November 17, 2000

2:28 PM

There's nothing sadder than a dead midget (rapper).
posted by mathowie (29 comments total)

Damn. I'm no Kid Rock fanboy, but that's very sad.
posted by pnevares at 2:38 PM on November 17, 2000

I thought Bushwick Bill would go first.
posted by thirteen at 3:12 PM on November 17, 2000

So now will Kid Rock ride Joe C.'s corpse to mo' multiplatinum sales the same way Puffy rode Biggie Smalls' body?
posted by allaboutgeorge at 3:33 PM on November 17, 2000

Thirteen, the artist formerly known as Bushwick Bill now goes by the moniker Dr. Wolfgang Von Bushwickin the Barbarian Mother Funky Stay High Dollar Billstir, Esquire.
posted by Optamystic at 3:33 PM on November 17, 2000

I thought that was always his name, Opta.

Did you recite that from memory? That's impressive.
posted by Succa at 3:41 PM on November 17, 2000

Nah, I punked out and did a Google search.
posted by Optamystic at 4:01 PM on November 17, 2000

I am horrified at your snide remarks regarding my close personal friend, that little midget guy. We were like brothers, me and that little midget guy. I remember the days when we kicked a funky beat together -- back when I was 16 and he was only 2 feet tall.

Yes, that little midget guy was my best friend.

And lover.
posted by benbrown at 4:27 PM on November 17, 2000

Did you always call him "that little midget guy", even to his face?

"Hey, little midget guy! Get me another Mr. Pibb!"
posted by Succa at 4:50 PM on November 17, 2000

Methinks Mr. Brown may be working through the frustration born of years of being pointed at by strangers and gigglingly referred to as the "midgets' bitch".
posted by Optamystic at 5:03 PM on November 17, 2000

So, it looks like this Joe C guy took 72 pills a day. 72 frickin pills a day? To what, control his midgetness?

And how would he control his midgetness? Would it be for him to stay short or to.. uhmm... grow taller?

Hmmm.
posted by littleyellowdifferent at 5:15 PM on November 17, 2000

Excerpted from the lyrics of Joe C.'s album:

"I'm a freako, call me sick/Three-foot nine with a ten-foot d---."

BWAHAHAHAHA
posted by Optamystic at 5:20 PM on November 17, 2000

A close friend of mine dresses up as Crash Bandicoot at Universal Studios Hollywood, and works closely with several so-called "midgets." He informed me that referring to them as "midgets" is actually considered derogatory. They prefer to be called (no joke) "little people." (If they're actually a dwarf, then "dwarf" is an accurate term.)

Here's the information from the Dwarfism FAQ:

Q: What is a midget?
A: In some circles, a midget is the term used for a proportionate dwarf. However, the term has fallen into disfavor and is considered offensive by most people of short stature. Such terms as dwarf, little person, LP, and person of short stature are all acceptable, but most people would rather be referred to by their name than by a label.
posted by waxpancake at 5:22 PM on November 17, 2000

Wait a sec, all this from the same MeFi members that are usually jumping down everyone's throats to be compassionate towards humanity? Granted, he may have had his fun, and not have been dying in a hospital, but he still succumbed to a disease that had long plagued him. Sorry to be the downer at the party, but has all this a-list insanity taken us all the way back to jr high?
posted by parvati at 5:40 PM on November 17, 2000

Hey, I'm as much in favor of the rights of Midget-Americans as the next guy. In fact, I don't think this issue has received enough attention. To remedy this horrendous oversight, I propose a Million Midget March.

Picture it: The streets of Washington overrun with pint-sized protesters. A march of a magnitude not seen since the last meeting of the Lollipop Guild.

I'm getting misty-eyed just thinking about it.

posted by Optamystic at 6:25 PM on November 17, 2000

Yahoo: The vertically challenged rapper died from complications...

Is "vertically challenged" a real PC term?
posted by Brilliantcrank at 8:06 PM on November 17, 2000

I agree with parvati... and why is it such a shock that midgets prefer to be called "little people"? That's not anything new...

