There’s a reason for the expression déjà vu, that feeling that we’ve seen or heard something before. For example, former White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki recently said, of the cognitively-diminished Joe Biden, “I never saw that person—not a single time.”
Am I the only one who was reminded of Bubba famously saying, “I did not have sexual relations with that woman, Miss Lewinsky. I never told anyone to lie, not a single time”?
There are various “tells” that tend to indicate when a lie is being told. I’m reminded of Lady Brocklehurst’s admonition, from James M. Barrie’s The Admirable Crichton, that one should listen when someone prefaces an answer with “The fact is…”, because “that is usually the beginning of a lie.” I believe that the need to reinforce a denial with a phrase like “not a single time” is one such “tell.”
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Males, particularly immature males, tend to practice and even rehearse how they will conduct themselves during the Monkey Dance, the subconsciously ritualized game of dominance and submission in which males of all species engage.
And please don’t read anything racial into it being called the Monkey Dance; it’s a contest for status between males regardless of their race, color, creed etc., and whether the “dancers” are the same or different.
I learned the term “Monkey Dance” from Rory Miller, a martial artist and seasoned correctional officer and trainer, who writes about it extensively in Facing Violence: Preparing for the Unexpected.
It’s been going on for millennia, just as it has in the animal kingdom. But now that we humans have TV and movies, it can take the form of wishing to emulate our favorite bad**s movie scene.
Since the Monkey Dance is actually designed to establish dominance and submission without the parties coming to blows, every man wishes to be able to establish his dominance (and make the other man back down) with a line like “Go ahead; Make my day!” or “Do you feel lucky today, Punk?” or something similar, of which the line from Tombstone is but another variant. Here’s another famous scene, where we see the Monkey Dance actually being rehearsed:
I remember a fellow once saying to me, “I’ve stepped over bigger piles of s**t than you just to get to a fight!” I’m sure my reaction was not what he expected. I said, “Holy Cow! I’ll bet you’ve been carrying that line around since junior high school, just waiting for a chance to use it on somebody!” Fortunately for me, it was a Group Monkey Dance, and his own group couldn’t help but chuckle, leaving him to merely curse me and walk away.
I can’t help but suspect that Karmelo Anthony had rehearsed finding an opportunity to “channel” Kurt Russell’s line from Tombstone, but when that line didn’t have the desired effect, Anthony was too immature and cowardly to let it go, or even to let it devolve into mere fisticuffs, instead escalating it into drawing his knife and stabbing his adversary to death. I hope he didn’t rehearse that part, but who knows?
It’s long been stated that participation in sports builds character. This is a case of participation in sports revealing character.
Stu Tarlowe, a septuagenarian, is a raconteur, entrepreneur, chanteur, dilettante, boulevardier, chapeauté and amoureaux de chiens (and he doesn’t even speak French). He has, since 2010, contributed over 160 essays to American Thinker, most of which can be accessed here. He also writes a Substack newsletter, Stu’s Stack o’ Stuff (the name is an homage to Rush Limbaugh), published sporadically, which covers topics not limited to politics (and to which subscriptions are currently free). He is for hire as a columnist, proofreader and copyeditor.
Jesus Christ is King
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