During his time in the NBA, Shaquille O’Neal went by many nicknames. There is of course, ‘Shaq’, which is the classic, along with the many variants of it under different contexts, such as the Big Shaqtus, or even Shaq-Diesel. But none of these are his favorite nickname. No, his favorite is undeniably ‘Superman’.
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The iconic DC superhero has always been known as being comically (no pun intended) overpowered. And in a lot of ways, O’Neal appeared to resonate with that. It was even so much so that the man has a tattoo of the character’s emblem on his shoulder. And of course, there is a whole beef between him and Dwight Howard due to it too.
But why do we bring it up today? Well, Shaq can be highly sensitive when it comes to anything Superman. And yet, the man recently decided to share a joke about this superhero that was beyond racy. Then again Shaquille O’Neal may have had a bias on this one. Either way, let’s dive right into it, shall we?
What was the Superman joke about?
At this point, everyone is aware of Superman’s origin story, right? Little baby from Krypton had to be sent away from his planet of origin due to it going boom-boom. A sad story, to say the least. But apparently, one that can also be greatly spun to make it seem like a far more relatable thing to happen.
Confused as to what we mean? Well, just take a look at the Instagram post below to find out what we mean.
View this post on Instagram
“Black Superman makes sense.”
To put it simply, calling this joke ‘dark’, works on so many different levels, it’s almost a bit sickening. That being said though, let’s move on to the real reason we’re here in the first place. What in the world did Shaquille O’Neal have to say about it?
Shaquille O’Neal clearly agrees
Why wouldn’t Shaquille O’Neal agree with this joke? Last time we checked, the man’s race was still the same. So, for someone to say that it would make more sense if Superman was black, it only feels like Shaquille O’Neal should have really been cast in his role all these years.
Oof @SHAQ LOVES a ‘dark’ Superman joke 😬😬 pic.twitter.com/oh6x4GaAOo
— Tonoy Sengupta (@TonoySengupta) April 15, 2023
Alas, we can’t travel back to the past. And so, missed opportunities will always remain missed opportunities. Darn it, Warner Brothers.