Late star Richard Dawson slammed on Twitter for kissing women on 'Family Feud' 40 years ago
With the coronavirus pandemic slowing life down across the globe, social media users seem to have a lot of time on their hands to kill and digging up questionable behavior by a game show host who died eight years ago seemed like an appropriate pass time.
Twitter has played a powerful role in today's cancel culture that has ruined the careers and lives of many celebrities. But the level of boredom affecting the people became apparent when actor Richard Dawson began trending late Thursday, April 16.
It all started when an edited clip of Dawson kissing female contestants on 'Family Feud' started circulating on Twitter. Dawson famously hosted the show from 1976 to 1985 and then again for one season in 1994, before Steve Harvey took over the reins, and as one of his signature moves, used to kiss women of all ages and races on their mouths as he went down the line during the introductory portion of the show.
While he was never slandered for his intimate greeting habit, his name was dragged through the mud recently when netizens agreed that his behavior would have been tolerated in today's era of 'Me Too' and 'Times Up' movements.
"Finally, people are finding out that Richard Dawson was super creepy on Family Feud!" one user tweeted, while another one remarked, "Yes, contestants would let Richard Dawson kiss them in the mouth all of the time, sooooooo nasty"
There were those who were confused by the fact that that the actor was being slammed years after his death. "Woke up and Richard Dawson is trending? Because he kissed women on the mouth? The overly sensitive crowd needs to sit down. It was 40 years ago and he’s dead," one wrote, while another quipped, “Richard Dawson has been dead 8 Years now and y’all are JUST NOW calling him out for him creepily kissing women back in the 1970s on Family Feud. What are y’all gonna do resurrect him from the dead just to ‘cancel’ him?"
Others chose to defend Dawson's intention behind kissing the women on his show. "Richard Dawson could get any woman he wanted in the 70’s. He wasn’t getting his jollies by giving quick little pecks to women on Family Feud. They were platonic kisses and many of the women were much older women," a user wrote.
One user pointed out that it was pointless calling Dawson's behavior into question because when he hosted the show, the norms of society were quite different. "Forty years later, people are criticizing Richard Dawson for kissing women on 'Family Feud'? Folks, there was a great span of years when hockey goalies didn't wear masks and very few players wore helmets. That was then. This is now," the user said.
Another user called out the people on social media for being hypocrites as viewers had no problem watching reality dating shows which displays a far greater level of physical intimacy. "#RichardDawson Some folk are upset because Richard Dawson kissed his guests in the mouth, but y’all will sit down on Monday’s and watch 'The Bachelor' tongue kiss different women!" the user said.
In 2010 Dawson told The Archive of American Television that the tradition of giving his female contestants kisses started with lip-locking with a woman on his show to give her good luck when she was struggling to name a green vegetable during the ongoing competition.
“I said, ‘I’m gonna do something that my mom would do to me whenever I had a problem of any kind,” Dawson said, per WCVB. “And I kissed her on the cheek, and I said, ‘That’s for luck.’ And she said, ‘Asparagus.’ They went on to win.”