Hooker, Ferrell and Reilley
I’m not a fan of Will Ferrell’s movies, for the most part; it’s just not a kind of comedy which makes me laugh. But Steve Hooker, now the second-highest pole vaulter in the world, is a big fan. After the Olympics, when Ferrell and sometime-sidekick John C. Reilly were in Australia promoting a movie, they turned up on a talk show dressed like Hooker.
I was thinking recently that this was probably a good thing for Hooker when it came to dealing with his success and, to some degree, fame. When your favorite entertainment centers on self-ridicule and skewering the self-important, there’s some significant cognitive dissonance to overcome before becoming self-important.