There’s a new campaign for Amazon Fire featuring Gary Busey. The ads make fun of Busey’s penchant for saying and doing strange things.
Maybe it’s me but I can’t join in the laughter. Gary Busey was in a serious motorcycle accident back in 1988 and sustained major brain injuries. When you hear about all the “wacky” things he’s done, you’ll notice they all occurred after this. (For comparison here are interviews he did in 1985 and 1990.) You have to assume he didn’t decide to become a character at the age of 44. He’s been doing the best he can in coping with the effects of his injuries. If he was walking with a limp or speaking with a stutter, we wouldn’t be laughing at him. But because his injuries are invisible and affect him mentally, we treat it like a joke.
Didn’t he do an Amazon ad when he was on The Apprentice? I remember he did some ad for a TV appliance and he definitely wrote and played up his craziness. And his commercial won the challenge even.
I may have been a little put off by the ad and playing up the mental problems if I didn’t know that. But from what I remember of The Apprentice, Busey is definitely in on the joke.
I’ve seen his straight acting, if you can call Under Seige and Predators II straight, and he is not brain damaged in the sense that he cannot portray another character. His motorcycle accident was pretty severe, but not rendering him stupid. He has always been a bigger than life clown.
He declared bankruptcy recently with debts in the millions and assets in the thousands, so he’s probably really grateful for the work. (Plus he has a young wife and baby to support.)
Here’s Gary on the old Howard Stern TV show, in a segment called The Head Injury Club for Men. The show ran 90-92, so it was only a few years after his accident. I’d say he had a pretty good sense of humor about it.
Since his brain injury occurred while riding a motorcycle at a no helmets protest, you could make the argument there wasn’t a whole lot of brains there to start with.