy named John, some sort of publicist/marketing person for professional athletes, who had contacted me to take issue with, well, pretty much everything. Come to find out, not only is John a former wrestler who took offense to my "gay" characterization of the sport, but he also happens to be a self-proclaimed blogging expert because he "provides a lot of info for a couple of major sports blogs" and pointed out that that because I am so fundamentally lacking in any sort of evolved sense of humor, I'll probably never make it in the "blog world."

Sigh.

Anyway, I figured that I'd share the entire email exchange since, looking back on it, it's sort of entertaining in an Abbott and Costello "Who's on First" routine sort of way. For easier reading, I've italicized John's emails, starting with the first one, and placed my responses to him in bold.

That's actually two women wrestling.

If you're going to make a childish point such as the "fundamentally gay" one, you should probably use a correct image (or reference a correct image) to go along with your point.

i am aware that "he" is actually a "she." that was intended to be part of the joke.

Bad joke then. The two women look feminine as well. Again, get a better photo to reference this stuff.

I used to wrestle, so trust me, said photos exist in a wide variety. It'd take a good 30 seconds extra to find one

i used that photo because it's fucking funny. me thinks thou doth protesteth too much.

Nah. Me thinks doth just has a dumb sense of humor. But if there is humor in that photo (and I see your angle), you ended all chances of humor with a dumb comment to reference it.

In other words, go back to funny school if your words and photo are funny together.

Not protesting. You just did a bad job. Take criticism man. It'll only help you down the road.

my sense of humor is just fine by me, thank you very much. if it offends you then just don't visit my site. the day that i try to censor myself or question what makes me giggle inside or amend my thinking to appease others is the day i should just die. sorry. i'm fine with who and what i am and i have no intention of changing a thing, not to say that it couldn't evolve in another direction, but i'm certainly not forcing it.

Wow. Way to overreact big dog. I wasn't offended nor did I ask you to censor yourself.

I told you it wasn't funny (and at least one of your four other readers today agrees based on your comments). Didn't say it disgusted me, as a former wrestler I was upset, cause really, I could care less. It didn't make sense and your "joke" was dumb. It's pretty simple. If you call that "censorship", then funny school is the least of your worries in life.

I guess we just found why your blog will never match some of the bigger ones. As soon as someone criticizes something, you go off the deep end on your First Amendment speech, even if it had nothing to do with that.

You're right. You have the full right to be dull and boring, to not have a sense of humor and to not make any sense. And I have the full right to point that out. As a side note, I actually provide a lot of info for a couple of major sports blogs. So again, when someone tries to offer up criticisms, you should listen, not start your little free speech protest.

For the record, I actually commended the blog part of it. Good luck. I think you're gonna need it in the blog world.

man, you're missing my point completely. i'm not going off on some first amendment rant, i'm saying that you calling my sense of humor "dumb" is an apples and oranges type of thing. we obviously have different tastes.

let's say i like apple pie and you come over for dinner and i serve you apple pie, but then you protest my serving you apple pie. "apple pie is disgusting," you say. okay, well does that mean i suddenly need to question my love for apple pie and whether or not i serve it to anyone ever again?

HELL NO!

it just means that you don't like apple pie. i like apple pie. so be it. who knows, maybe one day i will grow to dislike apple pie? but for now, don't come over to my house expecting to be served something other than apple pie, because that's what i'm serving. take it or leave it. i'm not going to stop loving apple pie just because john doesn't like it.

does that make sense?

and about your contention that my blog will "never match some of the bigger ones." I DON'T CARE! i'm not aspiring to be some big shit blogger. never have and never will. i started a blog mainly to share things that i thought were cool/funny or whatever, and to have a small voice in the national conversation. i enjoy it. it's fun. and it's kind of addicting to be perfectly honest with you. the fact that i've developed a small following is great, and i'm tremendously flattered that people take time from their lives to read my nonsense, but i have a pretty rich life outside of my blog that is filled with all sorts of stuff i hope to do before i die. and guess what...having a blog that ranks in the among the most heavily trafficked on the web isn't one of them. nothing against the people that do want that sort of thing, it's just not that important to me.

now with that all said...i have to get back to work on something i really need to be working on.

And comparing my criticisms of your "humor" to being offended or me asking you to being censored (which is specifically what you did) is like comparing apples to cars.

It was here, after the "apples to cars" bit, that I just gave up and punched myself in the balls.