Ken Tucker’s Pop Culture

I figured Omar would die before “The Wire” ended its run, because I read somewhere that David Simon said he got a bit irked when so many people came up to him and said Omar was their favorite character. Not that Simon is a perverse audience pleasure-denier like “The Sopranos”’ David Chase, but Simon is stubborn. He demands that his audience to realize that none of his characters are heroes, anti-heroes, villains, or role-models. They are people. People on some very mean streets. Which means no one is safe from random or premeditated violence.
So it was deeply satisfying to me that would Omar get it from some Marlo-wannabe little boy, and get it while buying a pack of smokes. (“David Simon Sez: Don’t Smoke, Kids!”) Tell you the truth, I could have done without the post-mortum scene, with its easy irony that Omar’s mistakenly switched body-bag name-tag should be picked up and corrected by the morgue guy because even a white dude shut away in a cold room knew who Omar was. I prefer my final image of Omar to be him lying in a pool of blood, just as he had created so many other pools of blood for other people. He was one of my favorite characters, too.

The best TV of the weekend (after “The Wire,” of course) was Kimbo Slice’s mixed-martial arts championship bout against Tank Abbott, shown on Showtime on Saturday night. If you don’t know Kimbo Slice, he became famous a few years ago when videos of his street fights became million-plus-viewed videos on YouTube. He’s now gone pro, and his bald head and long, bristlingly thick beard, combined with his piercingly handsome gaze immediately vault him above every other MMA fighter: Kimbo’s got charisma as powerful as his right hook.

         On Saturday, Kimbo knocked out Tank Abbott 43 seconds into the first round. The fight was beautiful to watch. It was strictly a punching match: The opponents never made it down onto the mat, which pleased me—I don’t find two fighters locked onto each other on the ground like embracing crabs a real bore. Kimbo has been training with Bas Rutten, the great, funny/deadly Dutch former MMA champ, and you could see the improvement in Kimbo’s technique. He always used to drop his hands, which left him open for punches in the face, but now he keeps his dukes up, thus both shielding his face and keeping those guns cocked for rapid slams. Tank took a pummelling and a sweet hook to the side of the head.

         Kimbo says he wants to fight Mike Tyson. Boy, would I like to see him knock Tyson into tomorrow’s trash bin.