Just a reminder of what we are facing in this new millenium:
"He Hate Me" is the phrase Smart chose to place on the back of his Las Vegas Outlaws football jersey during the one and only season of the XFL (2001). Though most sports organizations allow only a surname or first initial and surname to be placed on the back of a jersey, XFL rules permitted players' jerseys to be stitched with whatever words they wanted.
Smart explained the origin of the grammatically non-standard phrase in a January 30, 2004 article with the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel as, "Basically, my brother's my opponent. After I win, he's gonna hate me. It is what it is. It's a saying I was saying when I'd feel something wasn't going my way. For example, (when) I was on the squad in Vegas and coach was putting other guys in, (if) I felt I'm better than them, you know, hey, 'he hate me.' See what I'm saying? Give me a chance. That's all I ask. It came from the heart. Within. The way I felt."
When Smart and the Outlaws played divisional rival Los Angeles Xtreme, two Xtreme players put "I Hate He" and "I Hate He Too" on the back of their jerseys to express their disdain for Smart. In a later game between those two teams, those two players changed their nicknames to "Still Hate He" and "Still Hate He Too". The curious maxim also caught the eye of American audiences (as well as Smart's future Carolina Panthers teammate Jake Delhomme, who named one of his thoroughbreds, "She Hate Me"). In an episode of the dramatic TV series CSI: NY, a dead roller derby player is named "She Hate Me." The phrase "He Hate Me" was used on a headband worn by Bucky Katt in a 2004 Get Fuzzy comic strip storyline by cartoonist Darby Conley involving Bucky's irrational hatred of beavers. The moniker was also referenced by Spike Lee to title his movie She Hate Me (the main character gives his ex-fiancé the nickname after she leaves him for a lesbian). Mark Cuban has changed it to "He Fine Me" for his shirts worn at Dallas Mavericks games, in reference to the NBA often fining the flamboyant owner. When the XFL was disbanded, Don Walker of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel wrote an article headlined, "He Fold Me". "He Hate Me", along with the Sky Cam and the in-game interview, is one of the few remnants of the short lived XFL to have a lasting impact.
Of the moniker, Smart said "That's a part of me, so I never get tired of that. It's like my birth name, except it only came later than birth."
"It came from the heart. Within."
ReplyDeleteThat "Within" is a morsel which nourishes.
And those "I Hate He Too" boys? BITING RHYMES, plain.
I don't see your post as sad commentary, at all.
I want to be sure I'm clear on your point, L-stone. Is it that our common discourse is degraded by all percolation of this type? Or is it the speed and breadth of new-millenium bubbling that concerns? Is it more a straightforward objection to violence perpetrated against wholly innocent grammatical rules? Or is it the perpetuation of team-denying "if you ain't wi'me, you're agin me" egocentrism [which -- to my girly brain -- is the saddest part of the entire mess]?
ReplyDeleteI love He Hate Me. It's not rational. I worked as a professional editor for years. I was a grammar-nazi. Maybe all that professional Virgo-ness flipped me over to the dark side. But I found something childishly appealing about Smart's self-naming. In a world of shameless, vulgar, 24.7 self-promotion, it seemed like a whimsical act of self-demotion.
ReplyDeleteLike I said, not rational. But thanks for reminding me. I'm smiling now!