鈥淲辞谤谤谤谤谤濒诲蝉迟补补补补补补谤谤谤!鈥�
You can easily find that word being shouted out if you just search 鈥渙ne-punch knockouts鈥� on the internet.
What comes up are hundreds of video compilations of people 鈥� mostly men, of course 鈥� getting laid out by a single punch.
And, in the background, you often hear someone yelping 鈥渨orldstar鈥� in reference to the video-content aggregator WorldStarHipHop 鈥� a site that celebrates and even encourages the 鈥渙ne-punch鈥� culture. I looked up the site in preparation for this column and the first video on the site鈥檚 page was entitled, 鈥淗ow to win a street fight.鈥�
Many of these videos aren鈥檛 actually what I would call 鈥渇ights鈥� because that implies two people willingly entering into battle. So many of these knockouts are actually sucker punches on unsuspecting people with disastrous results.
I鈥檓 writing about this because of two horrific Burnaby-related sucker punches that have been in the news lately.
The most recent story involves the release of a video showing an unnamed Burnaby man suffering 鈥渓ife-altering injuries鈥� from a vicious punch outside of a 麻豆传媒映画lounge. The crime took place at 2 a.m. and reminded me of something my uncle once told me: 鈥淣othing good ever happens at a bar at 2 a.m.鈥�
It certainly didn鈥檛 in this case.
In the video, you can see a group of men having an animated conversation. The victim isn鈥檛 even really facing the man who assaults him. The dude just waits for the victim to not be looking at him before he launches his fist and then casually walks away. He has no regard for his victim.
After the victim is knocked out, another man stands over the lifeless body and is seen shouting in rage. (Police are trying to identify the assailants and you can view the video if you might know them.)
I don鈥檛 know what these guys were arguing about and I don鈥檛 care because it鈥檚 irrelevant. One guy probably bumped into another guy and things escalated. I鈥檝e seen fights start between dudes over much less.
That鈥檚 the thing about bro culture 鈥� it鈥檚 so irredeemably stupid how bros are willing to throw down over nothing in order to save face.
And it鈥檚 not just bros in their 20s, either. Lawrence Sharpe is a 40-year-old man who was just convicted of manslaughter after throwing a sucker page that killed Burnaby鈥檚 Michael Page-Vincelli in a Starbucks.
That case into the Starbucks and then unloading on his victim. Sharpe also casually walked out without checking on his victim.
The fragile male ego and an overabundance of testosterone aren鈥檛 anything knew. It鈥檚 just that in this video age we鈥檙e able to watch so many of these incidents over and over again. Perhaps most disturbing is just how excited people get after someone has been knocked out. They laugh and scream and jump around. The person shooting the video will often put the camera right up to the unconscious person鈥檚 face and you can see their eyes rolling back in their head and their body twitch.
That could be somebody dying. That could be somebody suffering 鈥渓ife-altering injuries.鈥� But nobody seems to care.
I haven鈥檛 always been immune to this, of course. I can remember being 20 and chanting 鈥淔IGHT! FIGHT!鈥� as two drunk guys squared off outside of a bar. It never occurred to me at the time that somebody could actually be seriously injured.
Because in bro culture, it鈥檚 all about the act.
Not the consequences.
Follow Chris Campbell on Twitter @shinebox44
