Today, a few words about Mr T.

Everybody love Mr T. I sure did love him when I was young and talked my parents into letting me watch the A-Team even though there was guns. Because there was also Inventing, in the sense that every week the A-Team would be locked in a workshop surrounded by goons and they would have to invent something with which to bust out of the workshop and take down the goons. (Usually they would invent a tank.)
But, did you know:

  • Mr T provided the impetus for one of the very first internet memes, the Ate My Balls phenomenon of 1996-1998. The original Mr T ate my balls website is still around, as is a Salon article on the phenomenon.
  • Mr T partnered with Hulk Hogan in a tag team match in the first Wrestlemania. Watch Mr T whale on some famous wrestler dudes here.
  • Mr T’s legendary rap number “Treat Your Mother Right” was ghostwritten by Ice T. Seriously. Okay, I’ve never found confirmation, but it has to be true. Watch T rap and mothers dance here. ‘Treat Your Mother Right” was from T’s renowned video, Be Somebody or Be Somebody’s Fool.
  • Mr T had a supporting role in the legendary cult oddity Freaked, as a Bearded Lady. He was playing alongside an uncredited Keanu Reeves, who covered his face in hair for the entire film. I love this movie always.
  • One of the Onion’s best ever articles was driven by our man Mr T: “Mr T Announces Pity List for 1986”. It features Mr T announcing “This year I pity the following fools…”
  • This is all the Alligator’s fault, dammit, I should be working. Check out more Mr T awesome, here and here.

8 thoughts on “Today, a few words about Mr T.”

  1. I WIN! When I suggested that you spend your time doing something productive, like “T-Ree”(search), I never thought that I’d win over Kiwi socio and or economic issues.
    The list of pity is brilliant.
    All Hail the T!

  4. Mr T is cool.
    But when Chuck Norris super-kicked Mr T the impact was so extreme that it’s now known as the big bang that created the universe.

  5. We weren’t allowed to watch The A Team because of the guns (or the wrestling, because of the wrestling), so I had limited exposure weirdly we were allowed to watch MacGyver who also invented things (I think my Mum, who didn’t watch it, hadn’t noticed the guns). I liked the one where he escaped from a warehouse using conc sulphuric acid and sugar (two chemicals frequently stored in the same places)… I wish I had his acid-fume resistant lungs and skin. Be a great selling point for my CV!

  7. Now isn’t that strange. We were allowed to watch the A-Team as kids specifically because although there were guns, no-one actually got killed on screen. Now I don’t know if that was in fact true, but that was what Dad reckoned.

  8. I believe that was true. Part of their timeslot deal in the US was that the gun violence was very mild and essentially kid-friendly.
    Certainly as a kid I was indignant. Why did they have A-Team toys if the show wasn’t for kids, huh? Riddle me that!

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