OT: real actual caped-crusaders? yes

[h.p. Love]

I was thinking the other day, if so much violence is caused by movie and TV's influence, then why don't we have lunatics running around in batman and spiderman costumes fighting crime? There seem to be at least two: Angle Grinder Man and Terrifica.

The first article I found:
http://ask.yahoo.com/ask/20050510.html

Absolutely check out the pictures of Grinder Man who helps motorists cut the boots off of their parked cars. You will laugh.

Angle-Grinder Man = "Angle-Grinder Man can free car in less than a minute."

more info at: http://www.nber.org/~lfriedl/fun/angle_grinder_man.html

He has his own pages/blog at: http://www.anglegrinderman.org/
NOTE: He misspells (wink wink) his own name.

ok - there is no actual confirmation that he does this, but I bet he'd help someone change a flat.

TERRRIFICA: Uses her "utility belt" - a fanny pack - to pay the cab fares of drunken women. An article and picture:
http://newyorkmetro.com/nymetro/news/people/columns/intelligencer/10359/



Post Edited (06-07-05 14:42)

[Flangepart]

The Fanny pack of secrets!
Well, thats nice...but i'd agree, why don't we see more loons in spandex?
Loons in pantaloons!
Stop me before i alliterate agine!

[Dr. Kobb]

This sounds like a job for...CORN MAN!

Or better yet!
 ZEBRA MAN!

[h.p. Love]

Last night my sister was telling stories about when she wore Smokey the Bear and Woodsy the Owl costumes as part of her state park  job. They were beyond funny.

My favorite was when she was Woodsy and a bunch of little kids wanted to see her eat a cookie. She really wanted to eat the cookie because she was hungry but that was impossible. Instead of stuffing it into the beak, which would have dropped the cookie down into the costume's feet, she made a maneuver to spin around and drop it and crush it underfoot. As she spun, one of her wings hit a little kid in the face. She also said it was the hardest to walk in because the big feet were sort of bulbous. The head was heavy and the webbed hands were useless.

Another ranger tripped while wearing Smokey during a walk in the woods with a group of little kids. She fell down and the head rolled down an incline. Many of the kids were confused or upset for a while.

[odinn7]

That's a funny story h.p. I can just imagine the horror when Smokeys head rolled away.

I was thinking about the original question about why we don't have more people running around in suits...Two big reasons I can come up with:
1) A flashy suit without the actual super-powers to back it up would be a definite attention getter by the cops and the looney bins. Most people couldn't run around wearing something like this for fear of being caught and suspected as crazy.
2) Just try to make a superhero costume. Anyone see the 70's Spiderman tv show? That costume was made by professionals and looked ludicrous. I'm sure it's not easy to make a costume like that, much less design one and get it to look right.

OK...so I've put some thought into this...years ago ; -)

[h.p. Love]

Odinn7. Good point about the problems with a flashy costume. A "superhero" needs a costume or trademark. A crazy collapsable hat and mask of some sort could probably get the job done. A Spawn outfit would be pretty hard to pull off.

Costumes can look horrible but I think they've come a long way. People make some great halloween costumes.

You can google for a guy named Polar Man in Canada. Supposedly he shovels for people and so forth. It's also said he carries a satchel with a tape player inside that plays the Superman theme. His getup is cape-less and simple.

What about all these graduate students experimenting with cyborg suits and helmets. Night vision and quick access to databases of knowledge is sort of a power.

I can see you put some thought into this. What else?

[odinn7]

Though you may consider nightvision and quick access to databases of knowledge as a power, I still don't think that would qualify you to wear a suit and be able to get away with it. You need to be able to climb walls or fly or jump real far or...well, something in order for you to be able to evade the law that would surely be after you. I think that people could get away with wearing a suit if they didn't mind the funny looks but once they tried to pull something off, they would just have trouble getting away as they would really be easy to spot.
You also make a point that some people make good costumes and I'll agree with that..."some" people do. The majority of the population wouldn't even know where to start so this really cuts down on the number of people who would even have access to something like this to run around in. When I was a kid, I used to make my own Halloween costumes and I always thought they were great. Of course now that I'm older, I can look back on them and think how stupid they looked and know that I wouldn't ever consider going out in public on Halloween wearing something like that. Because of this, I can say with certainty that I would never be able to make a superhero costume and I know that there are many, many other people out there who also would be unable to do so.

As far as the thought I put into this...I'm a geek, that's all ; -)

[h.p. Love]

Good points.

Guess that's why it seems I can only find a couple of people that actually wear costumes while doing their deeds. They don't get involved in crime at all. I'm thinking of Polar Man (shovels snow) and Terrifica (pays drunk women's cab fares). Still, Terrifica could get beaten up by some drunk guy trying to score and Polar Man could get beaten up for trespassing or looking goofy. I think the world would be a lot more interesting if people dressed up in daily life once in a while. Like the Jackass clip of the pink meter fairy.

Maybe it's the costumes I'm interested in. I'd like to try it out sometime. I've worn a sumo suit, so I know the downside but there is something interesting about working in disguise as a character that plays into the imaginations of kids. I'm also fascinated by strange characters anywhere, like old prospectors or weirdos on the bus.

Oh, if you haven't read the angle-grinder man's blog entry about his "similarities" to the Spiderman movie, it's pretty damn funny.

You're a geek!?! I thought we all were.



Post Edited (06-08-05 16:48)

[Dr. Kobb]

You could always do like the Mexican wrestler movies, and just wear regular clothes with a cool mask!

I was just in a long line at the check-out, and was flipping through the latest WEEKLY WORLD NEWS(the cover story is about the fattest people in the world).  Inside, there was an article about a fellow who dresses-up in a superhero get-up.

[Ozzymandias]

How about one of the bondage outfits? You could look like the Italian super-character Diabolik.

[h.p. Love]

Dr. Kobb wrote:

> You could always do like the Mexican wrestler movies, and just
> wear regular clothes with a cool mask!
>
If you google for mexico+barrio+superhero etc. you'll find some guys like that. Apparently there are a few mexican men in masks who help people in the severely poverty stricken areas.