Ghomeshi’s gentle demolition of the childish star, and the subsequent popular revulsion toward the guy who insulted Canadian audiences, was so discomfiting that Thornton’s band cancelled the rest of their Canadian tour. (The band’s website claims they got the flu. It’s the kind of flu that comes when you’re booed and mocked on your opening night. Yikes, that mashed potato was hot!)

But the little kerfuffle was also instructive. It can teach us a lot about the uneasy relationship between the arts media and the most popular entertainers.

Thornton was obviously under a misconception about the kind of broadcaster he had agreed to work with. He’s a guy who is used to dictating terms to the media. His publicists no doubt don’t really think of the media as media at all, but as a branch of the marketing department.

I’m not usually a big fan of Smith’s columns, which tend towards the trite and the “fashion”able. But this one’s worth reading.

I’m sorry, but just because you want to ignore the fact that you were an actor for many years (and only famous because of your short-lived marriage to Angelina Jolie, ahem) doesn’t mean that everyone else in the world will ignore that.

And I realize 6 a.m is early, I mean, it shouldn’t even exist as a time, but it doesn’t give you license to act like a jerk. Good for Jian for sticking to his guns and not succumbing to Thornton’s diva behaviour (or should I say, cunty behaviour).

Video below. It’s long. The real jerkiness come at around 6:50.

Sure, I’ve seen them around, and I find them offensive, and I’m glad that I don’t have, say, and eight-year-old daughter that I have to explain them to. And I made a comment on the original post to the effect of, “How fast do you think I would get pulled over if I had a photorealistic vagina in my back window?”

But weeks after that original post, we still get loads of traffic to it. (That and “Naked Men In Gym Change Rooms” — that one’s a perennial favourite.)

Finally, I followed one of the referrers to find out why. Turns out we’re listed in a fake ecommerce “blog” that is trying to boost its Google ranking by linking to random posts that it thinks are related to keywords. I’m not going to do it any favours by linking to it here.

Browsing through the other links, I would estimate that 75% of them were not in favour of the truck testicle tsunami. I clicked on a couple, to read what other people have to say, and I stumbled across this post, on the blog “In This Economy?“, which uses “Truck Nutz” to introduce a new feature called “Waste of Money.” The best part of the post is the little war that erupts in the comments. I urge you to click through and enjoy it, but I’ll excerpt some of it here:

Not an objective posting. Full of misinformation. All the information is for Ken’s Brothers websites and products. And one who claims the lowest price is a joke. Not even the lowest.

I called in to allthenuts to buy some small blue balls for my quad, and all I got was pressure to buy something I didn’t want.

If you like rude, loud and childish people, call them and try and place an order.

I have since found better quality and pricing at bullsballs.com who also offer discounts if you buy more than one, so I got three. Their service and no-pressure attitude also helped me decide to avoid anyone that sells David Hams imitation crap.

…

Kenneth Ham is an arrogant ass-hole and is taking every chance to shill for his brother David by defaming the ‘originals’ web site.

This is a fun product, and his only interest is to create trouble for his brothers competitors instead of helping him build a better product line. (way too many imitations from the oldest website on the net, bullsballs.com)

allthenuts is owned by David Ham and not Keneth Ham. Ken is violation the law in his actions, (coming soon to federal court) for all his defamation of character all over the internet. He is the one that needs to grow up.

I believe that ‘drocolate’ is Ken Ham. Why else would there be a big picture of his brothers product and links to others selling his brothers products, instead of the First Truck Balls Internet web site?

More bullcrap in his rampage of disinformation.

(Unhappy buyer and con-sumer have good reason for their comments. Add federal trademark violations to all of this too.)

…

Wow. I never knew there was so much drama in the truck scrotum world. Can’t all the truck sack salespeople get along?

I don’t get the thrill of ATVs or snowmobiles. I think they show a lack of refinement and a disrespect for the out-of-doors. In their defense, I can understand them in some contexts: like long-distance travel for the Inuit. Or when people would rather take the snowmobile to the next town over instead of the truck.

But as simple recreation, I’m not convinced. And it’s especially difficult for me to buy into it when so many ATVers and snowmobilers are unabashed douchebags. Ever talked to one? Then you know what I mean.

So I’m never surprised when these adventure-seekers get themselves in trouble. Thighs clenched tight around their thrumming machines, they seem to think that they have power over nature. Thank goodness Mother Nature sometimes decides to wake up and swat away those annoying flies.

(PS. I don’t actually advocate death. Except, possibly, for ignorance. Which this clip borders on.)

Yup. Balls. Kind of like these ones.

I drove behind two younger guys in a giant Dodge truck yesterday, and they had silver balls hanging from the back. This poses an interesting question: do they recognize that their big truck is compensation for their little penises, and show that by getting balls for it, or do they think that the balls represent their manly manhood?

What say you, readers?

(as an aside, when searching for a picture, I came across a hilarious blog about a law being passed in Tallahassee that made truck balls a fineable offence)