Jumping the Gunn

writer/director James Gunn on the set of Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2  with actor Michael Rooker

Let’s chat a bit about James Gunn.

Gunn is the writer/director who has guided the quirky corner of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) known as the Guardians of the Galaxy. Gunn was getting ready to gear up for Volume 3 in the beloved series when Disney (which you may recall owns Marvel) fired Gunn from the project.  

Seems James Gunn had been a very bad boy.

 A treasure trove of tawdry tweets, thought long ago deleted, resurfaced for the Disney corporate masters to peruse and lo, the masters of the corporate Disney were sore offended and so it came to pass they layeth down the smite upon James Gunn and cast him from the garden of Marvel, forevermore, say “Amen” my brothers and sisters.

These tweets were a series of “jokes” that relied a lot on shock value to provoke a response, “jokes” involving AIDS, rape, pedophilia and other fun topics. 

Here’s a relatively modestly offensive one. 

“They say laughter is the best medicine which is why I laugh at people with AIDS.” 

The rest of these “jokes” are not as restrained in their offensiveness. 

If you’re really curious about what those jokes were, I’m sure you can find them. I’m not going to help. 

Agreeing that these “jokes” were not funny is James Gunn. 

Gunn has addressed the missteps of his early career, noting his intent to be provocative, daring to make fun of topics that would otherwise be considered taboo for humor. Gunn acknowledged these “jokes” were wildly offensive, inconsiderate and really not that funny. And they do not reflect the kind of person he is trying to be now. Which is why I guess he deleted them. And he apologized for them.

OK, you might be wondering: why is this a thing? 

If the tweets were deleted and James Gunn’s recent conduct was that of someone who was living his life as a different person from the douchebag posting jokes about rape, AIDS and pedophilia, why is this coming to light now?  

Well, let’s blame Donald Trump. 

Oh hell! Can we not get through a single damn post on this blog without mentioning this Putin’s cock sucking man-baby moronic fucker?  

OK, to be fair, Li’l Donnie was not cranky due to a lack of a cheeseburger and a Diet Coke and decided to take out James Gunn.

But a pro-Trump troll did decide to take out James Gunn.  

Say hello to Mike Cernovich, professional asshole. 

I’m pretty sure Mike himself would cop to that handle.

Mike Cernovich makes a “living” being a social media right wing provocateur. 

I’m trying to be polite. He’s a troll. 

He defines success by moving the needle on a variety of topics. If some narrative he’s pushing is trending on Twitter, it’s a good day. If some narrative he’s pushing is trending on Twitter and makes news, that’s his money shot. 

Back in 2016, Mike Cernovich’s trolling was instrumental in pushing the story that Hillary Clinton was in poor health. A couple of pics of Clinton looking a bit tired or dazed or a bit of video where she took a step wrong became “proof” that she was in failing health. Cernovich pushed it on his blog, got his followers to promote hashtags on Twitter to promote this narrative. The story of Clinton’s bad health, made up out of thin air by Cernovich’s efforts, gained traction, was repeated on Fox News and then, as all things on Fox News ultimately do, it made its way down the hairy hate infested ear canal of Donald Trump.  Like that, Mike Cernovich has Donald Trump’s attention.

You may recall that at a 9/11 memorial service, Hillary Clinton had to be helped into a car. After sitting in the hot sun for several hours, Clinton’s pneumonia was getting the better of her. 

Clinton was still campaigning, giving speeches, and attending events, doing all sorts of things, maybe even deleting emails. (I’m sorry!) All the while she had pneumonia. I’ve had pneumonia…twice! It nearly killed me. Hillary Clinton has pneumonia and is still getting shit done. This should’ve been a testament to her strength and endurance. 

Mike Cernovich’s whisper campaign of Clinton’s poor health beforehand had already poisoned that well. “See! We told you she was sick!”  

Mike Cernovich’s name came be found swirling around a variety of online scandals. He was part of the Gamergate fiasco where female gamers were abused and harassed. He promoted the Pizzagate conspiracy, the one about the child sex ring being run by the Democratic Party out of a pizza parlor in Washington DC.  If it’s negative, if it’s bull shit, if it’s pushing an alt-right con job, look around: Mike Cernovich is lurking nearby. 

