We were remiss in wishing Mark Brandon “Chopper” Read a farewell as he shuffles from this mortal coil. Sure, he was a criminal, but he always entertained us with his antics as he became very much the folk hero. We were into the guy before the Eric Banta vehicle “Chopper” made it to the US and often heard about him from mates in the Australian forces.
In fact, you might love Chopper too and not even realize it. Mil-Spec Monkey created this patch based on one of Chopper’s catch phrases.
Read died October 9th in Melbourne of liver cancer. Read about him here.
see you on the flip-side, Uncle Chop-Chop….
In before the do-gooders flock here to bash you for giving him additional notoriety. We’re Australian, it’s what we do – get over it.
RIP Chop
No worries brotha… we celebrate the likes of Jesse James (the cowboy, not the motorcycle builder), Bonnie and Clyde, and Al Capone…
Sometimes, the bad guy is the most interesting person in the whole freakin’ room!
Chopper gave us all a simple message that is all too true these days . . .
RIP
America needs some of that.
I would have liked to meet and share a few drinks with Chopper. So see you on the other side! HTFU!
Sorry I don’t drink with or honor dirtbags. Too many good people in this world that deserve honor and respect. This guy is not one of them.
Men worthy of honor earn it through actions, not narcissistic speeches and storytelling. This guy was a sadistic pile of scum and nothing more.
Definitely a viewpoint shared by many, especially his victims.
While it’s a good sentiment, I just can’t care about a real man who tortured people with a blowtorch or cut off their toes with bolt cutters, on the basis of a comedian playing him in a skit. Because that’s what that HTFU video is. It’s not Chopper Read. It’s Heath Franklin parodying him on The Ronnie Johns Half Hour.
Yes, it is. And, it’s funny.
Sure, it’s funny. And I agree with the sentiment.
It just slays me that the impression the overwhelming majority of people have of this guy is based on a comedy show parody skit. 95+% of people who think “Choppa is cool!” got that from a comedian playing him for gits and shiggles.