Tonya Harding (L) and Nancy Kerrigan
Tonya Harding (L) and Nancy Kerrigan

By MIKEL TOOMBS

The URL of the Washington Post story says it all:

Because Brooklyn, indeed.

Comedians Viviana Olen and Matt Harkins have launched a Kickstarter campaign (raising more than $2,000) to fund the Tonya Harding & Nancy Kerrigan 1994 Museum (#THNK1994 is the hashtag) in their borough apartment. (If they reach their goal, guided tours will be available.)

And, no, I’m not making this up, just as I’m also not making up the bizarre tale of Olympic figure skater Tonya Harding’s (yes) 1994 dicey off-the-ice attempt to take out rival American Nancy Kerrigan.

It was an event that seems beyond parody, although Julie “Earth Girls Are Easy” Brown (not “Downtown” Julie Brown, because Brooklyn?) did so nicely in her mockumentary “Queen of the Ice” (the pizza-slicing scene is classic).

In their defense creators Olen and Harkins say that “(p)art of the museum team’s research has been the realization that everyone is either a Tonya or a Nancy (if you’re thinking about it, you’re a Tonya). This of course is made more confusing by the fact that if you immediately thought you were a Nancy, you are most definitely a Tonya. The only real way to be a Nancy is to have very long lines in your body. If you thought you were an Oksana Baiul, well, aren’t you just perfect, WE SEE RIGHT THROUGH YOU).”

(EDITOR’S NOTE: Mikel Toombs is a frequent contributor to GeneStout.com. Read his recent post on Crystal Bowersox here.)

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