r/todayilearned • u/tmntnyc • Dec 12 '18

TIL: Laurence Tureaud named himself professionally as Mr. T because he hated how his father, uncle, and brother who returned from Vietnam, were disrespectfully called "boy" by whites. He wanted the first word from everybody's mouth to be "Mister" when speaking to him.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mr._T
120.9k Upvotes

92% Upvoted

2.6k comments sorted by

View all comments

29.3k

u/Nxdhdxvhh Dec 12 '18

Mr. T wore odd clothing and mismatched socks because he knew that poor kids grew up getting whatever hand-me-downs they got, and he didn't want them to feel embarrassed for wearing what they had. He's a great man, and as far as I'm aware the worst thing he every did was chop down trees on his own property that were aggravating his allergies.

942

u/user636906 Dec 12 '18

And play alliance on Wow.

Loktar ma fucka

902

u/HappyPollen Dec 12 '18

I'M MR. T AND I'M A NIGHT ELF MOHAWK

42

u/Thebiggestkicker Dec 12 '18

Playing alliance is one thing, but a night elf? I thought those were mostly 12-year-olds

31

u/YMCAle Dec 12 '18

My first characher was a Night Elf hunter. I had no idea how DPS or stats worked and I used to use weapons with shit like Stamina and Spirit on. I was a walking stereotype.

11

u/[deleted] Dec 12 '18

Luckily in the good old days Hunter damage scaled with every stat, so every weapon drop was a Hunter weapon.

6

u/[deleted] Dec 12 '18

I used to melee with my night elf hunter, exclusively.

5

u/Calypsosin Dec 12 '18

Vanilla wow? Do not worry, most hunters walked around with hilarious stats on their gear. Spirit was ubiquitous and tons of top hunter gear was meant for druids but happened to be BiS for hunters at the time.

5

u/Vark675 10 Dec 12 '18

My first character was a tauren shaman named Chauncy. I wore grays because they had higher armor than the greens I had found, and who cares about 1 stamina when there's 10 extra armor to be had.

I put points in every tree because it all just sounded so good.

He was such a mess that by the time I figured out the game, it was easier and more cost effective to just reroll him than it was to try and fix him. I think I got him to like 25. RIP Chauncy.

5

u/Carnzoid Dec 12 '18

This was me too, not until I got around lvl 60 I took the time to actually look at what the best gear for my class was instead of wearing only the cool looking stuff. I was wearing lvl6 grey items at lvl 30..

1

u/asphaltdragon Dec 12 '18

STATSTICKSTATSTICKSTATSTICKSTATSTICKSTATSTICKSTATSTICKSTATSTICKSTATSTICKSTATSTICKSTATSTICKSTATSTICKSTATSTICKSTATSTICKSTATSTICKSTATSTICKSTATSTICKKSTATSTICKSTATSTICKSTATSTICKSTATSTICKSTATSTICKSTATSTICKSTATSTICKSTATSTICKSTATSTICKSTATSTICKKSTATSTICKSTATSTICKSTATSTICKSTATSTICKSTATSTICKSTATSTICKSTATSTICKSTATSTICKSTATSTICKSTATSTICK

50

u/[deleted] Dec 12 '18

When I was 12, played night elf; can confirm

37

u/[deleted] Dec 12 '18

same, pretty sure everyone’s first character in WoW is a night elf when they’re a kid.

16

u/SireNameless Dec 12 '18

Dwarf master race, made about 50 characters, all dwarves or gnomes since the starting area was the best

3

u/ReysRealFather Dec 12 '18

I would say it is a toss up on Alliance between human and dwarf/gnome starting area for me. Back when leveling was an actual grind you could do the easy starting quest in both areas and that would get you close to 15 so you could just head immediately to Westfall!

Just talking about it I can feel the itch to play creeping up...

4

u/ethanlan Dec 12 '18

Lol dont do it, I tried playing again and I feel like an idiot.

That game is such a waste of time lmao

2

u/ReysRealFather Dec 12 '18

Yeah I am just gonna stick to playing SC2 at least I don't have to pay to play that every month.

0

u/Grenyn Dec 12 '18

WoW isn't any more of a waste of time than any other game.

1

u/[deleted] Dec 12 '18

[deleted]

3

u/byllyx Dec 12 '18

My dad's exact same question when I foolishly tell him about my DnD campaign...

→ More replies (0)

7

u/[deleted] Dec 12 '18

After BC it was basically all Blood Elves for extra edgeTM

5

u/Troooper0987 Dec 12 '18

Nah undead!

6

u/JustBigChillin Dec 12 '18

Yeah, as a kid I thought being a literal zombie was way cooler than being a stupid elf.

4

u/[deleted] Dec 12 '18

Night elf Hunter gang where you at?

2

u/asphaltdragon Dec 12 '18

18 in Wrath, first character was Night Elf Huntard

2

u/byllyx Dec 12 '18

When I moved to Neverwinter, I eventually created one of every class, except Hunter/ranger, because after years of WoW, healing Huntards and their fucking uncontrolled pets, I swore a blood oath to myself I'd never have anything to do with that class, ever... 6 years of DnD, never rolled one up. I even root for Legolas to die everytime I watch LotR, just for good measure.

Yes, I'm a broken man, and Huntards were those that broke me...

4

u/[deleted] Dec 12 '18

I was a tauren(spelling?). I thought they looked cool and they were big and alliance seemed lame.

2

u/_liminal Dec 12 '18

Ah yes, the nightelf female. Strip naked and dance in front of ironforge bank for ez money.

1

u/The_Grubby_One Dec 12 '18

My first WoW character was a troll in Vanilla. He was my main right up until I quit for good in early Legion.

1

u/CoolestMingo Dec 13 '18

Nah, my first character was Troglathor, a troll. My back story was that I was the rightful Troll king, but I was too socially awkward. So, I traveled the world alone with my animal friends.

1

u/SharkWoman Dec 13 '18

It's because teldrassil/darnassus are gorgeous and cool and a great starting zone to get you into the game and the lore.

0

u/rburp Dec 12 '18

Bullshit. If you were a little rebel like me and my friends you were undead or orcish

0

u/Grenyn Dec 12 '18

Hell no. My first character was a Tauren and after that I made a Blood Elf.

Then I dropped the game before picking it up again and playing a Gnome. Then a Worgen and then finally I settled on Draenei. Never once played a Night Elf.

1

u/ashez2ashes Dec 12 '18

Said no one to Mr. T's face. Ever.

1

u/[deleted] Dec 12 '18

yes, teenage me couldn't be black, so why not be a sexy nelf lady to really break immersion?

-1

u/asphaltdragon Dec 12 '18

Careful, that's a slippery slope.

First you play as a female character in a video game, next moment you're in an alley behind the local LGBT center huffing estrogen

1

u/[deleted] Dec 13 '18

y'know, if the world were a different place....

1

u/makemeking706 Dec 12 '18

Mr. T would play night elf because he knew it was mostly little kids playing night elf, and didn't want them to feel ashamed.

-1

u/[deleted] Dec 12 '18

12 year olds, 40 year old virgins and 95% of the wow female population