Mario Fenech

Demps said:
I personally didn't find anything sad about the video... he was asked about souths and answered.

His carer? Could be some other guy there at souths training.

He's getting old, showing some signs... but he looks healthy, physically at least.
Click to expand...
The lady who posted the video confirmed it was a carer. Some signs? He was diagnosed with dementia in 2016.
 
GNR4LIFE said:
The lady who posted the video confirmed it was a carer. Some signs? He was diagnosed with dementia in 2016.
Click to expand...
I heard a story recently that Mario bumped into some one he played footy with in the 70s and hasn't seen for ages and recognised them and remembered their name.

Lot of positive comments on the video.
Doesn't across in any way sad to me though.
His carer might just take him out in the community and ensure he's safe, etc.
 
Demps said:
I heard a story recently that Mario bumped into some one he played footy with in the 70s and hasn't seen for ages and recognised them and remembered their name.

Lot of positive comments on the video.
Doesn't across in any way sad to me though.
His carer might just take him out in the community and ensure he's safe, etc.
Click to expand...
It's a common symptom of dementia that long term memories may still be accessible. It's the short term memory that goes first.
 
There was a 60 minutes story on Mario last year.
He is stuck in a loop and is retelling the exact same couple of dozen stories over and over and over again. On first meeting he seems charming and funny and a good story teller. The reporter spent a week with him and noted Mario is reminiscent of Dory from Finding Nemo. Repeating himself ad nauseum and adding nothing new.
His wife, family and close friends like Jeff Fenech humour him and go along with it so as not to upset him. It would be very hard.
 
Tucker said:
There was a 60 minutes story on Mario last year.
He is stuck in a loop and is retelling the exact same couple of dozen stories over and over and over again. On first meeting he seems charming and funny and a good story teller. The reporter spent a week with him and noted Mario is reminiscent of Dory from Finding Nemo. Repeating himself ad nauseum and adding nothing new.
His wife, family and close friends like Jeff Fenech humour him and go along with it so as not to upset him. It would be very hard.
Click to expand...
Especially hard being diagnosed so young. If he was in his 70’s or 80’s, it would be a lot easier to process. His family having to watch him deteriorate in his 50’s would be extremely difficult.
 
The other thing was that his wife claimed he has been like this since his days on The Footy Show and that the producers and talent were all aware and used it for cheap laughs.
I’d like to think that isn’t true, but if you spent a lot of time with him, you would pick up on it. They were saying in that 60 minutes story that his yarns sound so good on first hearing that you become engaged and think he’s not too bad. He’s passionate, pausing for laughs, intelligent and knowledgeable, even cheeky adding obvious embellishments. Then you hear him tell the same story again…with the same passion, pausing at the exact same moments, making the same intelligent and knowledgeable remarks and adding identical embellishment in the same fashion. Then 2 days later you hear it again…an exact replica. To him, he is telling it for the first time and so thinks you are rude if you don’t react….and so they do…politely laughing, and commenting for the 50th time. As they were in that clip GNR played above. If they are there regularly, they’ve heard that comment from him, word for word, like lines from a stage play, many times previously.

For these reasons, it seems in plausible that the Footy Show weren’t aware and that makes them nasty people because he was used on that show as a clown…set up to be ridiculed by a drunken audience. Not shown the respect afforded to a man who had played nearly 300 games in a very tough era, including Origin.
 
Todd Packer said:
It's a common symptom of dementia that long term memories may still be accessible. It's the short term memory that goes first.
Click to expand...
Very much so. Dementia was my area of expertise in a long term career I had up until a few years ago. Insidious disease that can vary in symptoms depending on the type of dementia it is. I believe Mario has Alzheimers, so long term memory and repeating the same stories from a distant past over and over is quite common. In some other dementias this may not be the case. Either way, terribly sad to see Mario, and anyone really, go this way.
 
Tucker said:
The other thing was that his wife claimed he has been like this since his days on The Footy Show and that the producers and talent were all aware and used it for cheap laughs.
I’d like to think that isn’t true, but if you spent a lot of time with him, you would pick up on it. They were saying in that 60 minutes story that his yarns sound so good on first hearing that you become engaged and think he’s not too bad. He’s passionate, pausing for laughs, intelligent and knowledgeable, even cheeky adding obvious embellishments. Then you hear him tell the same story again…with the same passion, pausing at the exact same moments, making the same intelligent and knowledgeable remarks and adding identical embellishment in the same fashion. Then 2 days later you hear it again…an exact replica. To him, he is telling it for the first time and so thinks you are rude if you don’t react….and so they do…politely laughing, and commenting for the 50th time. As they were in that clip GNR played above. If they are there regularly, they’ve heard that comment from him, word for word, like lines from a stage play, many times previously.

