52 weeks of Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson: week 25

Bit of a weird one last week. Not gonna lie. Bit of a weird one.

Eagle-eyed as ever, I was feverishly trawling through Dwayne Johnson The Rock’s Twitter feed the other day when my eyes happened upon something odd.

A fella called Jose V (Infect_art)  messaged The Rock on Twitter to say: 

“FINALLY !! Got me the #ProjectRock1s !” By #ProjectRock1s the gentleman meant the trainers that The Rock recently released in collaboration with Under Armour. “Thanks for the releasing more [sic] ! @UnderArmour People gonna be SMELLING WHAT IM [sic] COOKING ! Ur Welcome … #THEROCK #underarmour”

After this, Jose V took a screenshot his purchase confirmation. He’d spent a total of $128.40 on the trainers. Not an insignificant quantity of money, I think we can agree. Not an insignificant quantity of money.

In a near-bottomless ocean of comments directed at the big man, this could easily have escaped The Rock Johnson’s notice. It could have drifted past him like a leaf in autumn. But it didn’t. He noticed this one. And what did he say, about what Jose V had been cooking? He decided to say the following: “We smell it and smells like shit.”

I’m paraphrasing there. But only slightly. Here’s what he actually said:

Now. What’s going on here? A fan gets in touch to tell The Rock that he’s shelled out a lot of money on his hero’s new range of kicks. The Rock, basically, turns around and says, “Yeah, great. You smell of shit.” What’s Dwayne implying here? Is Dwayne implying that the man cooks shit in his oven? That he loves two things: a) trainers, and b) cooking shit? What’s going ON? Is he implying that the man himself, rather than what he cooks, smells like faeces?

Whatever it is, I’m not sure I like it, buddy! Last week, of course, we learned that The Rock condones the indiscriminate murder of butterflies by pugs. Now, having just recovered from that bombshell, we’re reeling from a brand-new one: the news that he has told an enthusiastic trainer-lover that he smells like excrement.

Admittedly, being told by The Rock that you smell of shit is still probably going to be the best part of your day. Those notifications popping up are still going to make you smile for a while. But just like we continue to ask the question “If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?” we must ask ourselves: just because The Rock does something…does that make it OK?

Stay hungry, stay humble.