In October 2017, comedian Ralphie May passed away from a cardiac arrest due to pneumonia. May first became well-known when he was a contestant on "Last Comic Standing," which led to an extensive touring schedule that put him on the road almost every day of the year. However, even if you followed May for years, there might be a lot you didn't know about the comedian. From the time he got a chance to open for his biggest idol and completely bombed to the controversies he landed in over the years, let's take a look at some things that even Ralphie May's biggest fans probably never knew.
Category
🛠️
LifestyleTranscript
00:00In October of 2017, the comedy world mourned when the news poured in that Ralphie May had
00:05died from cardiac arrest after a long battle with pneumonia.
00:08His passing was felt far and wide, and the outpouring of condolences was immediate.
00:13So what should you know about the man Marc Maron called a comic warrior?
00:20Bad advice
00:21You know how horribly things can go on the first day of a new job?
00:25No matter how bad it may have been for you in the past, Ralphie May's first real gig
00:29was worse.
00:30When May was 17, he won a contest that had a terrifying prize, opening for Sam Kinison.
00:36Before going on stage, Kinison gave May some advice.
00:39If things go wrong, swear and yell.
00:41You start yelling and screaming at the audience, the more you yell and scream at them and cuss
00:45at them, the more they'll love you.
00:46I'm like, really?
00:47They go, yeah."
00:48During the show, May flubbed a punchline and completely failed to get his rhythm back.
00:53Oh boy, it's quiet in here.
00:58He tried following Sam's advice, not realizing that Kinison had been messing with him.
01:03According to May, he then got booed by 3,200 people, cried, and ran off the stage, where
01:08Kinison told him he'd never work in stand-up comedy again.
01:14It all started with a car accident.
01:16When May performed on Last Comic Standing, he was a relatively svelte 450 pounds.
01:22But his weight fluctuated throughout his life, at one point ballooning up to 800 pounds.
01:27He'd always known where his problems started, with a car accident when he was only 16 years
01:32old.
01:33May broke 42 bones in the accident, and his fight with obesity since then was constant.
01:38He had gastric bypass surgery, had his stomach stapled, and even spent two months on VH1's
01:43Celebrity Fit Club.
01:45His goal weight was always 200 pounds, but he'd only make it down to around 350.
01:50Sadly, he felt that his size was a detriment to his career, saying he thought that there
01:54was a bias against overweight people in the entertainment industry.
01:59Kicked out of high school
02:00May attended Clarksville High School in Clarksville, Arkansas, but said he was kicked out in 1990.
02:06He was unsurprisingly known for pranks, but it turned out that stealing the principal's
02:11car took things a step too far.
02:13The school couldn't prove it was him, but when word got out that they were going to
02:17expel a whole group of students over the incident, May stepped up and took all the blame.
02:22He said that the other kids in question were the valedictorian and the salutatorian, so
02:26he didn't want their academic futures to be put in jeopardy when all he wanted was to
02:31be a comedian.
02:32Colorado controversy
02:33In 2015, TMZ reported that May had been acting so incoherently at a show that the police
02:40had to be called to escort him away.
02:42They claimed he was high, but May told a different story.
02:45While audience members were claiming he couldn't even form a sentence, May blamed the troubles
02:50on faulty monitors.
02:51He talked to a Nebraska radio station and said it was a technical malfunction that made
02:56him look like he couldn't speak.
02:57He also questioned how he was treated by the Grand Junction Police Department as he was
03:02escorted away, as seen in a video captured by TMZ.
03:06He said they claimed they'd gotten reports of some kind of powder being seen, so they
03:10searched May, his bus, and his car.
03:12Nothing was found, and KJCT 8 reported he questioned the legality of the search, claiming
03:18police didn't have probable cause.
03:20He was against political correctness
03:22No one would ever accuse May of being too PC.
03:26In fact, the comedian felt that political correctness was just plain wrong, telling
03:29IFC in 2012,
03:31"...you're setting yourself up for something very damaging and potentially very dangerous."
03:36May stated that it was once politically correct to own slaves, and later, it was still politically
03:41correct to have segregated schools.
