Mark Ruffalo wants British Prime Minister Boris Johnson to stop using the Hulk to push Brexit
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It’s pretty cool that superhero stuff has become totally mainstream, but sometimes it seems like the general cultural acceptance of The Justice League and The Avengers might actually be a bad thing. Case in point, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has recently been comparing his pro-Brexit agenda to the Hulk, saying (via Deadline), “The madder Hulk gets, the stronger Hulk gets… Hulk always escaped, no matter how tightly bound in he seemed to be—and that is the case for this country.” The escape in Johnson’s case is about breaking out of the EU, but it still doesn’t really make sense for him to be pitching Brexit as the work of a mindless rage monster (or… maybe it does?).
Anyway, that’s pretty dumb, but now Hulk actor Mark Ruffalo has jumped with a passionate—and very, very nerdy—rejection of Johnson’s interpretation of the Hulk. On Twitter (because where else would you do this?), Ruffalo noted that “the Hulk only fights for the good of the whole” and that being “mad and strong” can also be “dense and destructive,” which is why the Hulk “works best when he is in unison with a team” and “is a disaster when he is alone.” On top of that, he points out that the Hulk always has Dr. Banner somewhere in his head to promote “science and reason,” not-so-subtly implying that Johnson should be paying more attention to his own Dr. Banner.
It’s nice to see Ruffalo dunking on a politician who—from what we understand—sucks, but on the other hand, this is also kind of dumb. Ruffalo’s Hulk stuff is right, but using your deep knowledge of a comic book character to own somebody online isn’t what cool people do, it’s what nerds like us do. What Ruffalo should’ve done, at least if he wanted to avoid being stuffed into a locker, is replace his smart response with something cooler like, “Psh, check out this nerd.” He still would’ve gotten the dunk on Johnson, but then we wouldn’t be sitting here worrying that Hollywood icon Mark Ruffalo is some kind of nerd.
42 Comments
Is the EU supposed to be like the Hulk’s pants in this simile or something?
Well Putin is obviously Red Hulk.
Democrats really think they’re gonna win in 2020 through their own Red-baiting xenophobia, huh… weird
Then Britain will never escape! Those pants are indestructible.
Surprisingly resilient!
If my understanding of British slang is correct, then Boris Johnson probably has referred to the EU as “pants” at some point.
I’m an ex-pat in the UK and straight up ignore when people give me weird looks when I say “pants.” I’ll be damned if I’m gonna say “trousers.”
Just say the Hulk is trans, or loves Pakistan or something. Should be pretty easy to fix
Not even Captain Britain wants anything to do with Brexit.
I hated how long this text is.All, Capt. Britain had to say was “I voted to Remain, m8″.That’s all he needs to say. Why do Marvel comic book writers always do long rambling texts?
Because they all want to be Chris Claremont deep down and Chris never saw a word balloon he couldn’t fill to the brim with text.
Blah blah comics are a visual medium, yes but they also make good use of the written word. Words are our friends!
“T’Challa hasn’t exactly been known for his openess”
I wonder why, you clueless imperialistic little bitch …
You know, it might be the fact that Brexiters are all jackasses, imbeciles and xenophobes, but I’m starting to Brexit might not be a good idea.
Johnson is an Abomination.
I see what you did there.
If only the UK had a true Leader right now.
Let’s just pray Johnson gets taken out by a Thunderbolt.
I’ll wait until Lou Ferrigno weighs in.
I thought I read that he is a MAGA type so not sure we want to hear his opinion. Instead I’m working on a spell to contact Bill Bixby from beyond to ask him.
What is the principle Ruffalo is standing up for here? Should every country be in the EU?
Surprised you didn’t go for the obvious “Hulk Smashes Boris Johnson” headline.
“Puny Prime Minister”
Don’t get Mark Ruffalo righteously angry. You wouldn’t like him when he’s righteously angry.
Still waiting for Lou Ferrigno’s take.
“It’s pretty cool that superhero stuff has become totally mainstream, but sometimes it seems like the general cultural acceptance of The Justice League and The Avengers might actually be a bad thing.”The Hulk has been a mainstream character for over 40 years, complete with a popular television show that was likely exported worldwide. Not much to do with The Avengers, as it’s only in the movies he has had any long-term ties to them.With that said, I’m glad Ruffalo spoke up.
