Shane Taylor: The Tootsie Pop Commerical With Mr. Owl Never Sat Right With Me, He Crushed A Child’s Dreams
With a nickname like “The Baddest of All Time”, it’s safe to say that you don’t want to be in the sights of Ring of Honor star Shane Taylor.
But that’s exactly where Mr. Owl, the famous mascot from the classic Tootsie Pop commerical, found himself. Taylor targeted Mr. Owl in a tweet by saying he’ll “never understand” why nobody taught the owl to never crush a child’s dreams by crunching their lollipop.
To this day I'll never understand why this owl didn't catch hands IMMEDIATELY for crunching Timmy's sucker right in his face 😂😂😂
Couldn't be me @TootsieRoll #tuesdayvibe #animation #cartoon pic.twitter.com/pi0AkKXhcL
— The Baddest of All Time (@shane216taylor) September 21, 2021
In an interview with WrestleZone, Taylor elaborated about this issue with Mr. Owl by analyzing his actions toward the child, named ‘Timmy” for argument’s sake, in the commerical and concluding that he practically broke Timmy’s heart.
“Listen man, we’ve seen the commercial as a kid, it never sat right with me as a kid,” said Taylor. “People are trying to take this narrative and twist it like, and I don’t know what the kid’s name was, but for the sake of it, we’ll call him Timmy. They were like, ‘What’s Timmy doing naked in the forest anyway?’, that’s beside the point. It doesn’t matter what he was doing out there. His family could be communing with nature, we don’t know. The point is, this kid got a Tootsie Pop. He’s able to talk to animals, right? Here’s this owl, who’s supposed to be wise, supposed to be looking out for this kid, sharing knowledge, right? Asked him, ‘Sir, how many licks does it take to get to the center of this Tootsie Pop?’ The owl takes it, all the trust that Timmy has in this owl is right here in this owl’s hands.’ Let’s find out.’
“So he’s thinking, ‘Yo, okay, this owl’s about to help me.’ One, two, three, and proceeds to crunch Timmy’s sucker, crunch his Tootsie Pop. In his face, bro. In his face. Imagine, have you ever seen a kid like drop ice cream or get their balloon popped or something like that? That’s the feeling. When Timmy brings that back, and you see the look in his face, like if he’s out there in the forest with his parents and all that, how often does he have a tootsie pop? It’s probably a rarity. He’s probably so excited, he’s like, ‘Yo, I got this Tootsie Pop,’ he’s on cloud nine. And this owl takes it upon himself to just crush Timmy’s hopes and dreams, just crush his whole s—. Right in his face. And it never sat right with me, man.”
Taylor went on to explain that his issue with Mr. Owl began when, as he was randomly thinking about the commerical, he realized that the bespectacled bird deserved some comeuppance for breaking Timmy’s trust. He wondered why Timmy’s dad never avenged his son, and this train of thought prompted an unexpected Twitter exchange with Mr. Owl himself. Taylor stated that while he has heard the perpetrator’s side of the story, his stancd hasn’t exactly changed.
“Because I don’t sleep, right, I was just sitting up one day and was just like, ‘Bro, how did he just not get his a** beat for doing that?”, said Taylor. “Like, did Timmy go get his parents, say, ‘Yo, this owl just crunched my s— in front of me, like what do I do?’ If I’m Timmy’s dad, I’m like, ‘Where’s the owl? Where is he?’ You know? It just never sat right. So I put it out there, and he responded, which, I didn’t know Mr. Owl had a Twitter. I had no idea and I was like, oh.
“He’s like, oh well you know, he started trying to show me his degrees from Tootsie Pop U or wherever he went to school, and I mean, it looked kinda suspect to me. You know what I mean, but he said he’s changed for the better since then, I don’t believe it. But we’ll see. But as of now, we’ve talked, and he’s explained his side of it. I guess people deserve another chance, but I don’t know. I feel like once you crunch a sucker in a child’s face, you made a firm stance on who you are as a person or an animal.”
In fact, “The Baddest of All Time” made it clear that he wouldn’t be against teaching Mr. Owl a lesson himself, and he invited any other owl to get some, too.
“I’m all for it now,” said Taylor. “Like I told him, you can bring the owl from ‘Winnie The Pooh’, you can bring the Hooters owl, you know what I mean, we’ll fight ‘em all.”
The full interview is available here: