Yesterday I saw the most shocking footage to ever come from The X Factor franchise. It saw X Factor New Zealand judge Natalia Kills - a relatively unknown British singer with a dodgy put-on accent - berating and attacking a contestant on a live episode of the series in front of a studio audience, before being joined in the attack by her husband and fellow judge Willy Moon.
"From the hair to the suit, do you not have any value or respect for originality?" asked Kills, following contestant Joe Irvine's performance.
She continued: "You're a laughing stock - it's cheesy, it's disgusting, I personally found it absolutely artistically atrocious. I am embarrassed to be sitting here in your presence, even having to dignify you with an answer of my opinion."
Her husband Willy Moon added: "To me it just seems a little bit cheap and absurd. It's like Norman Bates dressing up in his mother's clothing. It's just a little bit creepy.
"I feel like you're going to stitch someone's skin to your face and then kill everybody in the audience."
Natalia then threw another opinion in to complete her attack, saying: "I'm going to say it. It's disgusting. You make me sick. It's absolutely disgusting. You have no identity. I can't stand it. I'm ashamed to be here."
Following the event, Natalia went on to promote her music on Twitter and poke fun at what had happened along with her husband - both of whom have now been fired by the show's bosses.
Personally I feel the "disgusting" behaviour on the night this happened came from the two judges sitting on the panel who berated and became so malicious with a contestant who simply wants to live out his dreams of becoming a successful singer. Yes, he was wearing a suit and had a similar hairstyle to that of Willy Moon - but so did hundreds upon thousands of straight white men who came before him. Elvis Presley, for example. Michael Buble for another. It's not hard to pick out somebody that Willy himself could be accused of 'stealing an identity' from.
Furthermore, the fact that the act of bullying was used to promote Natalia's failing music reeks of publicity stunt. Did she spark controversy simply because she wanted to plug her material? Or is she just capitalising on bad publicity? Either way - her attitude stinks. Not one sign of an apology has come from either party and for that they deserve to lose their jobs.
Why anyone would want to try and emulate Willy Moon or his career is also beyond me. His highest peaking single in New Zealand came in at number 28 back in 2012. His album fared a bit better in 2013, coming in at number 3, but he's hardly the next big thing. All releases since then have failed to chart. How sad.
This all comes after civilian Tracey Neal-Gailer claimed that on Tuesday morning last week at the Baker's Cottage, in the Auckland suburb of Kingsland, New Zealand, a vicious verbal assault was sent flying in her direction from Moon.
She explained: "He was a passenger in a car being driven by a woman and he became very upset when I pulled into a space before him, even though I had the right of way.
"He got out the car and was waving his finger at me and saying, 'No, no, no.' He then snarled, 'That was so rude', as we both went into the bakery."
Stunned staff and customers in the bakery then saw Moon call the woman a "c***", to which she responds: "This is a man who is supposed to mentor young people on national television and what he said was disgraceful.
"I couldn't believe it when he twice hissed at me, 'You are such a c***."
Moon took to Twitter after the claims to abuse the New Zealand Herald and Ms Neal-Gailer.
Natalia added fuel to the fire, sending out her own tweets to the Herald.
This all begs the question, just why were two repugnant people such as this pair allowed such a platform? X Factor bosses should in the future take more care when hiring... though this could not have been predicted. They've done a fantastic job of mopping up the mess made by Kills and Moon so quickly, firing them "effective immediately" and finding two replacements for next week's live shows.
Perhaps Kills and Moon will get some sales out of this whole tirade. It is however more likely that the two will continue on their parapet of failure, become continuously bitter as their lives progress and careers falter, and eventually fade into insignificance. In fact, it's already happening...
The X Factor New Zealand continues next week with Melanie Blatt, Stan Walker and two new judges.
Tagged in The X Factor