Oh No! Tigger Attacks!

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When I first saw the infamous “Tigger (allegedly) punches a teenage kid” video on the CBS Early Show, my first thought was, “Oh no. Here we are planning a trip to take our son to Disney World later this year, and Tigger is running around decking kids.” Yet since the home video was released, more questions have been raised—and lot of doubt has been cast, mostly on the accusers, the Monaco family of New Hampshire.

According to the father, Jerry Monaco Sr., the family was setting up for a picture with Tigger, while he videotaped. He alleges that ‘out of nowhere’, Tigger ‘sucker-punched’ his son. Monaco even admits that he initially thought his son did something to ‘instigate it’; he’s also heard on the tape, right before the punch, telling his son “No crowding Tigger, man!”

No complaints were made at the park at the time of the alleged incident. Jerry Monaco Sr. filed an incident report with the sheriff’s office after reviewing the video and determining that his son was ‘assaulted’ by Tigger. Later on, Jerry Jr. complained of waking up with neck pain, and was eventually brought to an area emergency room for treatment.

The news broke nationally when the clip was played on CBS’ The Early Show. Jerry Monaco Jr. was asked if he did anything to provoke the attack. He replied, “Nuh, nothing’, no provokin’ at all.” When asked about his neck pain, he replied that the pain was pretty much gone, ‘because I have medicine.” Interestingly, in CBS’ Public Eye online forum, editor Brian Montopoli took co-anchor Hannah Storm to task for not challenging the family’s accusation or providing a bit of skepticism; which is really what a good journalist should do.

What CBS did was to give this family a platform to garner public sympathy over this alleged assault, and also to put some public pressure on Disney. But it seems the internet community has little to no sympathy for this family. Bloggers and forum posters everywhere are of the opinion that this family is out to make a buck, and that Jerry Jr. did indeed instigate the ‘punch’, perhaps attempting to ‘unmask’ Tigger. We haven’t heard much from the employee who was portraying Tigger that day, Michael J. Fedelem. He has released a statement in which he alleges that Jerry Jr. was grabbing his costume from behind, which then caused him to feel like he was ‘choking.’ Fedelem has been suspended from his job since the alleged incident.

I’ve watched the video several times now, and to me, it honestly does seem like Tigger’s costume was yanked on, causing Tigger to lose his balance, with the unfortunate result of his heavily padded ‘paw’ making contact with Jerry Jr.’s head; oddly enough, Jerry Jr.’s glasses were not knocked off his head after the alleged punch. And, to play devil’s advocate a little further—how stupid could ‘Tigger’ be, knowing he’s being filmed, to assault a kid in broad daylight? I’m not saying things like this don’t happen—I’m sure they do. But in this case, I really have my doubts.

I hope this was not all a set-up, as some seem to believe. Another theory going around the internet community, is that the father & son were ‘tag-teaming’ Tigger, Jerry Sr. coaching Jerry Jr. what to say and do, while dad filmed away . If this is the case, it would be pretty awful to stage such an incident in ‘The Happiest Place on Earth.’

I know my son is going to want to see his favorite orange guy when we go to DisneyWorld later this year; and I do not plan on telling him “Sorry honey, you can’t go to see Tigger.” I can predict a complete meltdown from my son, if I tell him that!

So, we will see Tigger, as planned. But I can say with some certainty, that this alleged incident will likely suck the joy out of the moment when my son meets his striped hero, because it’ll be at the back of my mind the whole time. And that is just…..sad.