Long Live "Rowdy" Roddy Piper

A good friend of mine called me up last night close to midnight when I was intent on staying in, but I hadn't seen her in a while so I met her out for a couple.  I was glad I did because the 1980's science fiction classic "They Live" was on starring none other than Rowdy Roddy.  In case you have never seen it, Roddy's character is a homeless man working odd jobs in construction when he discovers an underground rebellion fighting back against aliens who walk among us; You can't see them until you put on some special sunglasses.

Well, it seems Roddy didn't have a friend in the world, so he tried to convince the only guy he really did know, character actor Keith David, to put on these glasses to see for himself all the subliminal messages on billboards and scary alien faces behind the fake flesh.  Unfortunately, Keith wasn't convinced and thought The Rowdy One was nuts, as anyone might, so he wouldn't agree to put on the sunglasses.  This results in a six minute epic fist fight complete with body slams, swinging two-by-fours, and repeated hard knees to the groin.  I just love that director John Carpenter decided that there was no other way to demonstrate the reluctance someone might feel to believe an alien conspiracy then to let loose with an awesome drawn out fist fight!



You all should check it out.

It's also worth having a look at some of the classic 80's episodes of Rody's talk show during WWF broadcasts, "Piper's Pit," in which he would invariably end up beating up his guest.  "Saturday Night Live" really should have mailed him a check because it's the exact same concept as "The Joe Pesci Show."  Get a look at this one where he gives a jobber (wrestler who makes a career out of losing) from Columbus, Ohio a chance to be on the show but then ends up getting frustrated at his lack of success and whips his ass for no good reason.