If it wasn’t for the hours upon hours we spend perusing the fetid abyss of the internet, we’d say that it’d be impossible for anyone to want to troll Michael J. Fox. But we’ve subjected ourselves to a lot of online trash so Fox spending part of his recent appearance on The Graham Norton Show explaining that his son taught him how to own a scumbag making a shitty Parkinson’s comment isn’t as surprising as it should be.
Fox was on Norton’s show to promote No Time Like The Future, his recently released memoir, and, during the interview, describes how his daughter and son help him manage his social media. Fox says he usually ignores trolls, but when some wiener said “something nasty about Parkinson’s” to him on Twitter, he “wanted to answer this guy in some way.”
Fox says his son told him to just reply “SMH” and, after sending it, the troll “answers me back [to write] ‘this is the funniest thing I’ve ever read in my life, you’re the king of the internet, I apologize for anything I said to you, blah, blah, blah.” The actor, unversed in the lingo of the online, says he didn’t know what “SMH” meant and had to ask his son to explain. “He said, ‘Shaking my head.’”
This is an exceptional comeback. Other children, with less kind and wholesome fathers, may have suggested lowering to the jerk’s level, maybe just replying with goatse or a terse, “fukk u.” But, the Fox family are better and cleverer than that, turning the troll’s heartless comment back on them rather than taking the time-honored but less nuanced approach of sending that photo of shit coming out of a pig’s ass we might’ve gone for.
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33 Comments
I’m going to assume you didn’t actually just link to goatse in this article but I’m having an okay day and it’s not worth risking it to find out.
all the good old days of sticking goatse in hidden links in AIM.
I hovered the link, & it just goes to another AV Club article about goatse. Still not clicking it, though.
This is great, and, while I knew somewhere in my head that ‘SMH’ stood for ‘shaking my head’, I always thought it stood for ‘so much hate’. As a result, I got to join Mr. Fox in learning why this joke was so clever.
It reminds me of a Twitter joke from some time ago: “All this time, I thought LOL stood for ‘Loving Our Lord’.”
I think it actually did have both meanings at one point (I first learned it as “so much hate” too), but nowadays it seems to exclusively be used for “shaking my head.” (I also used to encounter SMDH, but that seems to have gone out of fashion.)
It actually stands for Sydney Morning Herald, strangely enough.
To this day, even though I see it used here, I have no idea what IIRC stands for. I’m aware that I can just look it up, but to be honest, it’s been so long that at this point I sort of enjoy the guessing game of waiting for the lightbulb to (finally) appear.
If I recall correctly, it has no meaning whatsoever.
If I recall correctly, IIRC stands for “I implore Russell Crowe” which is interesting, really, considering it isn’t readily comprehensible. Any good initialism improves reading comprehension if it’s read correctly.
If you implore Russell Crowe, he will visit you and explain to you his passions (incidentally the most threatening thing ever said on Twitter, right up there with the Saudis telling Canada they’ll do another 9/11 on them, thereby admitting they did the first 9/11).
Yes. Russell Crowe isn’t always readily comprehensible, so that makes sense. Thank you! Finally.
Also, it makes a bit more sense than ‘Iceland Is Reeking Cock’, which someone told me once. I mean, sure, I get it, but.
Also, I will recall/remember correctly, that I legitimately fell for that. Sure, I’ll be the subject of fun.
If I recall correctly, it’s an acronym for “I, Internet Royalty, Concur.”
I thought it was “Smash my hat!”
I recall my disappointment in learning that FTW did not mean “fuck the world”
Wait, it doesn’t?
That was what I originally thought it stood for too.
I only learned in the last year or so that it meant shaking my head and not so much hate. I’m so glad I wasn’t the only one.
Apropos of nothing, Graham Norton is my favorite talk show host.
It’s so easy to suddenly find yourself binge watching clips from that show on YouTube for an entire afternoon, isn’t it?
there’s an olivia colman compilation on youtube that is fantastic.
He was great when he could have 3 or 4 guest on at the same time and they could all play off each other, but Covid has really done the show in.
GIVE ME YOUR TEARS YOU FUCKING LOSER.
AHHHAHHAHAHHAHHHAHAH
That is true, and it’s also something never been said about Father Noel Furlong.
I really like him getting multiple guests (sometimes from/plugging completely unrelated projects) on the couch at once, which is something most American talk shows seem to have given up since like, Carson. I haven’t watched any episodes in COVID-times but I’d imagine it’s still more entertaining than 90% of late night here.
Yeah, the interactions on the couch can be hilarious. Ryan Gosling progressively losing his shit over a Greg Davies story was priceless.
Same with me and the Spousal Unit. It’s the only talk show we watch. Esquire Magazine once said that watching The Graham Norton Show was like being a fly on the wall of the world’s greatest cocktail party. That’s pretty spot on.
We have Doctor Who – and the fact that The Graham Norton Show used to come on right after it on Friday nights on BBC America – to thank for discovering this wonder.
That’s nice. My dad never accepted my offer of Pac-Man lessons.
Baby boomers, man. SMH.
IIRC – I, I really can’t.
I love Michael J. Fox.That’s all. He’s just great.