Mike Rowe: We are engaged in a civil war on work.
A fantastic speech on what Mike Rowe has learned hosting Dirty Jobs and doing work with sweaty, stinky america.
Comments
Yeah, that was really awesome.
I only was able to get 12 minutes into it before I had to turn it off to do other things, but that was really great. That dude is pretty smart and very awesome. I like how he points out the whole “every 4 years they care what they think” bit and doesn’t really romanticize the whole working stiff thing as much as he probably could.
I’ve honestly never watched a single episode of the show. I always thought it was sort of an “EWWWWW LOOK AT HOW GROSS THIS IS” sort of show like Bizarre Foods with that Zimmerman asshole. But hearing him talk, it can’t be like that. I really want to check it out now.
The show is great. It’s not really like that Zimmerman guy’s show at all. I hate that guy.
Mike has moments where he makes jabs at the jobs, or at the guys having to do the jobs, but he expresses sincere appreciation for the people that do these things day in and day out. It’s a very humbling process, in my opinion.
Oh yeah. The show is great John, and the dude’s attitude is pretty much exactly like it is there in that speech. The tone is in general 90% mockery of himself and the rest of us who can’t fathom doing most of these jobs, and 10% mockery of the people doing the jobs. Even that 10% is more often than not more so mocking the fact that they are utterly unfazed by most of this stuff. But pretty much any time the dude talks to the camera to either set up the segment or sum it up at the end, he is nothing but respectful of everyone involved and speaks of them with awe and humility. And he has seriously gotten into every nook and cranny of every over the top, wtf job out there.
And really probably less than half the jobs he profiles are “Eeeeewww…gross” jobs and the majority of them are really just “Hmmm….yeah, I guess someone does have to do that…” or “Holy sh*t that is insanely dangerous and risky.”
The one that totally gave me the willies was the guy who walks up the suspension cables on bridges to change the lightbulbs along the way and at the top of the posts. Nothing he’s done with animals or excrement or dirt and filth has affected my stomach as much as that one did.
I can’t wait to watch this when I get home from work.
Before I do—Dirty Jobs is awesome. What constantly amazes me is how some of these people are completely dedicated to their jobs and LOVE them in some cases! The lady who stuffed pillows with goose feathers, or the people who bleach skeletons, the exterminators who eventually got their own reality show…they pass these jobs down from generation to generation and know how important they are for society.
But more importantly.
Mike Rowe is hot and I want to do him. (My fiance is well aware of this fact, and if we kept one of those “if i could do any one celebrity” lists, Mike would be on it, probably first.)
Dirty Jobs is a great show for all the reasons listed above. The exact opposite of that asshole Zimmerman. It pokes fun at some the ridiculous extremes of a particular job, but only in terms of how the universe is Rowe’s foil and he constantly finds himself outgunned and outmatched in a field filled with people who know the ins and outs of the task much better than he does. He’s never looking down at anyone, usually looking up in muck-caked awe. You learn a lot.
He’s a self-effacing guy, really quick-witted. When he’s poking fun, it’s usually pulling the fellow workers into a chummy It’s Us Vs. The Rest Of The World mentality.
Also… yeah. Hot.
Seeing as I’ll never run for elected office, I too will jump on the bandwagon: I kinda want to dry-hump his larynx.
Mike Rowe is hot and I want to do him. (My fiance is well aware of this fact, and if we kept one of those “if i could do any one celebrity” lists, Mike would be on it, probably first.)
If there’s one person on this earth worth having a man-crush on, it’s definitely Mike Rowe.