The WWE is a parallel universe soap opera. They will grab anything from the headlines or zeitgeist and try to write it into their storylines. A Teabaggin' wrassler is an obvious move.
The WWF's core fans aren't seeing anything ironically. Irony is largely an urban liberal hobby. The WWF's fans are either 13-year-old boys, or have the political sensibilities of 13-year-old boys. They're just seeing larger-than-life characters. Archetypes. Their crazy old uncle writ large upon the small screen.
Maybe this is just Mcmahon doing market testing for 2016, seeing if she should go full teaparty, or pull back. Perhaps WWE/MMA fans (males 18-34) are the NASCAR dads of the future.
Remember the wrestler who was suppsed to be an IRS agent? He is pretty much the exact opposite of this "Zeb Colter." He used to come out and admonish the fans to pay their taxes. Obviously, he was a heel.
He wrestled in a button up suit and tie, it was hilarious! Ah, to be 10 again and watching rasslin' with my grandfather...
@5: Exactly: the satire is so good that those being satirized and mocked cheer it on and beg for more!
It plays on the emotional immaturity of the fans to not even realize the joke being made. But keep in mind that most fans know it is fake, they just don't care. Mindless entertainment, male soap opera violence for its own sake.
As a WWE fan I can tell you that Jack Swagger and Zeb Coulter are definitely supposed to be bad guys, but this storyline is only a few weeks old so it remains to be seen if part of the audience begins to side with them. I think as long as they don't mention Obama it should be ok, if only because Jack Swagger is extremely unlikable. This is all setting up Swagger's Wrestlemania match with Alberto Del Rio, the Mexican good guy champion.
@13 Swagger's theme was a cover band apparently called Age against the machine, but his music has since been changed to something more appropriate.
Just 30 seconds or so of that first video was enough to remind me why I loathe wrestling. I had a good friend growing up who was really into it (he loved the Undertaker), but try as he might, he couldn't get me hooked. Yes, it's clearly fake, and McMahon has done away with pretending it's not, but that doesn't mean the acting is any better for it.
@12: That actually makes sense in a way: most people I know who are into wrestling after age 10-13 are actually pretty liberal, just completely apathetic or ignorant about government and politics.
Older teens and young adults I guess. Socially liberal if you ask, but do not bother voting.
I also like how the WNBA is only a factor in areas that are solidly democratic. That is, if I am interpreting the graph correctly.
@14: I guess I should have been clearer, I mean to say that for those who are unable to understand what wrestling actually is, it is playing off their emotional immaturity. To those who understand what wrestling is and still choose to watch it, I imagine it is just another circus act to enjoy.
Professional wrestling has its own stylistic rules that I think are hard for Seattle hipsters to understand. Wrestling characters aren't parodies so much as caricatures of the current zeitgeist painted in broad strokes. That way a deeper existing narrative can be easily added to the violent poetics of a scripted match.
God I feel pretentious writing that, but what I'm trying to get across is that viewing it as wresting either making fun of or not making fun of something is the wrong mental construct to try and understand it.
I bet you got a lot of wedgies as a kid.
He wrestled in a button up suit and tie, it was hilarious! Ah, to be 10 again and watching rasslin' with my grandfather...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mike_Rotund…
It plays on the emotional immaturity of the fans to not even realize the joke being made. But keep in mind that most fans know it is fake, they just don't care. Mindless entertainment, male soap opera violence for its own sake.
http://assets.nationaljournal.com/mte/ho… I always found this study fascinating.
@13 Swagger's theme was a cover band apparently called Age against the machine, but his music has since been changed to something more appropriate.
Older teens and young adults I guess. Socially liberal if you ask, but do not bother voting.
I also like how the WNBA is only a factor in areas that are solidly democratic. That is, if I am interpreting the graph correctly.
@14: I guess I should have been clearer, I mean to say that for those who are unable to understand what wrestling actually is, it is playing off their emotional immaturity. To those who understand what wrestling is and still choose to watch it, I imagine it is just another circus act to enjoy.
God I feel pretentious writing that, but what I'm trying to get across is that viewing it as wresting either making fun of or not making fun of something is the wrong mental construct to try and understand it.