Dear Mike Bennett,
My name is Michael Ferraro and I am the author of the story entitled “I know who killed Chris Farley.” I was just doing my daily internet surfing routine when I came across your comment. Needless to say, I felt the urge to respond to you, because clearly your internet surfing routine didn’t allow you to see the whole story. But let me first post the comment you wrote that I am referring to. You wrote:
“This Ferraro guy is the saddest excuse ive heard of for a person in a long time! I myself am a huge fan of comedy and one of the best of all time CHRIS FARLEY. Chris was great i never got to meet him in person but the thing about him was that no matter how bad your day was or what situation you were OR STILL ARE TODAY all you have to do is watch one of his skits or films and you immediatly feel better! Chris used humor to do GOOD in this world! Something most people like the HATEFUL IDIOT Ferraro cannot begin to understand! So in a world that needs comedy and laughs to make people better as a whole we have been fortunate enough to have people like Chris Farley! You FERRARO ARE HATEFUL AND FULL OF ANGER AND IF YOU WOULD BEGIN TO TAKE A LESSON OUT OF CHRIS’S BOOK AND DO GOOD IN THIS WORLD INSTEAD OF SPREAD HATE YOU WOULD BE A BETTER PERSON TOO! AND I NEVER MET CHRIS BUT I KNOW FOR A FACT IF HE WERE HERE TODAY HE COULD MAKE EVEN A HATEFUL ANGRY PERSON LIKE FERRARO SMILE! Rest in Peace Chirs Farley and God Bless your Family.”
I went ahead and fixed all your spelling mistakes too, because that’s the kind of guy I am. Now, so you read my original story about how unfunny I thought Chris Farley was on screen. What you obviously didn’t find was a follow-up piece to that story about how I may have been wrong about Farley. A friend of mine, who thought my story was also harsh, showed me a skit from SNL called “The Chris Farley Show” where Chris didn’t rely on his weight to earn laughter. I was seriously impressed by this. Clearly you didn’t read this story. You can read it here by clicking these blue words.
You may also not be aware that Chris Farley’s brother, Tom Farley, got in touch with me as well. You can read all about that here and the conclusion right here. I hope after you read these pieces, you no longer think of me as the “hateful idiot” of Film Threat. Truth is, we have a lot of those here. That’s what makes us special.
Regards,
Michael Ferraro
As you wrote yourself (way too) soon after his death:
“Chris Farley died of an overdose but I am willing to bet a dollar that the extra weight surrounding him only helped the situation. Farley loved making people laugh and people loved to laugh at him going crazy, throwing his fat body around, tearing clothes and breaking coffee tables. One thing Farley fans can never do, is tell me something he said or did that was funny that didn’t involve his weight.
Since Chris Farley loved making people laugh, and people only laughed at his weight, he wasn’t in a hurry to try and lose some of it. If he did, maybe he wouldn’t have been so depressed and maybe, he’d be alive today. But this is only a speculation, like many things in my life.
Who killed Chris Farley? You did. The guy with Tommy Boy on his DVD shelf. The guy with the SNL DVD with the “best of†Farley on it. Fat Steve did it. You killed him. And I hope it feels good.
So if your mom smokes and dies of lung cancer, it would be cool to say, “Hey, Smokey McChimney lungs should’ve cut out the cigs” within a week or 2 of her death? I mean, most of us are perfect and don’t have issues like compulsive overeating, drug use, drinking, self mutilation and what have you. We’re all much better than Chris Farley because we could control our weight, right?
I think if you had you wrote that initial piece maybe, a year or so after his death not only would Farley’s bro never have read it, I assure you it wouldn’t have struck a chord. It’s poor taste dude. Granted, I’m not all about being PC, but as I said in my above entry, you seem to put yourself on a pedestal by pointing a finger at recently deceased people and then laughing at them or being “happy” they died. They’re still people and they’re friends and relatives can read this site.
Furthermore, fat guys doing physical comedy is a comedy tradition. What you originally wrote was superfluous. Are you discounting Fatty Arbuckle, Oliver Hardy, Curly/Shemp and Curly Joe of “The Three Stooges,” John Belushi, John Candy, Michael Moore (heh heh) and a huge amount of other large (ie; fat) physical comedians because “the only thing funny about them is their weight?”
I’m all for your right to express yourself Mike, but every time you post about Chris Farley and the “fall out” from your first entry, this stuff comes to mind.
Don, you write for us, so please tell me you’re not being serious. Because, if you read properly, I was making fun of FANS, not the man. Saying someone isn’t funny doesn’t mean you’re making fun of them. If I said, “Chris Farley is a fat f*****g piece of c**t stain,” I think that would account to make fun of him.
F**k his fans, not the man himself.
Sorry for the misspellings…my boss walked in mid-entry and I had to act like I was doing “work.”
2 things…
1. Dude, when you gonna quit milking the Chris Farley blog!! HAHAHAH!
2. And this one is serious…
It’s not cool to make fun of people when they die…or to make light of it. You did it to Farley and you were all pepped up when Jack Valenti died.
I know these people are in the spotlight and in the case of Farley, are known only as entertainment. BUT, they are real people and poking fun at their death isn’t cool. They have brothers, mos, dads and whatnot who care about them.
So rather than defend your blog, maybe you could take note that it’s creul and rather lame to poke fun of people when they die…or say you’re glad…or whatever.
Just my 2 cents!
Rock it, Mike. People who can’t capitalize “I” or put an apostrophe in “I’ve” have no place in the world of criticism, and he should really consider suicide.
Dude – that guys comment to you was pretty hateful. Ummm – yeah…
I don’t understand it either dude. The internet is a fascinating creature and venom towards criticism is even more interesting. How one opinion seems hateful and another, which is just as hateful mind you, is somehow okay perplexes me to no end.
That is, of course, the most fun the internet offers: instant correspondance with the barely literate. For the record: I’ve always agreed with you on Farley – both the opinions of the funny and the unfunny. Odd, though, that your opinion makes you hateful, but his vitriol towards you makes him, somehow, in his own mind, I’m sure, a healer.