Ah, Jek Porkins; how we hardly knew thee.
To the scant few out there on the intersnatch that don’t know the story of Jek Porkins, I offer this brief history lesson:
From what I can recall from my Star Wars obsessed childhood, Jek Porkins was from the planet Bestine IV.
Where that is, or what significance that planet holds in the greater Star Wars universe, I have no fucking clue.
Pretty much everything you’ll be reading in this little bio section here came from a trading card and a handful of comics, so don’t be surprised if there’s a few holes here and there.
Pictured: Said trading card. I've got like a dozen of these...
Disclaimer aside, let’s continue with the epic saga of Jek Porkins, shall we?
A trader and a pilot before The Empire made him and his people refugees, Porkins joined up with the Rebel Alliance and became a pilot in their starfleet.
Due to his obese, vaguely Stay Puft Marshmallow Man-like physique, Porkins was awarded politically incorrect (and hilarious) nicknames such as “Belly Runner” and “Piggy” during his tenure in the Rebel starfleet.
"Sucks to your ass-mar!"
The highlight of Porkin’s career came tragically (and hilariously) at the end of his life during the Battle of Yavin, when while piloting X-Wing fighter Red Six along the surface of the Death Star, his ship malfunctioned, causing him to fall prey to the space station’s Turbolasers.
It was this moment, Porkin’s death; that immortalized the character of Jek Porkins in the minds and imaginations of sci-fi dorks throughout the world.
However morbid it may sound, there’s just something satisfying about watching a fat man die in a movie; particularly when he does so in such a pathetic manner.
Case in point...
To my recollection, Porkins accomplished exactly nothing at the Battle of Yavin.
Seriously, it’s a fuckin’ miracle that tank-ass Porkins even managed to get his S-Foils open without self-pwning.
Regardless of what the expanded fiction and lore of Star Wars may indicate these days, what I remember seeing of Porkins during the running time of A New Hope; consisted of him flying in formation, helping Biggs take out a tower, and then exploding in a fiery (and flabby) blaze of sad.
Hell, I’ve read that he took a Turbolaser up his ass, but based on what I remember of the movie; I always kind of thought his ship exploded on it’s own due to malfunction.
Now that I think of it, that actually kind of works out in some ways.
He was just so damn fat, and so damn sad, that his ship just up and FAILED itself into oblivion, thereby ensuring that if would never have to bear the humiliation of hauling his chunky ass across the galaxy ever again.
Anyway, consider this a tribute of sorts to the marvelous death of the fat sack of fail known to the world of dorkdom as Jek Porkins.
Salute to Porkins, salute to the equally humorously named actor, William Hootkins; that portrayed him (as well as many other memorable fat guys of the 80’s) in A New Hope.
More than anything though, salute to George Lucas, that evil greedy bastard; for having the balls to insert a blatant fat joke into an action-packed sequence of galactic warfare.
Filed under: Comics, Games, Movies, Uncategorized, A New Hope, Azn Badger, Battle of Yavin, Bestine IV, blog, card, Death Star, Dennis Nedry, George Lucas, Ghostbusters, Jek Porkins, Jurassic Park, Lord of the Flies, Magic, Marshmallow Man, Photoshop, Piggy, Rebel Alliance, Red Six, S-Foils, Star Wars, Stay Puft, The Empire, The Gathering, trading, Turbolaser, Wayne Knight, William Golding, William Hootkins, X-Wing
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