The question of people acting out of character has fascinated me recently because I’ve been noticing a lot of celebrities (regular celebrities, sports celebrities, political celebrities, etc.) say and do things that would either seem are completely unlike them or should be unlike them, and I’m starting to question the assumption I’ve always had that this is an abnormal phenomenon.
From Arthur Miller (the author of The Crucible) encouraging witch hunts to the Daily Stoic throwing around premature psychological condemnations (quite unstoically), it’s like I can’t watch something without hearing about someone doing something unheard of (for that person) every few days. I am an avid football fan and they’re known for being very passionate about left-leaning politics (not judging). A few nights ago, a few of them got a touchdown and randomly started celebrating with the “Trump dance” (yes, Trump has a trademarked dance now, like the Fortnite dance, also not judging that either). Sometimes I see this in regular people too. My old uni teacher for example is very lenient and otherwise never issues punishments to classmates that last more than a few days, but a week ago someone accidentally dropped a book on someone’s lunch and she kicked him out of the class entirely. It was like watching that one Simpsons scene at the bar.
Do you see any moments like these from time to time? What’s the most severe example of someone you know momentarily acting out of character?
Celebrities are just strangers you’ve heard about. Given enough time, they will all do something you would consider wrong. You might easily forgive and forget someone close to you doing that, but if all you know about someone is that they kick balls for a living and did the idiot dance, that’s going to stick out.
The question about “regular people” seems more interesting.
Teacher at school was one of those tall kind dudes, so being teenagers they all tried to get a rise out of him. One day he kinda snapped and slammed his hand on a students desk so hard the table broke ( it was only chipboard so not that strong), he then took 6 week off and none of the students gave him shit for the rest of the year.
I never had I’m as a teacher but considering who the student was, no shock he took the brunt of the snap.
Marcel Reich-Ranicki on 11.Oct 2008 when he refused to accept an honorary award from the national TV stations (probably spontaneously) in a live broadcast show, and then he gave a speech that was pure scandal, including spite and insults and so on.
The other two pranks endangered Moe’s safety, but Homer was the only one who made a mess.