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Dwarf Tossing

January 17, 2012 by · Comments Off on Dwarf Tossing 

Dwarf Tossing, Peter Dinklage ended his Golden Globe acceptance speech with “I want to mention a gentleman I’m thinking about in England. His name is Martin Henderson. Google Him.” Which millions of people did.

Dinklage, who won Best Supporting Actor in a TV Series for Game of Thrones, made Henderson an overnight celebrity of sorts after name-dropping him at the award ceremony on Sunday night (15.01.12). When Henderson found out he was shocked that such a person would know of him and the trauma he has recently suffered.

After Dinklage mentioned the name, Martin Hendersen was a trending topic on Twitter and millions of people googled his story within 24 hours.

Martin Henderson, like Peter Dinklage is a dwarf, and stands at the same height of 4’2″. Henderson was in the news at the end of last year because he was victim to an attack, which is thought to have been inspired by bizarre activity dwarf tossing.

Henderson was celebrating his 37th birthday at his local pub and popped outside for a cigarette. Whilst out there a male, suspected to be around 5’8″ grabbed Henderson from behind, lifting him 3 feet in the air and then dropping him on the floor. Henderson went to hospital later that evening suffering from numbness in his legs and back.

I want to mention a gentleman I’m thinking about in England. His name is Martin Henderson. Google him.Peter Dinklage name-checked at the end of his Golden Globes
Henderson has Achondroplasia dwarfism and spinal stenosis, and in 2010 had undergone surgery on his spine to relieve him from pain he had been suffering from fo a while and had prevented him from working. He had just about recovered from the surgery and was getting back to normal life when this assualt occurred, putting him right back in the same position he had been in before, needing a frame to walk with, and a wheelchair for long distances.

Henderson had been an aspiring actor before his previous medical problems and he had hoped to return to the profession once he had recovered from his surgery, but now is unsure if he will be able to work in the industry again. He had appeared in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.

Although this assualt is a terrible thing to have happened, and the health problems that Henderson has suffered from as a result are inexcusible, you can’t help but think of shows the Golden Globes host, Ricky Gervais, has co-written in the past and think this sounds like a story line from one of them. His most recent hit was co-written with Warwick Davis, a dwarf who has Spondyloepiphyseal Dysplasia Cogenita, and has become a popular actor in recent years in roles such as Willow, the lead character of the self-named show, multiple Harry Potter characters, and Extras, written also by Ricky Gervais.

Extras prides itself on the awkward humour that everybody can associate with, not necassarily for doing the things Gervais does on the show, but for being able to see how it spirals out of control, and an easily explainable situation becomes so far expanded to make it less awkward that it becomes even more so. Davis starred as himself in the show and in a memorable scene gets kicked in the face by Gervais. The act was a complete mistake, which the viewer knows, but everybody else present thinks it was a malicious attack.

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