Former Saturday Night Live actress interrogates a man in tights

I was walking near the convention's security perimeter when I spotted a man in a superhero costume. This was strange. Then Victoria Jackson - flighty Saturday Night Live actress turned conspiratorial and flighty Tea Party activist - stumbled into our conversation, and things somehow got stranger. At the 45-second mark of this video, Jackson begins interrogating the costumed man, who is much more normal than her, about "communist" Barack Obama:

 

Here, Jackson explains to me why she thinks Obama is a communist - and why his father may not be his father:

 

The man's real name is Dale Pople, but he goes by Old Superhero. He's 44, a former pro wrestler now in broadcasting, and he just likes dressing up in tights and helping people. (Click here for an article about him.) Bonus: he is half-Canadian.

"My mom's from Whitby," he says. "It's a suburb of Toronto. In Ontario providence? Is that what it's called?"

Pople says he helped raise money to send a little boy to the Mayo Clinic and "kept a roof over a battered woman's head up in Seattle." He also helped replace the "armour" of a California "superhero."

"Other than that," he says, "I just go out, patrol around, and look for people to help." What kind of people? "Somebody in trouble, somebody fell down, somebody needs a hand, somebody's lost. Anything."

He likes Mitt Romney, though he preferred Rick Santorum in the Republican primary.

Comments

[scottd]

Poor Victoria Jackson. She has crossed the line from sanity into some weird conspiracy world where the goalposts have to be constantly moved to facilitate wilder and wilder claims. She doesnt even know the meaning of the word communist.

[gw field]

Incredible, and here I thought that her whole dumb and goofy schtick on SNL was an act. It was the gullible and unsophisticated that became brown shirts pre WW2. The US middle and far right wing remains a desperate and pathetic throng of crazies. Shame really.

[j-rock]

It would be funny if she were still doing one of her airhead characters from her Saturday Night Live days (in fact, it would be the first funny thing she's done in 20 years), but sadly this is serious. What's even more frightening is that she's not even close to being alone in her insane beliefs. Millions of Republicans feel the same way, and the Tea Party takeover of the party has created an atmosphere where it's not only safe, but encouraged, to hold these radical beliefs with absolutely no basis in fact.

Many of the remaining Republican moderates have either left the party, or are being forced out in favour of "true believers". Just today I think, former Florida governor Charlie Crist endorsed Obama because the GOP has gone too far into crazy-town for him. Perhaps the greatest irony of all is that the "great" Ronald Reagan, who is a conservative icon, would stand absolutely NO chance, of getting elected as a Republican today.

[The Magician]

Oh Victoria...do you have a problem with Communists? Then I suggest you give most of your belongings away and move out of the U.S. China makes most of our goods and is owed the most money by the U.S. We're in with the Commies!!! Oh no!!!

[Fenderbender]

I guess all those late nights at SNL didn't prepare her for life in the real world.

[joejoejoe]

Doesn't know who is dad is, but, he's a communist. Brilliant.

[Randal Oulton]

Victoria Jackson, she's the one that's a few fries short of a happy meal, right?

[0mni]

Why the hell is this even on here ... The ravings a mad person. Must be a slow news day.

[Jim]

This woman is a fruitcake, typical of the Tea Party sheep in the States. Oh well, as long as they keep that nonsense south of the border I guess it's just entertainment. And I really don't think that the Founding Fathers were "right-wing radicals", they were products of the Enlightenment and would be disgusted with ignorant people like this woman.

[Peter]

Unfortunately the government and those in power fuel the conspiracy fire by being so secretive. I think it is about time that all governments be open about foriegn policies, military secrets, secret domestic operations, suppressed technologies and the truth about who really makes those policies. Enough is enough, we can handle the truth, all the conspiracies out there will one day be the western worlds down fall.

[Bob Shear]

IN VICTORIA JACKSON EXPLAINS... at 1:50 there is an advertisement on a truck that goes passed say Vote Pro Life Nov 12, 2012. Oh and Victoria Jackson has gone bonkers.

[Horstradamus]

Well.... she always loved to deliver a good punch line. Now she is a punchline. Shame.

[Steven Fishman]

OMG, Obama a communist..lol What is it with these right wing nut jobs. Trump to this day still thinks Obama was not born in the United States. This was even after he produced his long form birth certificate. Then you have the whole Todd Akin thing. Boy these Republicans will do and say anything against Obama to promote fear into the American voter.

[Jim]

Why does this woman get any attention at all? She has lost whatever mind she ever had. Shame on the media for giving her yet another 15 minutes of fame.

[Skinny Dipper]

If I could vote, I would support Obama-the-communist over the Rommunist--"You do all the work. You pay all the taxes. Romney banks offshore."

[jim]

victoria who?

[Tim]

The irony is that 3/4 of these hillbillies wouldn't be able to read and write were it not for the socialist/communist school systems in the states they grew up in.

[Dave]

Man... she really is dumb as a bowl of lava rocks. I though that was just an act. She loves the guilt-by-association thing, but clearly doesn't have the first clue about what Communism is, that "ObamaCare" is hardly socialized medicine (it's a big handout to the Insurance Companies, in return for a tiny bit of better behavior out of them). But I suppose, if she didn't have other folks ideas in her poor little head, there wouldn't be anything there.