# "hung upside down with a for up your ass!" ...WHAT?!?! **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 23, 2006, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hung-upside-down-with-a-for-up-your-ass-what/381514 "2006-11-23T03:31:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Whammo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8dc957/32.png) [@Whammo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whammo)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2006, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hung-upside-down-with-a-for-up-your-ass-what/381514/1 "2006-11-23T03:31:12Z")
Is there any basis for this Michael Richards racial blurb or did this one just get made up out of the mind of a someone melting down? Damn new to me. ---
**Author:** ![Whammo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8dc957/32.png) [@Whammo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whammo)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2006, 3:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hung-upside-down-with-a-for-up-your-ass-what/381514/2 "2006-11-23T03:32:20Z")
Well that should have been FORK, not FOR of course. :smack: [QUOTE=Whammo] Is there any basis for this Michael Richards racial blurb or did this one just get made up out of the mind of a someone melting down? Damn new to me. [/QUOTE] ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2006, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hung-upside-down-with-a-for-up-your-ass-what/381514/3 "2006-11-23T04:11:37Z")
["Their Own Hotheadedness”: Senator Benjamin R.“Pitchfork Ben” Tillman Justifies Violence Against Southern Blacks](http://www.historymatters.gmu.edu/d/55/), speech before the U.S. Senate in 1900. ---
**Author:** ![Billdo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/billdo/32/315_2.png) [@Billdo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Billdo)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2006, 12:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hung-upside-down-with-a-for-up-your-ass-what/381514/4 "2006-11-23T12:40:44Z")
[QUOTE=Walloon] ["Their Own Hotheadedness”: Senator Benjamin R.“Pitchfork Ben” Tillman Justifies Violence Against Southern Blacks](http://www.historymatters.gmu.edu/d/55/), speech before the U.S. Senate in 1900. [/QUOTE] I suspect that the OP was well aware of the history of lynchings of blacks as a general matter, and how the intriguing phrasing used by Mr. Richards was undoubtedly a metaphor for racial lynching. However, I think the question was whether the specific method so vividly described, “upside down with a fork in [the victim’s] ass,” was not merely metaphoric but an accurate discrption of an actual event. ---
**Author:** ![FisherQueen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/58f4c7/32.png) [@FisherQueen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FisherQueen)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2006, 1:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hung-upside-down-with-a-for-up-your-ass-what/381514/5 "2006-11-23T13:14:35Z")
I had this thought, too. First thought: “What a bunch of awful things to say! How does anyone go off on a nasty, racist rant like that?” Second thought: “A FORK? What the hell? Where did he get the fork? Was ass-forking a traditional component of lynchings? Fire, yes, hanging, yes, but ass-forking?” ---
**Author:** ![priapus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ed655f/32.png) [@priapus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/priapus)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2006, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hung-upside-down-with-a-for-up-your-ass-what/381514/6 "2006-11-23T14:51:38Z")
I thought he meant pitchfork ---
**Author:** ![Wee\_Bairn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/90db22/32.png) [@Wee\_Bairn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wee_Bairn)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2006, 3:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hung-upside-down-with-a-for-up-your-ass-what/381514/7 "2006-11-23T15:28:13Z")
Just another example of him not being a quick wit, which is a requirement for a suceesful comedy club comedian, which is why he isn’t one. His responses to the black guys were pitiful for two reasons: one is they were racist, two they were unbelivably dumb and unfunny. ---
**Author:** ![Whammo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8dc957/32.png) [@Whammo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Whammo)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2006, 4:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hung-upside-down-with-a-for-up-your-ass-what/381514/8 "2006-11-23T16:22:16Z")
[QUOTE=Billdo] I suspect that the OP was well aware of the history of lynchings of blacks as a general matter, and how the intriguing phrasing used by Mr. Richards was undoubtedly a metaphor for racial lynching. However, I think the question was whether the specific method so vividly described, “upside down with a fork in [the victim’s] ass,” was not merely metaphoric but an accurate discrption of an actual event. [/QUOTE] Absolutely correct. Thank you! ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2006, 4:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hung-upside-down-with-a-for-up-your-ass-what/381514/9 "2006-11-23T16:28:49Z")
[QUOTE=Billdo] However, I think the question was whether the specific method so vividly described, “upside down with a fork in [the victim’s] ass,” was not merely metaphoric but an accurate discrption of an actual event. [/QUOTE] Did you notice the nickname of the senator, above? “Pitchfork Ben”.