03:44That's why he said he chose to include some of the worst racial slurs in his comedy.
03:49By making people laugh at these words, he said he wanted to take away their power to
03:52hurt.
03:53He explained,
03:54"...I want to give people the tools not to be hurt, and I wanted to take the sting away
03:59from the words."
04:00Not everybody was on board with that.
04:02Jokes about race are pretty much guaranteed to bring a gasp of some sort from the audience.
04:07In April 2017, May talked to Show Tickets about his No Apologies show in Las Vegas,
04:13and explained just why he felt comfortable employing racially insensitive humor.
04:17May said,
04:18"...people are only offended when it's about their group.
04:21If you get offended, then take your s---- lump like everyone else and wait for the next joke."
04:27He also said that there was nothing personal and no hate behind the jokes, noting that
04:30intent makes a big difference, saying,
04:32"...I give everybody drama, but everyone also knows it's Ralphie.
04:36He loves you."
04:37Not everyone saw eye-to-eye with him on that, though.
04:40In 2016, the Argus Leader reported on the outrage that came after some of the comedian's
04:45jokes were, according to May, taken out of context and broadcast on the radio.
04:49He made a joke about the Native American community that hit on both alcoholism and unemployment.
04:55The rage was instantaneous.
04:57The Cheyenne River Youth Project accused him of racism and bullying.
05:01Ralphie apologized, sort of, tweeting,
05:03"...if you're truly offended by a joke that was edited and taken out of context, I am
05:08truly sorry."
05:09He had a history of bullying
05:11May told IFC that while there were certain things people didn't want him to talk about,
05:15there was only one subject he felt was truly off-limits bullying and violence against women,
05:20children, and animals.
05:22Part of the reason he never found it funny is that he said he used to be a bully himself,
05:26and that only changed after his devastating car accident.
05:29While he was recovering, a boy from his church would travel 60 miles three days a week just
05:34to visit him in hospital and help him keep up with his schoolwork.
05:38When May got out and went back to school the next year, he saw the same kid, depressed
05:42and the target of relentless bullying, all because he was gay.
05:45May said that he wound up in some physical altercations with old friends over the way
05:49that they treated the boy, and claimed that that was when he became a man.
05:54Blindsiding his ex-wife with a split
05:56Ralphie May and his wife Lana Turner filed for divorce in 2015.
06:00While the rumor mill ran wild, the cause of their split remains unknown.
06:05Turner wrote a guest post on Laugh Spin in 2017 suggesting the problems really started
06:09in 2011, after May was hospitalized.
06:12She said that Ralphie was diagnosed with pulmonary embolisms, and that the doctors saved his
06:17life by seconds.
06:19According to Turner, May was never quite the same after that.
06:22She didn't go into specifics, but when she talked to Splitsider, she did say that when
06:27she was served with divorce papers after 17 years together, she didn't see it coming.
06:32Serious lifestyle changes
06:34In 2011, May faced some major health scares.
06:37It started in October when he boarded a cruise ship while suffering from the early stages
06:41of pneumonia.
06:42He was rushed to the hospital after just three days and spent nine days recovering from pneumonia
06:47and blood clots in his lungs.
06:49When he spoke with the Tampa Bay Times that December, he said that no one would have been
06:53surprised if he'd died, claiming that,
06:55"...people would probably just put it to me being obese, and just write it off like that."
07:01It wasn't just a weight problem, though.
07:03He'd slept in his own bed only 17 days in the previous seven months.
07:07His travel schedule was insane.
07:09By 2012, he was facing an extensive list of health issues thyroid problems, hormone problems,
07:14a dislocated shoulder, difficulty absorbing vitamins, and his weight.
07:19He planned to quit marijuana and drinking, figuring he'd release a few more albums and
07:23one more special before he quit comedy for good.
07:26But even though he never got to retire on his own terms, Ralphie May's legacy as Larger
07:31Than Life, in more ways than one, will still live on in the hearts of his fans.
07:35"'Hey, my name is Ralphie May!
07:36Y'all been great!
07:37Thank you so much!"