I think it would be incredibly difficult to determine where "The King" ends and Jerry Lawler begins on the mic, but if you have an example of Jerry stopping mid-commentary and making open political appeals to the fans I'd love to see examples of this.
I also disagree, I think playing that character (heel King from the 90s/early 2000s) does give him license to go off the rails, and that's what made it fun. He would kiss ass to the right people and treat everybody else like shit, degrading them along the way. It was up to WWF/WWE and USA/TNN(Spike) to draw those lines.
I also get what you're saying with social responsibility, and that is all true, but not in every circumstance. If a character is trying to show masculinity by constantly degrading women and being homophobic, and he is perceived as the bad guy, then it would be counterproductive to censor it. You can't sweep everything under a rug just because it's bad for you. Let the audience decide who to cheer and boo, that's wrestling.
Anyways, my original point was, there are thousands of hours of shoot interviews with everybody from Hulk Hogan right down to the ring boys. There's so much dirt on everybody, it's just hilarious that so many people are posting clips of on-camera promos as examples of X,Y and Z (and then saying they should be fired for it). Hate Jerry for raping young girls (allegedly), not for some King promo where he calls Goldust a fag.
I don't have a link, but I distinctly remember Jerry making comments telling people to vote for Bush over Kerry. I may be mistaken, but I also am recalling a moment when he said he supported marriage between one man and one woman.
The political party support thing is one I'm pretty positive about.
The point I'm trying to make is that referring to a character who isn't even a homosexual as a flaming fag is in very poor taste.
Goldust was just supposed to be a weirdo. There were vampires, pimps, porn stars, rednecks, and other crazy characters.
Would you feel the same way if a heel character got on RAW today and made hateful remarks about Caitlyn Jenner? After all, it's just a character.
Writers of fiction have the responsibility to separate the real world from the character's world. The viewer, even if he or she is offended by the words of the character, must know that most of the audience will reject the character's offensive viewpoint.
It's like when WCW pitted the "West Texas Rednecks" against the No Limit Soldiers or whatever. They had intended for the black guys to be the faces and the rednecks to be the heels, but what happened was that the audience actually turned against Master P's group. Why? Because WCW is set here in Georgia, and its fans are whites who better identify with what Curt Hennig was singing about. The redneck angle was dropped as a result.
How does that relate to Lawler? Well, "The King" was peddling an idea that most audiences wouldn't disagree with, that the eccentric Goldust, well, maybe he was just a "flaming fag".
Isn't the whole purpose of a heel promo to get the audience mad at you?
It didn't need to be said, heel or not.
