The Man Who Said No to @SimonPegg

POSTING BY JB MADDAWG

Simon Pegg

Celebrities seriously crack me up.  Now, I don’t know what other people use as criteria for following someone famous on Twitter, but I have just a few short rules, which are fairly easy to follow.  I may follow someone because I think they’re funny, interesting or maybe I’d like to know about future projects they’ll be involved with.  All three were reasons I followed actor Simon Pegg, up until recently.

I’ll be honest, Simon has put me off on more than one occasion, and I’ve overlooked it because I think he’s a witty guy.  Quite honestly, I think he did fantastic work in Shaun of the Dead, and he’s earned his fame.  But I don’t free pass anyone.

Last week Pegg and I became involved in a Twitter scuffle because in my opinion Pegg severely overstepped his bounds.  President Obama had just stated he was in favor of gay marriage, which I and apparently Mr. Pegg are all in agreement about.  Now, I rarely discuss religion and politics on The ThrowDown, for a very good reason.  I don’t believe this is the forum to do so, and honestly, you shouldn’t give a damn what my views on either are.  Go form your own opinions, because it’s pretty much the only true freedoms you have, but I digress.

Now I’m not exactly sure what went haywire with Pegg, but tweeting his approval of a U.S. President’s statement went from support, to lofty ideal, then to frothing mouth self-righteousness.  I can only assume it was the chorus of people replying to him to ahem, keep his opinions to himself.  He seemed to be missing the point that a tweet in support was fine.  Then, he tweeted around five or six times on the subject, and when he got a mild backlash, started chirping about how “gay marriage wasn’t anyone’s business”.  Now, where I come from, it’s fine to pick a fight.  But you better be damn well and  ready to finish it.  Pegg chickened out when things got heated, pure and simple.

Well, I’d just had enough of being told what was or wasn’t open for discussion in my country by someone who isn’t a citizen.  That’s like me walking into my neighbor’s house and telling him he needs to paint his living room a different color, as far as I’m concerned.  So, I figured as long as we were being all truthful and folksy with each other, I’d lay some “truth” on Mr. Pegg, and tweeted my response:

@simonpegg, I regret to inform that I’m unfollowing you. We threw you guys out for a reason. Discuss partisan politics w/the Queen, please.

Hey, I like Simon Pegg.  But he picked a fight.  Several folks took him up on it.  When he became abusive was where I decided I’d had enough of the bullshit, celebrity or not.  So, Pegg was nice enough to take time out of his apparently “busy” schedule to reply to me:

@JBMaddawg No please come back. Of all my followers I valued you the most number 2,001,206!

For those of you not in the know, that’s celebritese for “I’m better than you, more popular than you, and your opinion is worthless to me.”  So, I decided I’d have to put a finer point on the subject for him to understand:

@simonpegg, sorry you feel a fan that spent plenty of cash making you money doing what you love is a number. Fame won’t last forever, babe.

Again for those of you not in the know, that’s blogger speak for “Listen asshole, I fucking work for a living.  I spent hard-earned dollars on your “profession” making you able to tweet all day while people with extremely tough jobs are toiling just to make ends meet for not enough pay.  You may not value your fans now, but you may just miss a few of them when the industry uses you, throws you away and leaves you pumping gas at a filling station in Northwich, you elitist prick”.

Well, needless to say, I had a good chuckle over the bit, and our own Johnny Rantavius said of the event, “you need to wear that one as a badge of honor.”  And after thinking about it, I believe I will, because that’s what The ThrowDown is all about.  Telling it like it is, fame be damned.  If we didn’t you could just go read whatever bullshit Yahoo or Entertainment Tonight plans on selling you at the moment.  Hey, we may not be as famous as some, but we finish our fights here.  And if you’re a fan of our work, I know you expect nothing less.

I’m JB Maddawg, formerly Simon Pegg’s #2,001,206 Twitter follower, saying our fans aren’t numbers.  You’re our valued readers.