D-X’s mockery of the Nation of Domination in 1998 remains one of the most polarizing segments of the Attitude Era. True, a lot of people fondly recall its classic jokes about poop and how it smells bad, but there’s no getting around the fact that D-Generation X performed the whole thing in blackface.
But up until the mid-2010s, no one at WWE thought anything was amiss with the skit. True, a few people backstage at the time found it a teensy bit racist (for example, Mark Henry and The Rock)…
…but everyone from Vince McMahon to Vince Russo, a veritable Rainbow Coalition, saw it differently.
So not only did D-X’s Nation Impersonation make it to air, it lived on in replays and highlight reels for nearly two decades.
On the other hand, the Corporation Impersonation’s legacy didn’t last a week; by the time Sunday Night Heat rolled around, there wasn’t a peep about it.
It was December 1998, and D-Generation X was embroiled in a feud with Vince McMahon’s corporate team, consisting of himself, son Shane, The Rock, Ken Shamrock, the Big Bossman, and Commissioner Shawn Michaels.
What better way to hit back at The Man than with a truly infantile sketch?
So out strolled the whole D-X crew in corporate get-up to open WWF Raw (as covered in this weekend’s Art is War)…
…and the King, five months too late, finally understood Triple H’s costume. “Look at Triple H! Is he supposed to be The Rock?!”
Road Dogg was trailed by two little people representing his butt-kissing stooges. Thankfully, the “Gerald Brisco” had this sign to identify him, as his hair was the wrong color:
Road Dogg, in kind of a Vince McMahon voice, declared that he was not an asshоle. Despite Michael Cole’s total lack of genuine energy, this was in fact a live broadcast, so the censors muted “asshоle” both too soon and too late.
One word they didn’t have to censor was poopies, as in, “Shane, have you got poopies in your diaper?”
“Nope,” replied Billy Gunn, clad in an adult diaper as the boss’s son. “No doo-doo”.
His concentration broken, Road Dogg then stumbled over his lines; the segment had been derailed, and all it took was the most embarrassing exchange in WWF history.
“Vince” then took exception to being called a starfish or a sphinctеr. While no one had ever, ever called him those words, it was absolutely crucial that he use the word sphinctеr, as the entire rest of the segment hinged on it.
After asking his stooge whether his ass tasted good (It did, confirmed “Mr. Brisco”), Road Dogg was interrupted by Billy Gunn, who chimed in with his little kid voice.
“You’re not a sphinctеr, pop… This, this is a sphinctеr”. Gunn then dropped his diaper and mooned the audience in his thong.
“Very good, son”, said Dogg. “That is a sphinctеr”.
“All this talk about sphinctеrs is putting me in the zone”, interjected a manic X-Pac, impersonating Ken Shamrock in the highlight of this D-X skit. “It’s five-knuckle shuffle time!”
It’s so jarring to hear that term, made famous by John Cena and his fist drop, used with its original meaning. But yes, John Cena named his signature move after a masturbation euphemism…
…and unlike the Cobra Clutch, the Anaconda Vise, or the Package Piledriver, it was intentional.
In stepped the “Bossman”, played by Chyna, who twirled her baton until she lost it. It was some D+ comedy—still well above average for this segment.
All along the way, Michael Cole punctuated each joke with the kind of laughter you could only muster at gunpoint. When he wasn’t saying, “Oh my” or “Oh man”, he was marveling at the stupidest details and assuring the viewers at home that the live audience was having a good time.
Next came Triple H, reprising his role as “The Crock”, makeup and all. If you were to list the top ten most racist things Triple H ever did, this segment would certainly be a contender for honorable mention.
(That list, in chronological order:
- the banana thing
- vandalizing the Nation’s locker room
- the Pakistani accent
- the Nation Impersonation
- the monkey gestures
- Dr. Hung Lo
- the Booker T feud
- the Iron Cross
- this shirt
- the Bad Blood 2024 press conference)
Unlike in the Nation Impersonation, The Crock’s first order of business tonight was to talk some more about sphinctеrs. After all, he was the biggest sphinctеr in the WWF, and he liked kissing Vince McMahon’s sphinctеr.
Of course, he meant “biggest asshоle in the WWF”. In fact, all of these references to sphinctеrs would have sounded 99% less contrived if they’d just said asshоle like a normal person.
But you obviously couldn’t say the word asshоle repeatedly in a segment (unlike, say, jack-off). And while you might get away once with using asshоle as an insult, you couldn’t call a literal asshоle, an asshоle. Hence, sphinctеr, which would pop up an astounding dozen times in one segment, beating the previous record by 12.
Anyway, The Crock rambled on and on about sticking his Corporate head up his own Corporate ass, with Jerry Lawler interjecting, “No!”. Apparently, a confused King thought this really was The Rock, and that he really was going to do it.
Just then, Shawn Michaels interrupted—or so we thought. It was actually Jason Sensation, the impressionist whose role as Owen Hart was the only saving grace of D-X’s Nation Impersonation. Surely, he could save this segment!
Except… why the basketball? HBK never played hoops. did he? Unless this was the set-up to some cheap gag about Shawn “dropping the ball”.
Jason called himself, “HB-Gay” and, wagging his butt, said that he didn’t lay down for anyone because he was always bent over.
Then he dropped the ball, again, which Triple H pointed out, again.
Along the way, he called himself the iCondom…
…and bragged again about kissing ass (or sphinctеr, correcting himself this time around).
This was X-Pac’s cue to get turned on and repeat his only lines. I’m not sure why Ken Shamrock was played as a sex pervert here. Sure, he was supposed to hook up with his on-screen sister, named after his real-life son, but that storyline was scrapped.
X-Pac’s wig certainly wasn’t going to win the best Costume Design Emmy. In fact, few of the characters’ wigs bore even a passing resemblance to the genuine article. Triple H’s was half Sharpie.
Mercifully, D-Generation X ended the sketch by telling the Corporation to suck it, the real Corporation crashed the party, and nothing was ever spoken of this dud again.
The Rock, however, would hit back with a spot-on impression of his own just over a year later.