"That is something that I have not heard before — someone say that," said the little girl to Mike Tyson.

Mike Tyson definitely forgot he was talking to a kid while answering that question 😭pic.twitter.com/WDHvtoVnnj

— Happy Punch (@HappyPunch) November 14, 2024

"When we're dead, we're dust. Absolutely nothing.... You're dead!... I want somebody to think about me when I'm gone? Who the fuck cares about me when I'm gone!"

A new chapter in The History of Ears.

I'm reading "From Van Gogh to Mike Tyson: a brief history of ears," a 2009 Guardian article, by Lucy Mangan.

Found after trying to think of a list of famous ears, a list to which Trump's ear will now take one of the top 2 spots. I think Van Gogh's ear still belongs in first place.

I'd thought of the ear Mike Tyson bit off but had forgotten whose ear it was. (It was Evander Holyfield's.)

I'd thought of a movie ear —

"I 'died' during my first trip.... In my trips I’ve seen that death is beautiful. Life and death both have to be beautiful, but death has a bad rep."

"The toad has taught me that I’m not going to be here forever. There’s an expiration date.... Before I did the toad, I was a wreck. The toughest opponent I ever faced was myself. I had low self-esteem. People with big egos often have low self-esteem. We use our ego to subsidize that. The toad strips the ego.... It has made me more creative and helps me focus.... I’m more present as a businessman and entrepreneur.... If you knew me in 1989 you knew a different person. My mind isn’t sophisticated enough to fathom what happened, but life has improved. The toad’s whole purpose is to reach your highest potential. I look at the world differently. We’re all the same. Everything is love.... I’m fighting for psychedelics to become medicine you can buy over the counter...."

Said Mike Tyson, quoted in "Mike Tyson ‘died’ while tripping on psychedelic toad venom" (NY Post).

"It’s simple. I’m playing a retired boxer who is growing marijuana. It’s basically me acting like me, so people can get a look at what my life could be like in different scenarios."

Said Mike Tyson, quoted in "Mike Tyson shops TV show about life as marijuana grower" (NY Post).

It's not a reality show, but something like "Curb Your Enthusiasm," based on the lead character's real life, but scripted and acted. I know: Where's the line? Reality shows are scripted, blah blah blah. But Tyson offered "Curb Your Enthusiasm" as the model his show either used or wants to be thought of as using.

Here's another model:



Anyway, Tyson's marijuana farm is "a 40-acre plot of land about 60 miles southwest of Death Valley National Park." And:

Besides growing premium pot, Tyson Ranch will feature a cultivation school to teach growers the latest technology, an edible factory, a hydro-feed and supply store, plus cabins and “glamping” campgrounds for stoner tourists....

Tyson is a big proponent of weed’s health benefits and said 85 percent of pro athletes use some form of cannabis to relieve pain, inflammation and anxiety. “I smoke it all day, every day,” Tyson said.

What would you pay to glamp and smoke weed within the aura of Mike Tyson? Or — better question — would you sit and watch a TV show about the people who'd pay a lot of money to glamp and smoke weed in the actual presence of Mike Tyson?

Which reminds me... that new Lena Dunham-produced TV show "Camping" (about some glampers) is unwatchable, and I like Jennifer Garner (and I'm fine with her name). It looks promising in the trailer:



"The weird thing about life: You can feel fine but also know that you're a ticking time bomb."

Maybe I can't watch it because I'm not understanding it properly. Here's a New Republic piece, "Welcome to Camping, the Most Misunderstood Show on TV":

It’s premiered to some fairly harsh reviews, all of which entirely miss the point. Camping, in its original incarnation [a British TV show], was a vicious satire about a middle-aged harridan who micromanages a trip at a campground run by a deranged mama’s boy.... The jokes are blindingly cruel.... The miniature society of the camping trip totally breaks down. Repulsive sex ensues, along with diabolical mishaps, nudity, violence, and drug benders. The show isn’t so much dark as completely, disorientingly devoid of light.

Dunham and [her Girls co-producer Jenni] Konner have now remade the show for an American audience that is notoriously thinner-skinned than its British counterpart.... The central change is that Dunham and Konner have imbued each character with a sympathetic twist. Kathryn still micromanages—forcing everybody to go bird-watching, for example—but now she’s a woman stricken by grief over her hysterectomy, her emotional dysfunction sublimated into worries over her body (echoing Dunham’s own medical woes). The brainless and nasty alcoholic of the British Camping has become a sweet, struggling guy who is just trying to find his way. Miguel the shagger is now a smart doctor finding a new light in his life, instead of a pathetic young Englishman who got hair plugs and speaks with a slight American accent....

Understanding that doesn't make me more able to watch the American version. It just makes me sad about how dull America has become in The Era of That's Not Funny.