Twitter ‘troll’ apologises to boxer on live TV… and he shouldn’t have
REMEMBER when people knew what the word ‘troll’ meant? Those were glorious days and trolling was an artform, where people could peevishly derail arguments with bizarre logic and playing Devil’s advocate. However, like the dickhead in the schoolyard who has learned a new word, the media are now applying ‘troll’ to people who act like arseholes.
See, when someone just shouts abusively at someone or starts a campaign against a dead person on Facebook, they’re not trolling, they’re being either stupid for reaction or plain nasty. Trolling, by and large, is winding people up.
And lately, people have been applauding the bizarre actions of Curtis Woodhouse, the boxer who got some stick from a on Twitter and decided that it’d be good to a) Put a bounty on an idiot’s head b) Obtain the address of the idiot c) Drive 60 miles to knock on the door of the idiot to ‘give them the fright of their life’.
Yet, the press applauded this behaviour which, if a non-famous person did it, it’d be shrieked at like it was weird and a little troubling.
Today, this story took another twist as the ‘troll’ appeared on live television to say sorry and offer a number of sentiments which shouldn’t have been proffered.
James O’Brien, the ‘troll’ in question, appeared on ITV’s Daybreak and said: “Sorry Curtis,” as well as saying: “I was silly and childish. Looking back on it, I realise I had done the wrong thing. I can only offer my deepest apologies to anyone I have abused on Twitter. I’ve let everyone down – friends, family – and I do really feel embarrassed.”
Deepest apologies? Letting family and friends down? Jesus wept. It would’ve been better if he’d said “I was just taking the piss. Seriously. When did everyone get so bloody mard?” Then, Woodhouse would’ve heard that voice in his head that said ‘I should probably just block this nincompoop’.
Either way, there was a happy ending after the pair shook hands and Woodhouse responded: “No problems mate. Like I say, it takes a big man sometimes to say sorry and I’ve done plenty of daft things in my time, so your apology is accepted – it’s not a problem.”
See, Woodhouse doesn’t think people should be given stick when they’re famous: “If you are in the public eye, I don’t think it’s right that you should be abused, your family should be abused, your children should be abused, I don’t think anyone has got the right to do that.”
“I was sat on the sofa with the wife on Monday and the thing is she sometimes uses my account as well and she’s seen this abuse and it worries and scares her.”
“We don’t know who this guy is and some of his threats, I don’t know if he’s being serious or not. I could see that she was worried and I thought enough is enough, I am going to put a stop to this right now.”
This is a man who punches people in the face for money. This is man convicted of assaulting a police officer. This is a man with a history of theft and was arrested and charged with affray after he and his pals trashed an Indian restaurant and wielding a chair in a brawl with university students.
In terms of grovelling TV apologies, someone being a tit on Twitter doesn’t really compare to a man with a violent past, who didn’t think anything of driving 60 miles after obtaining their home address in a dubious manner and courting it all to his thousands of Twitter followers and ending up in a ridiculous TV segment taking a higher moral ground.
Basically, TV just loves making a bogey man out of thick people who have access to the internet and celebrities are 100% always the victim. This lop-sided love affair is inevitably the reason dumb people fire off thoughtless missives toward celebrities in the first place because, unless someone plucks you from all the other hooting gits, you’ll never get heard anyway.
Posted: 18th, March 2013 | In: Sports Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
