What a Creep Season 18, Episode 5: Christmas & comedy creeps

What a CreepSeason 18, Episode 5
Chris D’Elia, Charles Dickens, & Can’t Stop the Music

Comedian Kyle Anderson posted on YouTube a one-hour takedown of Chris D’Elia, who is turning into a modern-day Bill Cosby.
We have talked about D’Elia before, as he has been credibly accused of harassing minors and being generally gross to women who interact with him. But this is awful. Trigger warning: Sexual Assault and Coercive Control.

Some of his comedy pals have been accused of sexual assault as well, and we have heard from survivors of their abuse privately.

Before we get to our main subject of this episode ( a replay from December 2020), Charles Dickens, we will talk about a NON-Creep who needs our help.

Actress Valerie Perrine is fighting Parkinson’s Disease and needs help with her medical expenses and care. The 79-year-old is best known for her roles in Superman (1978,) Lenny (1974), Slaughterhouse-Five (1972), and finally, Can’t Stop the Music, which also stars The Village People, Caitlyn Jenner, and was directed by Nancy Walker. Here is the link for her “Go Fund Me” page: https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-valerie-perrine-fight-parkinson039s-disease?utm_medium=email&utm_source=customer&utm_campaign=p_email%2B5102-48hr-donor-share

Now on to our replay ep:

Charles Dickens is one of the most successful authors of the 19th Century who attracted a rock star-like following around the world for his dramatic readings. He is considered as close to Father Christmas as any man has ever been and was a champion of working-class people and liberal causes. His work influenced writers for several generations, including Willkie Collins, Jules Verne, Gorge Orwell, Roald Dahl, and Jonathan Nolan (screenwriter for The Dark Knight.)He was also a massive creep to several vital women in his life, which is what we will focus on today. Trigger warnings: Shitty husbands
Sources for this episode include:

Be sure to follow us on social media. But don’t follow us too closely … don’t be a creep about it!

What a Creep Season 19, Episode 1: A Quartet of UK Creeps

What a Creep

Season 19, Episode 1

“A Quartet of UK Creeps”

Co-horts! We have reached season 19 (!), leading it with one of our “Quartet of Creeps”–UK style! We have stories of creepiness from the worlds of entertainment, punditry and a tale about an Irish woman who really disliked her British boss. These stories are more of an overview than a deep dive into shitty behavior, and we always reserve the right to revisit any or all of them as solo episodes.

Trigger Warnings: Sexual assault, murder, racism, sexism, transphobia, and general assholery.

Sources for Ricky Gervais

Sources for DJ Tim Westwood

Sources for Katie Hopkins

Sources for Kate Webster

Be sure to follow us on social media. But don’t follow us too closely … don’t be a creep about it!

 

What a Creep Season 18, Episode 4: Matt Taibbi and media creeps

Matt Taibbi is a journalist who has been described as a “firebrand” and whose writing is reminiscent of gonzo-style writing like the late Hunter S. Thompson (worshipped by white boys since the 1960s.)  In the 1990s, he helped uncover corruption in 1990s Moscow with the paper The eXile (along with a former friend and fellow Creep Mark Ames.)

As a New York-based freelancer, he went from a mouthy opinion writer for the alternative weekly, the New York Press to one of the most celebrated investigative journalists for Rolling Stone winning several awards for excelling in reporting. Featured on everything from Rachel Maddow’s show on MSNBC  to Bill Maher on HBO and even on Late Night with Seth Meyer. 

Many people on the left claimed him as one of “theirs” who speaks truth to power with bravado, and some of his best-selling books tackled the financial shenanigans of Goldman Sachs, the idiocy of Congress, the march to the war in Iraq built on shabby evidence, and how the media is dividing Americans. 

Nowadays, he is a popular substack creator who rakes in millions writing about anything he damn well pleases. This is any writer’s dream, but he has seemed to switch from fighting power and corruption to fawning over billionaires and power-mad lunatics like Vladamir Putin. He now writes about Trump being a victim of a press that hates him for no reason and recently was part of the big Twitter reveal from past Creep–Elon Musk. 

So what did he uncover? Why does he feel like a victim of woke culture? We will get into it today. Also, I had an encounter with Matt Taibbi, who did some shitty journalism for a magazine I worked for and maligned me in his column for no fucking reason except he a burr up his ass about a topic he is not an expert on and tried to throw me under the bus. For 20 years, I have been hearing friends tell me how awesome and brave he is, and I have to tell them my story and remind them he is a punk-ass bully with no genuine affection for the topic he covers and just wants to swing his dick around. 

Today I found the article in question and will read it allowed for the first time since 2004. Then I will learn about Taibbi and why he is controversial. Like the tagline for Jaws The Revenge–this time, it’s personal! 

Trigger warnings: Drug use, sexual assault, 

Sources for this episode:

What a Creep Season 18, Episode 3: The Salvation Army

Tis the season for giving, and one of the organizations that encourages giving the most is The Salvation Army. Their army is stationed outside stores all over the world, ringing bells with their little red buckets asking for donations. They do a lot of good work, but unfortunately, they also have a history of sexual abuse and discrimination. 