But, if anyone actually bothered to read the article they would see that he didn't suffer from dwarfism (a pituitary disorder) at all... apparently he had celiac disease which is a digestive problem that I think is similar to diabetes. People with celiac disorder can't eat any foods with gluten in them and also have their growth stunted. Think about how much it would suck to not be able to eat any gluten.
posted by kidsplateusa at 8:19 PM on November 17, 2000

Amazing. MetaFilter users have almost reached the level of sensitivity shown towards Joe C. by pro wrestling villains Edge and Christian when Joe was on WWF Heat a few months back.
posted by harmful at 10:55 PM on November 17, 2000

I'm hardly a Kid Rock fan, but if you were talking to this man's friends or loved ones, would you guys still carry on this way? How would you feel hearing these things if it were *your* friend or loved one being treated like this?

I'm sorry, but as someone who thought he came close to losing his sibling recently, this is very painful to watch.
posted by Noah at 12:28 AM on November 18, 2000

I do believe that this sets the E! Crew ahead in the game with 107 points in the Howard Stern death pool.
posted by internook at 2:50 AM on November 18, 2000

I refuse to accept criticism from a guy who can quote chapter and verse from WWF Heat episodes.
posted by Optamystic at 3:30 AM on November 18, 2000

By the way, folks...these are JOKES. He's a semi-famous dead guy. The fact that he was a midget is not even the point (although it does make the whole thing somehow...I dunno....funnier) He was a rapper. That means that he was probably a profane, misogynistic little twerp, who hit the "15 minutes" lottery when he hooked up with Monsieur Rock. He died. That is very sad. But I'm fairly sure these little jokes had nothing to do with his demise. Rest In Peace, Little Dude.
posted by Optamystic at 3:44 AM on November 18, 2000

Oh, jokes. Okay. Go ahead, then. I forgot all about your free pass. You should mention it first, next time, so when you begin to sound like an uneducated pre-teen with a phobo-phallic fixation on size, we can just wave you on through. You were probably too busy clipping brassiere ads out of magazines to remember.

Maybe we can get together some time and look up all the dirty words in the dictionary.
posted by Mo Nickels at 5:34 AM on November 18, 2000

He was a rapper. That means that he was probably a profane, misogynistic little twerp, who hit the "15 minutes" lottery when he hooked up with Monsieur Rock.

That seems like a hardly justified assumption.
posted by kidsplateusa at 8:40 AM on November 18, 2000

He was a rapper. That means that he was probably a profane, misogynistic little twerp...

Seems like a racist assumption to me -- especially compounded with the sarcastic dismissal of the "Million ____" marches , 3/4 of which were geared towards uplifting the Black community and at least the first of which was widely considered a positive if not transformative experience.

Optamystic, your comments in this thread have been in extremely poor taste. Shame on you. You ought to take care not to assume that there aren't little people reading metafilter. I doubt you'd say this shit to someone's face.
posted by sudama at 10:12 AM on November 18, 2000

actually, there is nothing sadder than a dead robot.

carry on.
posted by maura at 12:10 PM on November 18, 2000

That little drunk lived it up. Pour some forty on the corner for the tiny man. He gots mo’ bitches than his twiggy lookalike pot-nuh.
posted by capt.crackpipe at 1:06 PM on November 18, 2000

Joe C was completely nuts. Funny, but nutty.

Devil Without a Cause was pretty shocking - Joe sounds like a kid, so the stuff he was saying sounded much worse then it would if Kid Rock or someone else were to say it.
posted by tomcosgrave at 7:54 AM on November 19, 2000

The man is dead. Let it go. I really hope people don't talk about me like this when I die. This is about as behind the back as you can get.
posted by Arvid at 12:02 PM on November 19, 2000

Where does Herve Villechaize come into all this?
posted by Mocata at 9:06 AM on November 20, 2000