Zombies Ruin Everything

You’ve got to hand it to Ben Stiller. His two best characters are the same character in two different movies that are unrelated to each other entirely. It took a while to catch it, but Tony Perkis of Heavyweights really is the same obsessed fitness maniac as White Goodman of Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story which came out nine years apart.

Both are way too into what they do at the expense of everyone around them. But in their own mind, they’re the only one with the iron will and mental fortitude it takes to be as extreme as they are. Sound familiar, ESTJ?

Are you Perkisizing at Globogym?

Now it’s not always true that every ESTJ is obsessed with football, working out, or sports in general. But why is that a stereotype? Because in a sense, Te says to do, and Si says to do what you know. So what does a type like that do for fun? How about something that takes hours of practice, dedication, and something that can often employ team building skills? Sports, working out, training, etc.- it’s all ripe for the doing in the ESTJ’s mind. Yeah, any type can be into sports and the athletic side of life, I’m just explaining why ESTJs are so often found screaming in their own mother’s face to lift that barbell just one. more. TIME!

Tony and White are the same way. It’s easy from this perspective to see why they’re bullies. As the audience, it’s funny to see fat kids and out of shape adults get made fun of in such a ridiculous way. But getting into the head of the character, crazy as they are, looking around at a bunch of slobs who just seem to feel sorry for themselves would take a toll on your view of people, specifically if your dominant function is Extraverted Thinking which is constantly moving toward something constructive. Like winning the game or a better body!

[While making Josh do push ups]
Tony: Kiss the ground, joker-boy!
Josh: Hey, would you get your foot off my back?
Tony: Shut up!

White: Oh, really, you like it over there with those freaks in Losertown?
Kate: Freaks? They’re not freaks, they’re people just like you and me.
White: People, haha, people just like you and me! That is what I love about you Kate! You’ve got a ‘personality!'”

Nothing is more annoying to an ESTJ than someone that just won’t do what they’re supposed to, whatever that means to the ESTJ. If it’s a lazy employee, a poor athlete, or an annoying family member, the ESTJ has a hard time putting up with it. Inferior feelers will often have an issue with showing little to no emotion only to burst out in anger or tears. ESTJs being as expressive as they are will often seem the most extreme in these cases as they’ll be happy and energetic in one moment, only feel as though their principles have been violated in the next. And when that happens, get out of the way.

This is part of why the kids at the fat camp and most of the Average Joe’s Gym are so scared of Tony and White. Aside from being physically superior, they’ve also got an intense persona that makes you feel like they could hug you or beat you to death, all with a sadistic smile that screams insanity; something they might actually like doing- running on the treadmill at top speeds while literally screaming “INSANITY!” What? You can’t handle it?

I like these characters so much that now when I watch them, I find myself sympathizing with them to a point. In Heavyweights, the fat camp counselors ask the rival camp to take it easy on the kids in their softball game, something the other team dismisses. At this point, the mentality of Tony and White makes sense to me and I stopped looking at them like they were crazy and nothing more. Sure, they’re crazy. But there is a little more to them. What is the point of a sport or physical activity if you’re not going to push yourself to the limit? You’re only holding yourself back. It really depends on how much you care. And again- when you don’t care, that’s what pisses the ESTJ off.

Interesting thing about the ESTJ villain seems to be that a lesson is never learned. Either they die or get beaten another way, but there’s never a chance of turning or seeing a different way. With Tony and White, there wasn’t any making up or apologies but a sore loser by the end. Seems that even in Comedy, they’re too extreme for anything else.

This entry was posted on 09/01/2015 at 1:15 am and is filed under MBTI Guardians, MBTI Stuff with tags Dodgeball movie, estj, Heavyweights, mbti in fiction, Tony Perkis, White Goodman. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.