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Comment by sschueller | Hacker News Reader

I still find it hilarious that every time I see Billy Mitchell I think of Peter Dinklage's hilarious character in Pixels although the movie itself wasn't that great.

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I always think of Mitchell himself in 2007's "King of Kong" in which Mitchell was viewed as the villain (perhaps unfairly at the time) but he didn't do himself any favors in making himself seem like a sympathetic character.

I remember seeing that a long time ago. Is he the one who came across as a pretty bad husband and father?

> Is he the one who came across as a pretty bad husband and father?

I don't think so. The film had footage of Steve Wiebe telling his kid he couldn't help with the potty because he was busy gaming.

Ohh that rings a bell.

He was painted as the villain, but the filmmaker has been accused of editing the story to make him look worse than he was. He was definitely a hateable character, but a lot of the details and timeline were messed with.

Although, as the Spin-Off Doctors say in their recap of Chasing Ghosts[1],

> "And again, [Mitchell is] not in it much, but when he's in it, he provides enough evidence that the stuff in King Of Kong was not all that fabricated when it comes to his attitude." (35:48.960 --> 35:59.600)

[1] https://soundcloud.com/jimquisition/the-spin-off-doctors-cha...

I am sure there is an aspect of that but what made him look like such a jackass in the movie was his own words.

Not to mention that he cheated and was the villain in reality.

Yeah he was not a great guy for sure but the reality would not have made for much of a movie.

Even during the King of Kong days there was some suspicion around Billy Mitchell’s records(He had the uncanny ability to one up any one who broke his records almost immediately). There just wasn’t proof.

The suspicion was perhaps heightened by the fact most people thought he was a jerk and wanted to see him taken down, except for his groupies who worshiped him.

At this point, it is fairly conclusive that he has cheated in several instances.

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