Bus Uncle vs. Wimpy Nerd

[jiang bao]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RSHziqJWYcM

The “bus uncle” was a big internet phenomenon in HK in 2006. Some a-hole talks loudly on the bus and the nerd sitting behind him taps on the shoulder to ask him to lower his voice. Then the a-hole flips out and verbally abuses the nerd, including challenging him to a fight and saying F his mom several times. The nerd pretty much just takes it lying down and apologizes to the a-hole and then issues a weak warning about him cussing out his mom, which elicits another diatribe from the a-hole.

The question is, who is worse or less worthy of respect, the a-hole (dubbed “Bus Uncle” in HK) or the weak nerdy dude?

PS, some masked dudes jumped the a-hole sometime later and sent him to the ER which was excessive but delivered some street justice.

[Cesare]

The question is, who is worse or less worthy of respect, the a-hole (dubbed “Bus Uncle” in HK) or the weak nerdy dude?

Sheesh, what kind of question is that? The bus uncle was behaving like a loud, obnoxious jackass, what's there to respect? He was facing a clearly weaker (or at least less motivated...;-)) opponent. It's like taking a candy from a kid and making it a demonstration of power. Guess "bus unlce" had had a really really bad day at work...
Assertivity (or aggressivity) alone deserves no kudos, so I guess I'd side with the nerdy guy. At least he tried.

[Candide]

I normally drive the wimp-bashing wagon but that is no wimpy kid. The wimp is typically the kid that just sits there saying nothing, coz mummy says you don't talk to strangers.

The nerd may be an idiot (bad timing, no exit plan) but he is brave. He demonstrates the spirit of "Speak your mind, even if your voice (and body) shakes". That earns him some good amount of respect. I hope this lesson has taught him (and other girly HK guys) to stop being a monk, eat more meat, bulk up and learn how to throw a punch.

[Banh Mi]

But not a punch learned from Barry Pang eh Candide?

[Candide]

Barry Pang can punch (oh boy can he punch!) and is an excellent instructor himself. It's his instructors that are bad.

[Banh Mi]

Really? I haven't seen him do anything but lecture.

[Candide]

He did instruct us on a couple of occasions.

[jiang bao]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eEa9m...eature=related
The wimpy nerd up close (Skip the crap in the beginning)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qaNcW...eature=related
The bus uncle himself

[xJadedx]

This isn't even an issue of respect. It's more like, "how do you react to random weirdos on the public transportation."

The kid isn't "wimpy" for just not replying. If some creepy person started yelling stuff at me on the bus, chances are he has some form of mental instabilities or had a really bad day, or whatever. The last thing I want is getting into a needless argument with someone like that. I'd much rather just listen to my MP3 player and ignore it. I have better use for my energy than trying to "win" an argument against a random weirdo.

As for the people who attacked the old guy - that's not justice. That's just being stupid. What, you're going to beat up every weird person you see on the bus? Ridiculous.

[jiang bao]

I am not asking who deserves respect, I am asking who you think deserves LESS reserve. In other words, who is worse, the person who berates someone for 6+ minutes or the coward who doesn't fight back.

The older guy isn't just some random guy who does something rude on the bus. This was beyond rude. This was abuse. He gets in the wimp's face for more than 6 minutes (the video started recording after the confrontation already began). He gets way out of line and deserves retribution. The wimp was too much of a pussy to stand up for himself, but some other men did it for him.

The men who jumped the older dude weren't going around attacking random rude people. This was a well-publicized case and something should have been done about it.

[xJadedx]

Neither of them are "worse."

The old guy either is mentally unstable or had a really bad day or he's an ******* in real life. But I don't know which one he was on the day he decided to carry out the bus tirade. No kidding what he did was rude, but that doesn't mean he deserves to be beaten by bunch of random people. If they wanted to help the younger guy, they could have called the authorities. Something to be done about it means cotnacting the proper authority, not taking matters into your own hands by beating someone up.

The younger guy doesn't deserve to be called a wimp. Not everyone thinks it's worthwhile to argue or get into a fight with a random rude person on the bus. If he decided to actually get into something with the older guy, I'd just think he's stupid for wasting his time and energy on something so pointless. People know to pick their battles. It doesn't mean he's some "wimp" who can't "stand up for himself."

[jiang bao]

I guess our definition of what a wimp is differs then. My definition is this, per Merriam Webster Dictionary: a weak, cowardly, or ineffectual person. I saw somewhere that the wimpy guy got on the phone to make fun of Bus Uncle to a friend afterwards (the person who filmed that vid claims he has a second vid). Not sure if Bus Uncle was still there. Likely not. So the guy waits until Bus Uncle leaves and all of a sudden he is a "big man." Total puss.

