Mike Tyson in popular culture

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Mike Tyson is a former American World Heavyweight boxing Champion. Tyson, ranked by ESPN as the #1 Most Outrageous Character in modern sports history[1] has appeared in numerous popular media in either cameo appearances or as a subject of parody or satire.

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[edit] Cameos and other appearances

  • Tyson made a cameo appearance on 1980s TV sitcom Who's The Boss, during a scene when Tony Danza is impersonating Tyson's infamous voice. Tyson rings the doorbell as a neighbor and asks who the person is who's been making fun of him.
  • Tyson has appeared in a commercial aired in 1990 for Toyota trucks in Japan.[2]
  • Tyson appeared in rapper Ice-T's video "New Jack Hustler" in 1991. [3] He can be seen at the beginning of the video talking on a phone and hanging with members of Ice-T's entourage around a car.
  • Tyson was good friends with rapper Tupac Shakur, and often came out for a fight with a song Shakur specifically recorded for his ringwalk music. In 1996, Shakur was on his way to a charity event after watching the Tyson-Seldon fight when he was fatally shot in a drive-by shooting.[4]
  • In 1998 Tyson featured on an underground rap hit, "Second Round K.O" by Canibus. Tyson gives the rapper advice over how to defeat his lyrical opponent (rapper LL Cool J).
  • In 2001, Tyson had a cameo on P.Diddy's music video for "bad Boy For Life".
  • Tyson made a special cameo appearance in the 2001 movie Crocodile Dundee in Los Angeles, where he played an extremely peaceful man meditating in a park. Dundee's character remarked to his son in the film, "He seems like a nice bloke!"
  • Tyson appears in Sylvester Stallone's 2006 movie Rocky Balboa and plays himself. He can be seen taunting Mason "The Line" Dixon (who because of his arrogance and ability to end fights early is based on Tyson's early career (current champion in the movie) at ringside right before the Balboa / Dixon bout begins.[6]
  • Recently Indian Bollywood movie producer Firoz Nadiadwala has approached Mike Tyson to feature in a promotional video for his film Fool N Final.[7] It has been reported that despite his pending legal problems, Tyson has been given clearance to go to India on April 20 to participate in the shoot.[8]

[edit] Parodies and satire

  • In The Simpsons, boxer (and convicted felon) Drederick Tatum is clearly modeled after Tyson. Tatum was directly involved in the plot of two episodes. In "Homer vs. Lisa and the 8th Commandment", he was the inspiration for Homer Simpson to hold a boxing party to watch Tatum's match to knock out the other guy though the catch was that match was on Pay-ver-view and Homer had illegal cable. The other episode was "The Homer They Fall" which took place during Homer's short-lived boxing career. Homer faced Tatum during a comeback bout that closely mirrored Tyson's comeback bout with Peter McNeeley. Also noted, Tatum's promoter Lucius Sweet is clearly modeled after long time Tyson promoter Don King right down to the trademark hair.
  • In 1987, Nintendo released Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!!, an NES game based on the arcade game Punch-Out!!, although there was later a version released in 1990 that replaced Mike Tyson with a fictional character, "Mr. Dream", after Nintendo's license with Tyson ran out. Defeating Tyson (through mini-boxer Little Mac) is extremely difficult, as he can knock Mac down with a single "Dynamite Punch", modeled after the real-life Tyson's devastating right upper-cut.
  • In 1992, a second Nintendo game featuring Mike Tyson entitled Mike Tyson's Intergalactic Power Punch was to be released as a sequel to Mike Tysons's Punch-Out!!. However, due to the Desiree Washington case the project was scrapped and the game was eventually released as Power Punch II with Mike Tyson in the game being replaced with a character named Mark Tyler.
  • In the Japanese version of Capcom's Street Fighter II series, Balrog is called Mike Bison, as a parody of Mike Tyson, possibly with the full name of "Michael Gerard Bison." Capcom USA switched the names of the Shadaloo Grandmasters around for the American versions in order to avoid a potential lawsuit from Mike Tyson. In Street Fighter Alpha 3 one of Balrog's win quotes is "If you fight me like that again I'll have to bite your ear off!"
  • The video game Fallout 2 featured a series of boxing matches that concluded with the player fighting a character "The Masticator." The "Masticator" made references to eating ears and was likely a parody of Mike Tyson.
  • ESPN.com Page 2 columnist Bill Simmons makes frequent references to "The Tyson Zone" (named after Tyson), which is a status an athlete or celebrity reaches when their behavior becomes so outrageous that one would believe most any story or anecdote about the person, no matter how seemingly bizarre.[10]
  • Ottawa Senators goaltender Ray Emery had a picture of Tyson on his goalie mask. He wore it for one game before he was told by Senators management that this was inappropriate due to Tyson's reputation.[11]
  • In Scary Movie 4, during a flashback scene (a boxing match not so subtly disguised as a Million Dollar Baby spoof) involving lead character Cindy (Anna Faris), her opponent is a buff female boxer who resembles Tyson; who at the conclusion of the fight, proceeds to bite off the ears of every spectator and official within the boxing stadium - a reference to the infamous bite fight. Faris denied the rumors about Tyson playing Cindy's opponent in the boxing scene. She said it was a boxing trainer who quite resembles Tyson a lot. However, in the DVD commentary, David Zucker contradicts her, stating it was indeed Tyson.
  • The video game Crash of the Titans features a character named Tiny Tiger, who's high-pitched lisping voice is a parody of Tyson's own speaking style.
  • Mike Tyson was referenced by the "Grand Royal" Records artist, "Nullset" in their 2001 self-titled record in the song "Smokewood".
  • Two current world champions in boxing have the name Tyson in their monickers. One is Joan Guzman who is called "Little Tyson." The other is Ruslan Chagaev who is nicknamed "White Tyson."

[edit] In television

  • Fallen Champ: The Untold Story of Mike Tyson (1993) (Documentary) [12]
  • Tyson (1995) (Film)[13]
  • Tyson (2008) (Documentary) [14]

[edit] References

  1. ^ ESPN25: The 25 Most Outrageous Characters, ESPN25.com, Retrieved on 2007-04-01.
  2. ^ (Japanese) 自動車CM大全 - 出演者リスト (外国人)
  3. ^ YouTube - Video: New Jack Hustler
  4. ^ Scott, Kathy./AP, Shakur mourned, body cremated, Las Vegas Sun, 1996-09-18, Retrieved on 2007-03-31.
  5. ^ Powell, John. Austin wins WWF World Title at WrestleMania. Canadian Online Explorer. Retrieved on 2007-03-17.
  6. ^ Rocky Balboa photo, Allmoviephoto.com, Retrieved on 2007-03-15.
  7. ^ Mike Tyson eyes Bollywood debut, BBC News, 2007-04-13, Retrieved on 2007-04-24.
  8. ^ Firoz Nadiadwala has approached world famous boxer Mike Tyson to feature in a promotional video for his film Fool N Final, IndiaFM news Bureau, 2007-04-11, Retrieved on 2007-04-12.
  9. ^ Maslin, Janet., FILM REVIEW;Float Like a Butterball, Hit Like a Flea, New York Times, 1996-05-03, Retrieved on 2007-04-01.
  10. ^ http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/page2/story?page=simmons/061011
  11. ^ Emery won't use Tyson mask again, CP via TSN.com, 2006-01-31, Retrieved on 2007-04-01.
  12. ^ Documentary in IMDb
  13. ^ Film in IMDb
  14. ^ Documentary in IMDb

[edit] External links

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Mike Tyson
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