Wimbledon 1981
Students of McEnroe will have personal favorites, but the original monologue sets the bar. The genius of his tantrums, as with his tennis, was that he could shift the intensity of attack instantaneously. Here he begins with an innocuous statement to the umpire – “You can’t be serious” – before upping the volume and emphasizing the “CAN NOT”. There is then the lawyerly appeal to objective reality – chalk dust – and finally the toreador conclusion, made to officialdom in general, with an existential bitterness: “You guys are just the pits of the world!”. (video)