I always find myself a little surprised that Hulk is one of the few Marvel characters to break into the mainstream well before the current MCU success. He had his own TV show, he was the one that got banked on for movie success well before the other Avengers, and the idea of “Hulking out” is solidly established. And yet, he’s always seemed to me one of the dullest, not to mention least heroic, heroes. Guy gets angry and smashes stuff. As a concept, it doesn’t seem to have legs.
I think it’s because the concept is so simple – a bland, repressed man turns into a green-skinned goliath when he becomes angry. There’s a lot of overly complicated analysis about why characters become popular, but often it’s just simpler themes – like with Spiderman, we can go on and on about how we must adhere to themes of poverty and struggle and remember he is a self-loathing young man and so on, but to a lot of people, just the image of someone clinging to walls and shooting webs while in a cool costume was what they loved.
The drama in the TV show (which we got in the UK, and is probably where it sank into Johnson’s consciousness) comes from the meek Banner going to lots of lengths not to get upset, and not to have his secret unmasked. The tension was about when he would inevitably flip out, and how the sneaky reporter would be undermined so no-one would believe him.The TV Hulk never had any dialogue, so he wasn’t really the compelling character who drove the show. Watching a monster smash stuff up is always fun though.
Really? He always seemed like one of Marvel’s more metaphorically versatile characters to me. A guy who has monster he can be barely control living inside him that he struggles with every day? Whose archenemy is an overzealous U.S. military commander who keeps provoking him until he loses his shit, then calls him a monster? Depending on how you tell the story, it seems like there are dozens of social and political issues that he can allegorically reflect, which is kinda born out by a British Prime Minister and the actor who plays him having completely opposite takes on the character.
No surprises. Boris can’t even manage to do his fucking hair let alone pretend to run a G8 nation.
Boris’ messy hair is a deliberate affectation. He has been known to carefully muss it up immediately before a TV interview.
Deliberate or not, my point still stands. He’s a scruffy cunt.
Everything Johnson does is one giant affectation:https://reaction.life/jeremy-vine-my-boris-story/
Johnson should have gone with Iron Man. The parallels with the UK are much clearer: arrogant, individualistic, rampantly self-destructive, tendency to create your own enemies around the globe…
You forgot “problem drinker”.
No one should really give a fuck what he thinks about politics or believe he can dictate the pop-cultural use of a nearly sixty-year-old character he’s the umpteenth actor to play
For all you Yanks out there, if you want to know why BJ is such a terrible thing, imagine if Donald Trump wasn’t democratically elected but if instead of Barack Obama being president you had someone who was really shite at his job randomly decide to ask the citizens of Detroit if they want to leave America and then when like all the old people and the people who were leaving Detroit decided to vote yes and leave Detroit to the lions because Donald Trump and Roseanne Barr just drove a greyhound informing people that Foreigners exist and that’s bad, then that President left to get replaced with some random ass Aunt who nobody’s heard of and who wasn’t up to the task then Detroit was like “We’re gonna Detrexit. It’s going to happen. It’s going to happen. Just you wait and see.” But then it didn’t happen and every company decided not to work in Detroit anymore and then they’re like “We’re gonna Detrexit. It’s not going to be a yellow or a black Detrexit, it’s going to be a Red, White and Blue Detrexit.” And now Detroit’s gone to shit, everything’s gone to shit, nobody likes you anymore and then finally your Aunt who nobody likes skedaddles because at this point in time you’re the geographical equivalent of a prostitute, just a bunch of strangers comes over, fucks you around for a hour and then leaves. Now finally Donald Trump’s in office but he didn’t win any votes or anything it’s just because he was in the same party as your aunt.And that’s how the Conservatives turned Great Britain into the Detroit Michigan of Europe. This has been my TED Talk and to quote Reel Big Fish “take me the fuck away.”
Chris Claremont, is that you?That said: You’re a thousand percent correct.
I almost choked when I read you introduce Theresa May into your analogy as “some random ass Aunt who nobody’s heard of”Also, I read your … at this point in time you’re the geographical equivalent of a prostitute, just a bunch of strangers comes over, fucks you around for a hour and then leavesand thought “now now, let’s not slut-shame Britain … Maybe it enjoys having the strangers cum and go …
Mate I’m not trying to slut shame Britain, I’m like Jonny Lee Miller’s Sherlock with regards to the usage of sex workers. I think that all sex work should be legalised and unionised y’know? Like if I was in PM, that’s what I’d run on, that and if you leave Britain for more of a year then everything you’ve earned fiscally goes to our taxes so we don’t get another Dyson Situation.
Honestly, can you blame him?