Shannon Noll: From Man, Myth, Meme to Mistake

in #music6 years ago

When it comes to Australiana two things come to mind for some: kangaroos and Shannon Noll. After gaining notoriety coming second in the first season of Australian Idol, Noll went on to enjoy mild success.

As the years rolled by Shannon Noll went from being a person to being a myth, before finding a revival in popularity after he became a meme and started capitalising on that meme credit he had built up. Similar to what happened with Rick Astley after "rickrolling" became a thing.

Recently Shannon Noll entered the fourth and final stage of his metamorphosis: mistake.

Noll has found himself in the spotlight once again, after an on-stage violent tirade at the Duck Creek Picnic Races in Nyngan in regional NSW. The tirade was started after a man threw something up onto the stage.

Instead of asking security to step in or simply ending the set early and walking off (like many artists do and have done), Noll opted to go the aggression route and once again, highlight the toxicity of masculine culture.

In the rant originally posted to Facebook, Noll can be heard yelling:

Have some balls and come up here and I'll punch your fucking teeth down your throat out the back, dog-ass prick. Then I'll fuck your missus and your mum.

This bizarre aggressive ranting and raving went on for about two minutes, with Noll repeatedly calling the mystery man a motherfucker and referring to the man's fucking balls.

Fucking private school stupid motherfucker

Eventually after the man in the crowd didn't come forward, Shannon resorted to what he knows best: violence.

I'll give someone 100 bucks to punch that fuck for me

Continuing on before going into song:

... fuck the haters hey, there's too many good looking girls here for you blokes, that cunt couldn't get a fucking root in a fucking plague

The timing of all of this couldn't be worse for Memelord Noll given the intense scrutiny male perpetrated violence is currently receiving, especially after the horrendous ordeal that Eurydice Dixon went through after being raped and killed by a male attacker.

Most of the outrage of Shannon's outburst isn't the fact he got into a squabble with a man in the audience, it's the fact he essentially threatened violence against the man's wife and mother, essentially a rape threat when he said, "then I'll fuck your missus and your mum"

People will be quick to point out that Noll didn't mean he was literally going to fuck the guy's wife or mum, but once again, the timing of which toxic masculinity and violence is a heavily debated topic, these kind of comments just don't fly in 2018.

After the video was posted on Facebook and viewed a few hundred thousand times, Shannon issued an apology:

I would like to apologise for my behaviour and language at Saturday night’s Duck Creek Picnic Races.
During our set there were people in the audience throwing cans and bottles at the stage and after one guy threw a full can, just missing my head it really rattled me.

We had a similar issue last year with a firecracker thrown onto the stage and one of my band members was seriously hurt … you don’t have a lot of deep vision into the crowd from the stage and it’s pretty scary to see something suddenly flying straight at you. We’re just doing our job and these actions are not acceptable.

I completely understand that that is still no excuse for the way I spoke and I am deeply sorry for the terrible things I said that were purely out of frustration.

I think we can all agree that getting a full can thrown at you while you're trying to perform wouldn't be great, and many of you reading might get angry about it. But the way Shannon responded was highly unprofessional and uncalled for.

Not only did Noll apologise, but if you read what he posted, he defends his actions and attempts to justify being rattled by the can being thrown at him as cause for his unprofessional and insensitive comments.

He should have got security to sort it out and moved on, instead, he let his temper get the better of him again like last years scuffle he got into with bouncers where he was charged with assault (the charges were later dropped).

And as expected, Noll has many "supporters" defending him on his Facebook page. Some of the comments I've included below:

My goodness you reacted exactly how most people would react

Don’t apologise bro. This is why we love ya. You’re a true blue Aussie.

Nah no need to apologize mate. Bloke was being a dickhead. You called him out and absolutely roasted him and put him in his place. Should pop into his place of work and throw a can at his head.

And as you can probably already guess, those defending his actions and sympathising with why he did it are all men. Seriously? Seems like us guys are our own worse enemies, willing to forgive a guy who not only said he was going to fuck the guy's wife and mother but also offered $100 to someone in the audience to punch him.

In all fairness, more people were less forgiving in the comments on Noll's apology post. A few women called out his behaviour, but some men also did as well (which is refreshing to see).

We have to ask ourselves, are Shannon Noll's actions those of a "true blue Aussie" as a defender put it or is Noll an example of toxic Australian culture that needs to be changed? I think it's the latter, not the former.

One thing is for sure, old mate Nollsy has just made a costly mistake as no other event will be booking him for the foreseeable future over his outburst.

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