Jake Paul v Mike Tyson

Jake Paul v Mike Tyson Netflix

You may read this and know exactly what it means. My age group asks “Jake who?”

We know about “Iron Mike Tyson”, formidable heavy weight boxer when I was a teenager, ear biter and thug into my twenties, and an actor in my later years with memorable performances in ‘The Hangover’. But Jake Paul?

He is a boxer, singer, rapper, Youtuber, actor…even on the Disney channel alongside Olivia Rodrigo. He has even created stampedes for his energy drink ‘Prime’. He has done everything and is still young. For those who question his value as an entertainer…a communicator…and dare I say influencer places us at a junction of taste and accepted forms of media. Does he feature in my Sydney Morning Herald? Not likely. Is he on my bookshelf of fiction, nonfiction and biographies? Nup. Is he on my podcast schedule or regular streaming? No. Does this make him irrelevant because I do not consume him or even know how to access his material?

Again I say no. I will watch the boxing match on Netflix. That is something I understand. I can access that, it is not Youtube - which I do not understand as a streaming/viewing option, and I love Mike Tyson. I was a 15 year old boy with absolutely no pugilist skills so of course I loved him. He was terrifying and what every 15 boy thought was manhood. So if we consume differently in the modern age is it automatically wrong?

Shakespeare is a revered, literary icon. He was an entertainer. His industry was about bums on seats. Viewers. He had to court the sensitivities and violence of the Royal family, out shocking and thrilling the crowds. He was not even the biggest selling artist of his time. Theatre was the mode of entertainment. No point using that new Gutenberg Press for books when only 25% of men and 10% of women could read.

Charles Dickens is another in the literary canon. So if we eschew magazines and newspapers and formats other than ‘books’ we should think of how Dickens was serialised and published in the newspapers and in free form well before the compilation in novel form. It was accessible. 

Variety shows are perhaps a similar format. Whether Vaudeville, Pantomime or Hey Hey It’s Saturday, our consumption has changed. Genuine singers, comedians, talent quests, political satire, spoof segments and merchandise. Instead of a hat, we now have an energy drink. In the 1980’s a lot of people had “Hey Hey” shirts, now you can drink Prime. Jake Paul offers a great variety of material. It might not be my cup of tea, (yet), but I may also have been unable to consume Hamlet at London’s Globe.

Don’t be scared of change.