For these reasons, it seems in plausible that the Footy Show weren’t aware and that makes them nasty people because he was used on that show as a clown…set up to be ridiculed by a drunken audience. Not shown the respect afforded to a man who had played nearly 300 games in a very tough era, including Origin.
Click to expand...
I’ve told the story before, but when I was a kid, my uncle played golf at Camden Valley Golf Club. One time they had a celebrity day where some of the Footy Show producers attended. I think even Fatty, Sterlo etc attended. There was a young kid who played/worked there that was a young David Middleton. Knew every obscure stat known to man. Also was very obviously suffering from Autism. He left such an impression on them though that they actually brought him on the show, and he became a regular for a few months. They called him the ”Rain Man“ and took the piss out of him. So it wouldn’t surprise me if they knew about Mario’s issues back then. It’s not like they ever did the street talk stuff and made sure NOT to pick out the absolute lowest society had to offer in regards to intelligence and make them the butt of the joke. Punching down was The Footy Show’s main source of comedy back in the day. It’s a cheap way to get laughs, but how else are you going to get them, when the only other thing you have in your comedic arsenal is a head wobble.
 
GNR4LIFE said:
I’ve told the story before, but when I was a kid, my uncle played golf at Camden Valley Golf Club. One time they had a celebrity day where some of the Footy Show producers attended. I think even Fatty, Sterlo etc attended. There was a young kid who played/worked there that was a young David Middleton. Knew every obscure stat known to man. Also was very obviously suffering from Autism. He left such an impression on them though that they actually brought him on the show, and he became a regular for a few months. They called him the ”Rain Man“ and took the piss out of him. So it wouldn’t surprise me if they knew about Mario’s issues back then. It’s not like they ever did the street talk stuff and made sure NOT to pick out the absolute lowest society had to offer in regards to intelligence and make them the butt of the joke. Punching down was The Footy Show’s main source of comedy back in the day. It’s a cheap way to get laughs, but how else are you going to get them, when the only other thing you have in your comedic arsenal is a head wobble.
Click to expand...
They did the same to Tommy, laughing at him not with him.
 
I remember going to BBQs where Mario and his brother would play footy with the kids for ages. Always included every kid. Mario’s brother was arguably better, didn’t loose his head, both contracted to souths at the time. His Bro died in an electrical accident under a house with their father, or the father was there or something? Both seemed like descent young men.
I have attended a few footy shows, one where they were hacking on Mario, and I thought back to those times at the BBQs and wondered if the other so called funny guys would be as gracious with there time.
 
Tucker said:
The other thing was that his wife claimed he has been like this since his days on The Footy Show and that the producers and talent were all aware and used it for cheap laughs.
I’d like to think that isn’t true, but if you spent a lot of time with him, you would pick up on it. They were saying in that 60 minutes story that his yarns sound so good on first hearing that you become engaged and think he’s not too bad. He’s passionate, pausing for laughs, intelligent and knowledgeable, even cheeky adding obvious embellishments. Then you hear him tell the same story again…with the same passion, pausing at the exact same moments, making the same intelligent and knowledgeable remarks and adding identical embellishment in the same fashion. Then 2 days later you hear it again…an exact replica. To him, he is telling it for the first time and so thinks you are rude if you don’t react….and so they do…politely laughing, and commenting for the 50th time. As they were in that clip GNR played above. If they are there regularly, they’ve heard that comment from him, word for word, like lines from a stage play, many times previously.

For these reasons, it seems in plausible that the Footy Show weren’t aware and that makes them nasty people because he was used on that show as a clown…set up to be ridiculed by a drunken audience. Not shown the respect afforded to a man who had played nearly 300 games in a very tough era, including Origin.
Click to expand...
If they saw the decline in him and continued to pay him out for cheap laughs that's not on but at the same time it was a paid gig for Mario if he didn't want to be ridiculed step down from the media job.
 
upthetigers said:
If they saw the decline in him and continued to pay him out for cheap laughs that's not on but at the same time it was a paid gig for Mario if he didn't want to be ridiculed step down from the media job.
Click to expand...
Given the way they would target people on the street who were clearly challenged, something tells me they didn’t give a toss either way.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Staff online

Members online

Total: 4,395 (members: 50, guests: 4,345)
Back
Top