The Bus Uncle was beaten up by men who saw the video and couldn't stand him afterwards. It sounds like they just punched him a couple of times, which is about right. I initially thought it was a bit excessive but later I read that it was just a black eye. Didn't seriously hurt him but delivered what was due.

I like the Bus Uncle more than the Wimp actually. Bus Uncle may be an a-hole, but he has balls at least. I would rather be friends with an a-hole than a coward.

[Banh Mi]

Exactly how much balls does it take to swear at someone who is unimposing?

[Cesare]

Exactly how much balls does it take to swear at someone who is unimposing?

My thoughts exactly.

I'll refrain from drawing conclusions from jiang bao's affinity for balls and a**holes...

[jiang bao]

For all he knew, the wimp could have had guts. He may have looked nerdy, but some nerdy looking guys are standup guys in reality. Just not this case.

Bus Uncle may have been loud and way over-reacted, but compared to something who would take abuse from some middle aged dude, he's better by default. I can understand tolerating it if he was up against several guys or if the bully was likely a gang member (in that situation the right thing to do is to just shut up), but it was just some random older dude that the younger dude should have been able to take in a fight if it came down to it (if he wasn't powerless).

I am sorry, but if you are someone who would not fight back if some random lone stranger pointed a finger in your face for 6 minutes and said he f'ed your mother multiple times and totally pwned you, you are a loser.

I don't advocate going around seeking confrontations, but there are situations where you must stand up for yourself.

[Ren Wo Xing]

Yeah! He should've f*cked that old man up! That'd sure show what a brave, manly man he was, right?

Less posturing and chest-beating, please.

Here's the breakdown.

1) Never, ever f*ck with crazy people if you can at all avoid it, and Bus Uncle looked pretty crazy to me. I don't care how big you are or how small they are, just don't do it. There's no real point to it, and even assuming they don't have a gun or a knife on them (which too many do), they scratch, bite, spit, and (especially if druggies) have an insane tolerance for pain, meaning a fight will get way out of hand fast. You'll probably 'win', but really, walking away with small pieces of you missing (literally) isn't exactly a victory. And again, there's always the chance that they are packing.

2) Avoid getting into a fight with old people in general. When push comes to shove and a brawl breaks out, the cops aren't going to give a shit that he called your mommy bad names, and the jury isn't going to be real sympathetic either to a story of a 20 yr old who beat the crap out of a 50 yr old because 'he started it'. And if the old guy suffers any serious damage (broken bones), as old people tend to, guess what? Lawsuit and hospital bill headed your way, and quite possibly a criminal record that WILL affect your future ability to get a decent job. And when it's a lawsuit of a 20-something beating up a 50-something, YOU WILL LOSE.

Even the quickest, simplest analysis shows that there is absolutely nothing to be gained (besides a little self-satisfaction and ego-stroking over having 'showed that old man who is boss'), while there is a lot to lose. The only type of person who would engage in that sort of behavior is a f*cking idiot. I'm sure he's a very macho f*cking idiot, but he's still a f*cking idiot.

The 'nerd' did exactly the right thing. In a situation where he was unable to just leave (which is the best choice); he played it cool and humored the old fart, keeping the situation from deteriorating even further (although he did tweak the guy's nose a few times). If the situation was different (ie, another 20 yr old who didn't appear to be crazy), I might think less of him, but in his situation with crazy *** Bus Uncle, I probably would've done something similar.

[xJadedx]

Agree with RWX. Like RWX said, anybody who actually would "fight" or seriously "argue back" is an idiot, not brave or whatever.

I actually just watched the video of the event. Seriously, the kid is anything but a wimp! He totally humoured the old guy and got a few wise cracks in (Maybe I should've patted you on the head ... awesome). He's doing what any rational, normal person would do when in a situation like this. Just humour the "crazy" old guy and have a laugh about it after. If you paid attention to the kid's body language, he was very chill about the situation and was clearly just humouring the guy.

For the record, I've seen people being more rude, the old guy wasn't that bad. Just your typical nutso person on the bus.

[Cesare]

Typical nutso person on the bus? HK sounds like a scary place...:-)
Over here, the 'uncle' would be running a fairly serious risk of getting thrown out of the bus at the nearest stop...

[Ren Wo Xing]

Dunno about HK, but in LA, SF, and NYC...not all that uncommon to see weirdos and crazies on public transportation. Just avoid eye contact and stay the hell away from'm

[xJadedx]

Dunno about HK, but in LA, SF, and NYC...not all that uncommon to see weirdos and crazies on public transportation. Just avoid eye contact and stay the hell away from'm

Same here.

Actually, we had this guy called Zanta, he'd wear a Santa Claus hat and do push ups on the subway. He was definitely a bit nutty, but people loved him .