# Pop culture question re Mark Wahlberg **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 27, 2021, 5:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-culture-question-re-mark-wahlberg/949598 "2021-08-27T05:04:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2021, 2:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-culture-question-re-mark-wahlberg/949598/21 "2021-08-27T14:25:05Z")
I’m aware of the criminal acts in his past, and the fact that while he has acknowledged the acts I would say he hasn’t taken full responsibility for making them right. But I also don’t think it makes him a terrible person today. ---
**Author:** ![doreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/858c86/32.png) [@doreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/doreen)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2021, 2:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-culture-question-re-mark-wahlberg/949598/22 "2021-08-27T14:29:26Z")
I don’t really understand this - the question wasn’t whether you agree that Wahlberg is a horrible person, it was whether you would know what Little\_Nemo was talking about. It seems to me that if you are able to question whether it’s about things he did as a youth, and say " we are not always what we have done" , then you did indeed know what was being referred to. I mean, if someone told me that Tom Hanks was a terrible human being, I wouldn’t ask whether it was about some of the things he did in his youth because I am unaware of anything he did in his youth that might make anyone say he’s a terrible person. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2021, 2:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-culture-question-re-mark-wahlberg/949598/23 "2021-08-27T14:31:40Z")
I knew what you were referring to. I haven’t “forgiven” him, but I doubt he would care. I don’t like his brother, either, and I think that’s all adult behavior, not “juvenile indiscretions”. ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2021, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-culture-question-re-mark-wahlberg/949598/24 "2021-08-27T14:59:41Z")
> [@hogarth](#): > > I have read on-line about Mark Wahlberg’s past, but I am not surprised when I meet someone who is less interested in celebrity trivia than I am. Yeah, I’ve learned the hard way that not everyone (and sometimes _not anyone)_ in a group will get my references. Or even news stories that I think “Well, everyone knows THIS!” And details of celebrities’ lives are even farther into the realm of “Some people care passionately about this, but most people never even noticed it.” ---
**Author:** ![suranyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@suranyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/suranyi)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2021, 3:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-culture-question-re-mark-wahlberg/949598/25 "2021-08-27T15:19:26Z")
Well now you guys made me curious, so I looked up his entry in Wikipedia. Wow, I had no idea about any of that. ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2021, 3:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-culture-question-re-mark-wahlberg/949598/26 "2021-08-27T15:29:15Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > But now I’m wondering. Is my knowledge of Wahlberg’s past unusual? Or was my friend’s ignorance of Wahlberg’s past unusual? As you can tell from the responses, neither position is “unusual.” There are a lot of us who have a vague idea who Wahlberg is and no idea about his past, and others who know more, including his past. You could start a poll, to get a better idea of what this particular corner of the web knows, if you’re interested. But, in my opinion, your friend’s lack of knowledge about old (presumably terrible) things in an actor’s past isn’t unusual in the least. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2021, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-culture-question-re-mark-wahlberg/949598/27 "2021-08-27T15:37:26Z")
> [@Telemark](#): > > I’m aware of the criminal acts in his past, and the fact that while he has acknowledged the acts I would say he hasn’t taken full responsibility for making them right. But I also don’t think it makes him a terrible person today. I’m all for forgiveness for past wrongs if you’ve taken responsibility for them and changed to be better, but I’d say one is required for the other. So it sounds like, even if he’s not quite a terrible person, he’s still not a good person today—based solely on what you said. As for me? I didn’t know about it until I looked it up. I had remembered the story, but not the name of the person. But this is largely because I’m not very familiar with Mark Wahlberg. I didn’t even remember he was previously “Marky Mark.” I suspect that, if I did know who he is, I would have remembered that story was about him. And then I would have at least had a guess about what the OP was talking about—though I would, like others, wonder if there was something more recent I didn’t know about, confirming he was still that type of person. ---
**Author:** ![mikecurtis](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mikecurtis/32/3284_2.png) [@mikecurtis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mikecurtis)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2021, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-culture-question-re-mark-wahlberg/949598/28 "2021-08-27T15:54:15Z")
> [@doreen](#): > > then you did indeed know what was being referred to. Kind of, but not really. As others have also said, my first reaction to his question was " what has he done now?" So, I looked it up and found nothing. Still confused I wondered if it was the stuff from when he was 15? So…yes I did know about the events, but no, I didn’t realize that’s what he was referring to. Because I would not classify someone as horrible for things they did as a youth. ---
**Author:** ![Lucas\_Jackson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lucas_jackson/32/303_2.png) [@Lucas\_Jackson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lucas_Jackson)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2021, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-culture-question-re-mark-wahlberg/949598/29 "2021-08-27T16:15:19Z")
I generally enjoy his acting but he’s a racist. I don’t think that’s something that goes away. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2021, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-culture-question-re-mark-wahlberg/949598/30 "2021-08-27T16:30:50Z")
To me, he’s like Tom Cruise, an idiot who happens to have talent for acting. Of course he, at 5’ 8", is three feet taller than Cruise. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2021, 5:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-culture-question-re-mark-wahlberg/949598/31 "2021-08-27T17:15:33Z")
I’ve heard he was a Royal Dick, but I hate him because I’m jealous of his fame and success. I’m a terrible person, too. ---
**Author:** ![Asuka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@Asuka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asuka)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2021, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-culture-question-re-mark-wahlberg/949598/32 "2021-08-27T19:00:05Z")
Sean Penn infamously brutalized Madonna a few times, and he will sue you if you bring it up. ---
**Author:** ![Galactus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/galactus/32/3581_2.png) [@Galactus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Galactus)\ **Post date:** [August 27, 2021, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-culture-question-re-mark-wahlberg/949598/33 "2021-08-27T22:31:20Z")
He had a rather notorious appearance on The Graham Norton show with Sarah Silverman. [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/-r1jJUUSBns/hqdefault.jpg "Sarah Silverman tells Mark Wahlberg to shut up on the Graham Norton Show (3:00)") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-r1jJUUSBns) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pop-culture-question-re-mark-wahlberg/949598.md?page=1)