On Talking Dead


Watching Talking Dead after the Walking Dead season finale, and Hardwick cracked "you have a show that's just you riding motorcycles around the country? Are they giving out free vibrators with that?" I thought it was actually really endearing how embarrassed Reedus got. The dude was actually blushing, and that's a sign of humility. He does seem to be very genuine, and that's why I've always liked him even though he's not necessarily one of my favorite "acting" actors.

The further a society drifts from the truth, the more it will hate those that speak it.

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He does get embarrassed and it's really sweet.

Still, imagine if Hardwick has said something similar to one of the actresses on the show?

It ain't the Ganges, but you go with what you got." ~ Ken Talley, "The Fifth of July"

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I agree... there is quite a double standard. Imagine Rosita got killed off and he said to Christian Serratos, "so many guys out there won't be able to fap to Rosita anymore!" He'd be fired immediately. For some reason it's seen as acceptable when it's about a dude.

The further a society drifts from the truth, the more it will hate those that speak it.

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I love how easily Norman gets embarrassed too, however, this actually really irked me and I didn't find it all that funny. Chris specifically asked him about his new show, which you could tell Norman is very excited about and he was all for talking about it and his passion for motorcycles, and Chris just cuts basically cuts him off and makes a snide joke. Come on, dude. Even Norman was kind of put off by it, you can tell if you go back and watch it. It's almost as if Chris doesn't take him seriously; that whole episode had Norman being asked pretty immature and sexual type of questions (as usual) where all of JDM's questions were the opposite. I've started to notice that over the years with TD and Norman, he always gets the questions like 'Will we ever see you shirtless? When is Daryl gonna have a sex scene?' etc etc. The girls and the other actors don't get that line of questioning, either. At least not the majority. It's frustrating, because Norman has a lot more to offer on his character than just all that, he's very insightful and articulate and I feel like the TD showrunners (and Chris) don't see that and just choose to use him as the man candy all the time and its annoying as eff.

Sorry for the rant, carry on.

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No problem, I totally agree with you. They purposely picked that "will we see Daryl showering?" question instead of something with more substance -- and look at the woman asking it, too, she was a typical middle aged fan lady,not some attractive woman asking that stupid question, which showed even more disrespect for Norman. Imagine if some nerdy guy were shown asking if they would ever show Rosita in the shower?

It's doubly annoying because he is very good articulating how Daryl feels about things and it would be much more interesting than seeing him get so little respect.

It ain't the Ganges, but you go with what you got." ~ Ken Talley, "The Fifth of July"

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Wait a second, so if he was asked an inappropriate question by a young, hot girl, it would be less disrespectful??? How does the asker's attractiveness change the content of the question?

How dare ugly, middle aged people live, let alone be a fan of something.

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I never said that.

Considering I'm a middle aged fan -- not sure how to rate my relative attractiveness -- I have no problem with the age of the woman who asked. I'm probably older than she was, in fact. It would have been just as disrespectful if a young girl asked the question. But if the producers weren't going for the "eww" factor in the reaction of the audience to the question, they should have picked someone else. And attractive girl about Beth's age, perhaps. Or how about picking a hot young guy wondering when he'll get to see naked Daryl in the shower? No, they wanted to perpetuate the notion that silly, older women all have the hots for Daryl. I can recognize the cliche even though I don't subscribe to it or agree with it. Believe me, I wouldn't want NR to take a look at me and think I would be asking him a similar question based on my age.

And would it be less or more embarrassing to Norman if it was a pretty hot girl asking it or if the "overage" fan did it? That's my point. They don't respect him and chose the question and questioner based on how embarrassed he would be when it was shown.

It's still objectifying Norman and they would never get away with doing that to the female cast members. Do you really think they'd would have anyone, even an overweight middle aged nerd, ask Sonequa "when are we gonna get to see Sasha in the shower?" They didn't have anybody asking if we'd see JDM shirtless any time soon, either.

Were there really no other appropriate questions being posed by any fans, young, old, pretty or ugly that they could have chosen to televise? Either everyone who posed a question is a goofy jerk, or they simply skipped anything that was pertinent to the episode or character of Daryl and go for the sex. We had to have that and the tasteless suggestion by Hardwick that Norman's show send out vibrators.



It ain't the Ganges, but you go with what you got." ~ Ken Talley, "The Fifth of July"

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I'll tell you the truth, I didn't see what the big deal was. And I've been thinking about why I would react differently if the question was directed at a woman and I still haven't found the answer.

I honestly think that if he played a jerk character, he wouldn't be liked this much. It's his looks, plus he's a bad boy, plus he's damaged, plus he's changing... there are many layers to Daryl. But if it was a woman, the male fan wouldn't be like, "wow, Sasha has overcome so many things, she's so brave and strong, and looks pretty hot, I'm attracted to her".

Or maybe because I think that if NR was just a regular person, we wouldn't find him this attractive, if at all. Yet a woman with Sonequa's looks would be catcalled all day long.

But if a girl Beth's age, a teenager had asked about wanting to see a man her father's age in the shower... would that be more okay? And would it be so much better if NR had a positive, non-embarrased reaction to a teen girl watching him in the shower?

I don't think they purposefully wanted to embarrass him, nor do I think that Chris Hardwick is mean. He's silly, stupid, but not mean.

I agree that he could have been asked meaningful questions but I didn't understand why he was on the couch to being with. He should have been there episodes earlier when he had a bigger role in the episode and would have had more time to talk.

(Sorry for the mistakes I made or will make, I'm not a native speaker.)

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Well said. I agree pretty much on the whole, although I will say - I didn't think it was necessarily appropriate for Hardwick to make that crack. BUT, I also don't think he had any ill intent in making it. He's a huge dork, he'd be the first to admit that. But I don't think he meant to insult Reedus. The bigger question for me is, to anyone who thinks the fan questions were inappropriate, why blame the show instead of the person who asked such a question in the first place? Grown women should know better and not act like hormonal 14-year-olds.

The further a society drifts from the truth, the more it will hate those that speak it.

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