And to the shock of no one, Mike Cernovich is a fervent supporter of Donald Trump.

Which brings us back to James Gunn who is a fervent opponent of Donald Trump.

Apparently, somewhere along the line, James Gunn pushed back on some dumb ass thing Trump did or said (take your pick, he has a million of ‘em!) that crossed paths with some dumb ass thing Mike Cernovich was pedaling (take your pick, he has a million of ‘em!).

So Mike Cernovich was all “well, fuck that guy!” and dug around his cesspool until he pulled up some gilded shit: screenshots of Gunn’s now deleted tweets making jokes about rape, AIDS and pedophilia.

The story of James Gunn, rapist and pedophile, started trending on Twitter. It was a good day for Mike Cernovich.

Then the story of James Gunn, rapist and pedophile, trending on Twitter now makes it to Fox News and CNN and SCORE! Mike Cernovich has his money shot. 

And Disney goes “Whoa! We can’t have James Gunn, a rapist and pedophile, working for us!” So Disney fires James Gunn from Guardians of the Galaxy 3 and somewhere, Mike Cernovich wipes his limp dick off with some Kleenex and goes to sleep. His work here is done.

 So now what?

Currently there is a petition that by the time this posts may be up to 300,000 signatures demanding Disney to re-hire James Gunn.

So what gives?

Well, it’s context.

 The tweets are old news. Yes, they were offensive, in poor taste, reprehensible, heinous… hey, virtually any negative assessment would fit.  But these posts were in the past.

The person who made those tweets is also in the past. By all accounts, James Gunn today is a nice guy, friendly, supportive, kind. The James Gunn of today is not the James Gunn who in the past thought jokes about child sex and AIDS would be funny.

James Gunn has owned up to the mistakes of his past and has tried to live his life in a better way to make up for his past behavior. He doesn’t deny he made those obscene comments. He admits it and expresses what appears to be genuine regret. 

In the wake of this outing of this material and Disney’s actions to terminate their relationship with him, James Gunn has remained gracious and calmly accepted Disney’s actions.

The nature of how these revelations came to pass is cause for concern: an internet troll with a vengeful axe to grind dredged up this information to discredit and punish someone for a perceived slight.

The reactions to Gunn’s transgressions, as heinous as they were have not been in line with the reality. Gunn’s tasteless jokes about rape and pedophilia have been twisted into a narrative to suggest Gunn was an active instigator of sexual assault against innocent victims. There is no evidence to suggest that Gunn’s “jokes” were anything but.

By the way, it’s come to my attention that another former Disney employee, Roseanne Barr, thinks the outpouring of support for James Gunn is hypocritical. 

Roseanne Barr, the transgressions that got your fired from your ABC sitcom were contemporaneous, not in the past. And those actions were consistent with your past and current character. And your tweets were not an idle joke to push the boundaries of good taste and what is social acceptable. They were a racially charged attack on a person. 

Also Roseanne, unlike James Gunn, nobody likes you. 

Let’s be clear. Nobody is defending what James Gunn wrote. It was offensive to an extreme level and he should be ashamed of himself. And by all accounts, he is.

So where does this leave James Gunn? Who knows? Maybe those reprehensible “jokes” in the past are not far enough in the past. Perhaps too little time has passed for us to say Gunn has suffered due penance for his sins.

 Is that up for us to say? Forgiveness is a tricky thing, sometimes. It’s hard to know when we should forgive ourselves? Or if we should? It’s hard to ask for or accept forgiveness from others.

I don’t know James Gunn. I do know I like his Guardians of the Galaxy movies and I was really looking forward to the next one.

I do know me and I know that I’ve said things and done things that have been hurtful. I can tell you I haven’t forgotten a single one of them.

But I’m still here and I’ve got to make the best of who I am right now where I am right now. I need to be today better than I was yesterday.

I think we all need that chance, to be better than we were. Maybe we all don’t deserve it but we need it. Or we die.

James Gunn was on that journey, trying to a better man today than he was before. That chance was stolen from him by a miserable misanthrope who seeks to elevate his poor miserable status by bringing down others.

Maybe tomorrow or the next day, I may be proven wrong. But from what I know today, James Gunn still deserves his chance to be a better man than he was.