Ted Williams – Trading Places

Anyone who has seen US daytime TV over the last 3 weeks probably knows the story of Ted Williams, the homeless guy who was plucked from the streets by Dr Phil McGraw, given a bath and a makeover, sent through rehab and is soon to be deposited into a high profile, high paying announcers job.

Ted Williams - Before and After

AND... anyone who has seen John Landis' 1983 comedy smash, 'Trading Places' must be getting a feeling of deja vu.

Before the Dukes got involved

The uncanny similarity to the story of Billy Ray Valentine, a homeless con artist, plucked from the streets by a couple of high rolling commodity brokers in order to test a theory and satisfy a bet makes me wonder who Dr Phil will select for the Louis Winthorpe III character in this bizarre nature versus nurture experiment?

After the experiment was started

The current favorite is football commentator Joe Buck. A blend of goofy, good-looking and geeky who would not be out of place wearing a urine soaked Santa suit, drunkenly stuffing a salmon into his shirt while sporting a 2 day beard.

Joe Buck, the real life Winthorpe III

Hopefully, somebody will put a stop to this craziness before a New Year party on a train leads to an embarrassing encounter between a gorilla and a guy in a monkey suit.

Slap the Penguin would lose it's reputation if we published a story that mentions the movie Trading Places without posting a gratuitous Jamie Lee Curtis picture, so here it is guys.

This story just got much better

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