[George W. Bush]

But the appeal of these shows is exactly the danger involved.

People don't go see a Houdini if there's no chance he could be injured or killed. Same thing with acrobats. Or NASCAR drivers. Same as Sigfried and Roy.

If you sell a show to an audience about someone who is supposed to be a danger magnet, it can't be too surprising if, from time to time, someone gets hurt or killed.

It's part of the business. It's somewhat dishonest for people to now pretend some great tragedy is involved, as though they're now indignant that something actually happened to someone who put themselves in danger for the entertainment of some worthless obese couch potatoes. The necessity of appealing to that audience, often by escalating the exposure to personal danger, was probably instrumental to the death of the performer. After someone's dead, then people want to pretend it was all somehow unfair that someone got killed. I suppose it helps absolve them of their involvement in the performer's demise.

[Wormwood]

It's part of the business.

Exactly. His schtick was interacting with dangerous animals. That entails an inherent risk---and the odds catch up to you.

[SlowBoat407]

After someone's dead, then people want to pretend it was all somehow unfair that someone got killed. I suppose it helps absolve them of their involvement in the performer's demise.

You're assuming an awful lot, there, FRiend. Some of us, like myself, simply admired his love of what he did, and while it was inevitable that something like this would happen, we still hate to see that it did. Please try to break through some of that cynicism.

[HairOfTheDog]

...If you sell a show to an audience about someone who is supposed to be a danger magnet, it can't be too surprising if, from time to time, someone gets hurt or killed. It's part of the business. It's somewhat dishonest for people to now pretend some great tragedy is involved...

That's some lecture.... It's not a good party unless there's one guy in the kitchen arguing some inane point that is obvious to everyone else but he thinks is really profound :~)

[isthisnickcool]

After someone's dead, then people want to pretend it was all somehow unfair that someone got killed. I suppose it helps absolve them of their involvement in the performer's demise.

??????

There is no information about what had happened. He could have just been swimming along the bottom and stirred the thing up and got wacked by the barb through the heart. Just a freak accident.

How sad. In a way Irwin was our contemporary Costeau.

[HAL9000]

"After someone's dead, then people want to pretend it was all somehow unfair that someone got killed. I suppose it helps absolve them of their involvement in the performer's demise."

I'm sure the real George W. Bush would disagree with you.

'Crocodile Hunter' tucks into Aussie barbie with George Bush

[Finny]

Performer??? The guy liked what he was doing. He was passionate. He wasn't doing it for the money, for Pete's sake!! The money was doing it for him!!

Unless I've missed something, I haven't seen anyone here say that his death was "unfair" or even surprising. Just sad. You gotta admire a guy with the balls to go after his passion. And I think people who were so self-righteously outraged at him when he had his baby with him around crocs, are being prigs. Sheesh. Danger is part of life. Living a life bent on avoiding it can be perilous to many men's (and women's!) souls!

[MarkL]

I agree with you in one respect, but on the other hand, I believe that Steve Irwin was actually doing something very important for real conservationists.

One of the things that he did was help show that these deadly creatures were an important part of the natural system, and there was nothing mean or evil about them. They just did what they did. He helped show that they're animals to be respected and to stay away from them, but not to be feared and hunted down and killed, simply for being what they are.

Certainly, we can't have predators running around residential areas, but I think that his antics did help to reduce a lot of the mindless fear that many had about dangerous creatures.

Mark