Tuesday, July 11, 2006

Headbuttgate: the Aftermath

Thanks to Kanu for a terrific round-up on the speculation regarding Materazzi's comments to Zidane that caused him to lose the plot. The latest, thanks to a lip reader hired by the London Times, is that Materazzi called Zidane a "son of a terrorist whore." Whatever Materazzi said, it doesn't justify Zidane trying to implant himself in Marco's sternum, like Neo at the end of The Matrix, but as an academic matter, I'm very interested to find out what was said. Kanu also linked this terrific video that shows Zidane lose it:



It reminds me of one of my favorite all-time Saturday Night Live commercials, the one in which Chris Farley is informed in a fancy restaurant that he has been drinking instant coffee instead of Columbian coffee. His face slowly turns from inane happiness to rage, punctuated by "you son of a bitch!!!" and an assault on the interviewer. I'm pretty sure the internet was invented so people like me could parallel Chris Farley being lied to about coffee and Zinedine Zidane being told that he's the "son of a terrorist whore."

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Micheal, don't you think that if this headbutt situation is looked at from a distance, it can be concluded that this will only strenghten Zidane's legacy. Already a very likeable guy, and doing that to a dirty player only makes him more likeable. People will only remember him for taking France to two WC finals and this incident will be only be a footnote that will make him seem more human.