The Undeniable Greatness of the Late, Great, Rowdy Roddy Piper
"I Have Come Here To Chew Bubble Gum and Kick Ass . . . And I Am All Out Of Bubble Gum"
Author’s Note: I live adjacent to the border of hockey-crazed Canada. The emotional trauma of the 2024 Stanley Cup in which Edmonton fought like champions only to come up short has rippled across the Peace Bridge.
Thus, as a gesture of friendship, I post this humorous essay featuring Rowdy Roddy Piper, a proud son of Saskatoon, a mere 500km from Edmonton.
As a man of a certain age I am occasionally surprised that some are unaware of the greatness of Rowdy Roddy Piper.
Rowdy Roddy was the first generation of what now know as WWE Wrestling, when such bald spectacle was louche but charming.
Piper paved the way for The Rock, starring in John Carpenter’s 1988 B-Movie classic “They Live.” The film was at once a dystopian fantasy, a salt-and-pepper Bromance (co-starring Keith David), and a zombie movie.
”They Live” must be seen, if for no other reason, to witness the film’s six-minute fight over a pair of glasses.
In fact, here you go. You’re welcome.
Rowdy’s Maniac is so badly broken that he actually makes the malignant narcicissts of “Sunny” uncomfortable in his presence.
Piper’s last TV appearance, “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia” (2009), was his best. He played a down-and-out, badly damaged, former wrestler named “Da Maniac.”
“Da Maniac” was a brilliant parody of Mickey O’Rourke’s “The Wrestler;” in turn loosely based on Piper himself. Rowdy’s Maniac is so badly broken that he actually makes the malignant narcicissts of “Sunny” uncomfortable in his presence.
Da' Maniac : Loud noises make the squirrels go in my head, and... and I don't fight in the ring anymore, but I still fight with the demons in Da' Maniac's head.
I place “Da Maniac” in the pantheon of sitcom “walk-on” performances with Seinfeld’s ”Library Cop,” (Lt. Joe Bookman, played by Philip Baker Hall).
Rowdy Roddy Piper. A boy from Saskatoon made good.