Sources for this episode:

Trigger warnings: Homophobia, transphobia, and sex abuse

Noncreepy organizations for donations:

What a Creep Season 18, Episode 2: Diamond Annie and the 40 Elephants

Peaky Blinders is a popular show on Netflix about a group of thieves and gangsters in 1920s London. Many people do not know that there were gangs of women considered the best shoplifters and thieves of the wealthy that ran from the mid-19th century up into the 1950s. The most notorious of these was the “Forty Thieves/FortyElephants” gang, run by tough women who master criminals.

Diamond Annie (born Anne Diamond) was labeled as such for her ferocious punch with fingers crammed with diamond rings. At 5’9”, she was a formidable woman who ran a gang of shoplifters, seducers, and blackmailers, which made the police and media baffled by their brazenness. With the invention of the automobile, women soon took off for all parts of England with their thieving. This story is wild!

Sources for this episode:
The History Girls
Ranker
Forty Elephants Wikipedia
The Sun UK
St. Mary’s University
Danny Dutch.com
The Guardian
Alice Diamond and the Forty Elephants by Brian McDonald
Lessons from History on Medium
Bitch Media
Wondrium Daily
The Human Exception
The Culture Trip
Grunge
The Daily Mail

Trigger warnings: Thieving and my attempt at a British accent

What a Creep Season 18, Episode 1: James Dobson and Focus on the Family

James Dobson is an evangelical Christian author and founder of Focus on the Family and the Family Research Council, ​​which the Southern Poverty Law Center has designated as a hate group.

 

In the 1980s, Time Magazine ranked him as one of the most influential spokesmen for conservative social positions in American public life. He’s written more than 30 books on family issues, specifically parenting and marriage. Dobson frequently appears as a guest on the Fox News Channel.

James Dobson and his organizations are sexist, homophobic, transphobic, and racist.

Sources for this episode: 

Trigger warnings: Racism, sexism, homophobia, and transphobia. 

What a Creep Season 17, Episode 10: Lana Turner and the murder of Johnny Stompanato

Lana Turner was one of Hollywood’s most alluring (and controversial) actors in movie history, with star turns in the original The Postman Always Rings Twice, Imitation of Life, and Peyton Place. She was blonde, sexy, and a supposed “maneater” with eight marriages and several lovers. In 1958 she dated the former war hero and current mob hooligan Johnny Stompanato who supposedly treated her terribly.

Her only child, Cheryl Crane, at 14, stabbed Johnny to death after her mother tried to break off their relationship. Cheryl was acquitted of any wrongdoing (Johnny was a BAD dude) but spent years dealing with her childhood trauma and being the daughter of a movie queen.

But did Cheryl really kill Johnny, or was she covering up for her mother?

Trigger warnings: Domestic Violence, Sexual Assault, & Murder

Sources:
Vanity Fair April 1999 The Gangster and the Goddess
Lana Turner Wikipedia
Biography.com
Johnny Stompanato Wikipedia
Cheryl Crane Wiki
People Magazine
All That is Interesting
History 101.com
Los Angeles Times
The Daily Beast
E Mysteries & Scandals March 9, 1998
Cinema Scholars

What a Creep Season 17, Episode 9: Megyn Kelly

Megyn Kelly wasn’t just one of the beautiful blond talk show hosts at Fox News. She was THE beautiful blond talk show host at Fox News. Her show “The Kelly File” was one of the network’s highest-rated shows, even beating The O’Reilly Factor.”

She left Fox News for a short-lived stint at NBC, where she was fired for defending blackface. Now she hosts a talk show and podcast, The Megyn Kelly Show, that airs live daily on SiriusXM. 

“Give me any opinion, and I can argue it,” she once said. I’m not sure that Megyn Kelly really believes the ignorant crap she spews, and it doesn’t matter. She does it for the money, and that’s gross.

She’s an opportunistic pick-me girl and a racist. What a creep.

Trigger warnings: Racism, sexism, sexual harassment, and debating the race of Santa 

What a Creep Season 17, Episode 6: The Murder of Betty Gore by Candy Montgomery

What a Creep

Season 17, Episode 6

The Murder of Betty Gore by Candy Montgomery

Candy Montgomery was just another bored 70s suburban Texas housewife when she was tried for committing a crime so heinous people still have difficulty making sense of it. The murder of Betty Gore was the subject of a TV series starring Jessica Biel and Melanie Lynskey on HULU called Candy. It will also be adapted into an HBO series starring Elizabeth Olsen and Jesse Plemmons next spring.

What is so unusual about a murder in 1980 (which was also adapted into a 1990 TV movie starring our forever “old man crush” Brian Dennehy, A Killing in a Small Town) that captures our imagination? Let’s see if we can figure that out today.

Sources:

Trigger warning: Murder

What a Creep Season 17, Episode 5: Jimmy Savile

What a Creep

Season 17, Episode 5

Jimmy Savile

Trigger warnings: Sexual assault and sexual abuse

Jimmy Savile was a British DJ, and television and radio personality who hosted a bunch of BBC shows, including Top of the Pops and Jim’ll Fix It for decades, making him a household name. He was known for his platinum-dyed hair and later his tacky tracksuits and cigars. He was also a well-known good samaritan, raising millions for charities all over the country.

But, after his death in 2011, he was revealed to be one of Britain’s most serious sexual predators. Over several decades he abused almost 600 boys and girls some as young as 2 years old. He did this in the BBC’s broadcasting studios, 14 hospitals, and 20 children’s hospitals across England.

Sources for this episode: