When The Love Guru came out, it was so bad – so horribly, horribly unfunny – that it made at least one reviewer stop and reassess Mike Myers' entire body of work. Suddenly, the fart gags in the Austin Powers movies seemed not funny by puerile. Suddenly his other characters (I'm talking to you, Fat Bastard) seemed funny for five minutes, but stupid for two full-length features. And suddenly Mike Myers seemed like he'd never ever been funny.
Yup, The Love Guru was that bad.
I'm feeling the same now about Schalk Burger. Since he made his Springbok debut in 2003, I've dismissed his bad tackles and perpetual sin-bin visits as over-enthusiasm at best and clumsiness at worst. Malice? No way. Not Schalkie. He's just a big, lovable doofus.
And then he tried – accidentally, they'll tell you – to gouge Lions winger Luke Fitzgerald's eyes out.
That's not clumsy, nor is it over-enthusiastic. That's mean-spirited, and it makes him less of a doofus and more of a schoolyard bully. He's been banned for eight weeks. I'll be spending those eight weeks reassessing every "clumsy" tackle he's made since 2003.