Hulk Hogan died on July 24th, 10 years to the day after the leak of a sex tape transcription that exposed his casual use of the N-word.
The offensive language originally appeared in a private sex tape, portions of which Gawker Media published in 2012. Hogan, whose real name was Terry Bollea, sued Gawker, and during the subsequent lawsuit the court produced a full transcript of the recording (this will be important later). The lawsuit would turn out to be a big one: It was funded by J.D. Vance’s patron, the conservative mega-donor Peter Thiel, and would lead to the end of Gawker Media and new understanding of freedom of speech in the internet age — but not before ruining the plaintiff’s life just a little bit.
On July 24th, 2015, The National Enquirer and Radar Online published the sex tape transcript, which included Hogan complaining about his daughter’s dating life with repeated and varied racist insults, including the n-word. For those reasons, July 24th also marked the end of many lucrative endorsement deals for Hogan.
Related Video
Now, July 24th has new meaning, both for his weird admirers and his many detractors. Brother, we hope it’s hot down there.