Really, RD, really? Mark Henry—SEX ADDICT?!
Well, as the mastermind behind this, when developing this character I NEVER saw Mark Henry as a “Sex Addict”—NEVER. Maybe we need to question what’s on RD’s mind!
The Mark Henry character actually came from a few references. For starters I had this friend growing up named Jeff Iorio. Jeff was of both Italian and Puerto Rican descent. He was like a brother to me. And, Jeff, if I may be blunt, had a rather large… um… unit. And because he was blessed with such a tool, he liked referring to himself as “Sexual Chocolate”. So, that explains the name.
Now, I don’t really know if Mark Henry was a sex addict. I didn’t look at him at all that way. If you remember, Mark became somewhat of a “Love Doctor” because of his infatuation with Chyna. Mark was never portrayed as a pervert, or degenerate, or even sex starved, he simply had a crush on Chyna—that’s where the story started.
When writing for “Sexual Chocolate”, I always looked at him as Chef from South Park, so that was DEFINITELY an inspiration for the character. However, never was there anything “creepy” about Mark Henry—it was all done in the name of comedy—perhaps my good friend RD missed that.
Yes, it was COMEDY when Mark realized that he was indeed coming on to a male transvestite, when in fact he thought she was a hottie tottie of the opposite sex. It was also COMEDY when Terri Runnels and Miss Jackie STUFFED a ball gag straight down his gullet—he NEVER asked for that.
Yes, “Sexual Chocolate” was attracted to WOMEN; but, a SEX ADDICT—that was never even on my radar. At the end of the day I just felt that putting Mark in this light would bring some entertainment to the show and it did.
Personally, I felt the on-camera friendship between Mark Henry and D-Lo Brown many have been one of the most under-rated relationships of all time. Mark and D-Lo had some great chemistry together, and regardless of whatever scene they were ever put in together they delivered. D-Lo was the straight man, Bud Abbott, and of course Mark was the buffoon, Lou Costello.
But why I really object to concerning the term “Sex Addict” is that I truly believed that Mark Henry’s appeal was that was he THOUGHT he was Don Juan DeMarco, when he was indeed a bit shy and awkward. To me—that was the comedy.
So ask yourself, outside of that character work, what did Mark Henry do throughout his illustrious career that was better than this?
I’m waiting.