Alberta’s Robert Wilkinson entered the FilmDrunk Drunk Hall of Fame earlier this year when, perhaps as an homage to Wayne’s World, he sang Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” in its entirety (including guitar and drum fills) from his seat in the back of a cop car after a DUI. He finished his tune with the improvised lyric change, “Nothing really matters, even the RCMP.” It was… beautiful. (*sniff*) Well, that guy, nay, hero, recently appeared in court, where he represented himself, and showed up wearing a Viking helmet and NASA t-shirt. (pictured, below). Sure, why not.
The Alberta man who became a YouTube sensation for enthusiastically belting out “Bohemian Rhapsody” from the back seat of an RCMP cruiser has been convicted of impaired driving and refusing a breathalyser test.
Robert Wilkinson will have to pay a $1,400 fine and will be prohibited from driving for one year.
He had been arrested while driving home from a bar in Edson, Alta.
Wilkinson earlier said in an interview that he didn’t want to send a bad message to young people about drinking and driving.
He wrote an apology to the band on his Facebook page, then posted an encore performance of “Handle With Care” by the Traveling Wilburys while wearing a T-shirt reading: “I don’t get drunk. I get awesome.”
Wilkinson said his brief bout with fame didn’t change his life much.
The unemployed karaoke singer said he received $1,000 from the American cable network TrueTV so it could air the video on its show World’s Dumbest Criminals.
Good thing they added “unemployed” there, I wouldn’t want to get him confused with an employed karaoke singer. Meanwhile, this YouTube video has more than eight million views, so I hope Bobby Dubz was smart enough post the video himself and collect the ad revenue. Ad revenue on an eight million-view YouTube video is nothing to sneeze at. $1,000, meanwhile… For comparison, I got paid more than three times that when they used my apartment in New York to shoot a TV show. My apartment wasn’t that special.
Wilkinson had no defence lawyer and represented himself at trial but failed to convince the court the arrest was a violation of his Charter rights.
He arrived at the court building wearing sunglasses, a Viking helmet complete with horns and a NASA T-shirt proclaiming: “I need my space.” [Macleans]
Well I see the problem here, he just chose the wrong defense. He should’ve said, “Your Honor, do you see my outfit? This is clearly Space Court’s jurisdiction, your Earth laws aren’t binding here. We move that the case by transferred to the proper authority, so that it can be tried under the rules set forth by Kevin Spacey, President of Space. Now if it please the court, I’d like to close my argument with an acapella rendition of ‘Rocket Man.’”
