10 Embarrassing Times Wrestlers Tried To Be Funny
6. The Rock Drops A Rare Clanger
The Rock was actually, naturally funny. Really, really funny.
His timing was exceptional. He was fabulous at saying something in a breezy, faux-sincere tone before hurling the insult, knowing damn well that it cut all the deeper after lulling the hapless knacker into a false sense of security.
He also understood the intangible quality certain words had of simply being funny in and of themselves. A generation of teenagers buried each other as jabronies at the turn of the millennium, but this would be his undoing during a somewhat uneven run as John Cena's nemesis in the early 2010s. Some of the material was great. "Stuck-in-his-basement-Stevie-Wonder" was actual such good sh*t.
The deeply casual way that he buried Cena's merch-buying adult public as "virgins" was low-hanging fruit, but funny with his insouciant delivery.
It wasn't all electrifying. Brian Gewirtz's rule - "Anything that comes out of the Rock's mouth is inherently funny!" - was stretched to its limit when Rock referred to Cena as a "kung pow bitch".
He had to pretend to laugh at the reaction to actually generate the chant, which was a testament to what a genius worker he was. But the line was lame - far more inexplicable than irreverent - and was so cringe-worthy that some thought it was put in the promo purely to give John Cena ammunition in their war of words.