00:00The closer we got to the games, the more and more there were questions around if I was going for
00:05gold. Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're looking at the most interesting details that
00:10untold Raygun, breaking badly, glanced over or outright omitted. The conspiracy theories were
00:15totally wild. Impact on the breakdancing community. As the documentary notes,
00:22skepticism was already circulating when it was announced that breaking would become an
00:26official competition at the 2024 Summer Olympics. What the f*** is going on? So it's not entirely
00:32surprising that social media gravitated toward the most poorly received performance. But I was
00:37furious. While you could argue that Rachel Raygun Gun at least brought global attention to the
00:43breakdancing community, many felt the negative press overshadowed those who actually became
00:47Olympic champions. B-girl Ami Yuasa from Japan and B-boy Philip Kim from Canada both won gold,
00:53but their achievements generated significantly fewer headlines.
00:56Has this sunk in that you're an Olympic gold medalist?
00:58I don't think it sinks in right away. I think it'll take me a while for it to like fully
01:03sink in.
01:04Breakdancing's presence at the Olympics seemed to legitimize it as a serious discipline.
01:08For some professional breakers though, Gun's performance made a mockery of their craft
01:12and did more harm than good to the community.
01:15250, 300 million people are talking about me. They have an opinion about me.
01:19Raygun wasn't the only breakdancer who bombed. Raygun became the easiest target for criticism,
01:25ranking last among the 16 B-girls who competed.
01:28To be clear on that, the top Australian B-girls were at that event.
01:33And on that day, the day of Oceania, she was the best B-girl on that day.
01:38However, fellow Australian Geoffrey J. Attack Dunn didn't receive the same levels of scrutiny,
01:43despite also finishing last in the B-boys competition.
01:46Obviously, my target is to get a gold medal, but just being that, that's always been the target.
01:52While Dunn didn't win any rounds, he managed to walk away with two points overall.
01:57That is slightly better than Gunn, who got zero points.
02:00Still, it's not as if there was a wide margin between their scores.
02:04Dunn's outfit was also fairly similar to Gunn's, but one went viral for coming in last,
02:09while the other was mostly overlooked.
02:10There was nothing that I could do that, you know, would please people.
02:16Maybe you could chalk this up to sexism,
02:18or perhaps Gunn's performance was seen as more fascinatingly bad.
02:22People just have a lot of opinions about what women do, what women should do.
02:28Either way, Gunn wasn't the only Ozzy who fell short.
02:31The petition was taken down.
02:33Breaking Badly briefly mentions that a petition was created
02:36to have Raygun investigated at the height of the online discourse.
02:39There is now a very real petition to try and get her to be investigated.
02:45However, the documentary doesn't get into specifics about the change.org petition.
02:49Entitled,
02:50Hold Raygun, Rachel Gunn, and Anna Mears Accountable for Unethical Conduct Olympic Selection.
02:55Mears, whose surname was misspelled on the petition,
02:58was Team Australia's chef de mission.
03:00Mears thus shared the animosity directed at Gunn,
03:03although much of this was based on conspiracy theories that were proven false.
03:07This misinformation is getting a lot of traction.
03:09Nevertheless, the petition demanded a public apology,
03:13for misleading the Australian public and attempting to gaslight the public
03:17and undermining the efforts of genuine athletes.
03:20Before the petition was taken down, it garnered over 55,000 signatures,
03:24showing how far the misinformation had spread.
03:27I saw the conspiracy theories.
03:29They're inaccurate.
03:30Everything was just made up.
03:32Raygun's other defenders.
03:34We see in the documentary that various people supported Gunn during her darkest hour,
03:38including music business giant Richard Branson.
03:41In my opinion, she did something extraordinary.
03:43She tried something completely original.
03:46Several other notable names came to Gunn's defense.
03:49Among them was the aforementioned Anna Mears,
03:51who called those criticizing Gunn, quote,
03:53"...trolls and keyboard warriors."
03:55Chief executive of the Australian Olympic Committee,
03:58Matt Carroll, dismissed the petition directed at Gunn,
04:00saying it, quote,
04:01"...has stirred up public hatred without any factual basis.
04:04It's appalling."
04:05Raygun had an opportunity,
04:06and she tried to do something different,
04:08so that was her choice.
04:10And I don't think that deserves to be mocked on U.S. television.
04:13Many of Gunn's fellow Aussie Olympians also spoke in her defense,
04:16including swimmer Zach Sabletti-Cook,
04:18canoeist Jess Fox,
04:20and cyclist Matthew Glatzer,
04:21who all won medals that year.
04:23Gunn eventually found that for all the haters out there,
04:26she wasn't alone,
04:27with some genuinely enjoying her routine.
04:30Her performance connected with people.
04:32Whether that's genuine excitement and entertainment or, you know, outrage,
04:37it generated discourse and got the entire world talking.
04:41Why Raygun left her university job?
04:43It comes up a few times that Gunn worked at a university,
04:46although the documentary doesn't delve deep into her academic background.
04:50At that time, I was at uni, I was doing an arts degree.
04:54Gunn finished her bachelor's degree at the Macquarie University Faculty of Arts,
04:58where she also received her Ph.D. in cultural studies.
05:02Her thesis actually centered on breakdancing,
05:04exploring its gender norms from a B-girl perspective
05:07in a largely B-boy-dominated field.
05:09I research and publish on breaking and broader street dance culture,
05:13and I advocate for the community in a range of ways.
05:17Gunn was employed at Macquarie from 2017 to 2026.
05:21As Gunn mentions in Breaking Badly, she left her university job.
05:25So, I recently made the decision to leave my job in academia.
05:30And yes, I'm excited for what's next.
05:33As for why, Gunn expressed concern about the state of higher education in the country,
05:37saying, quote,
05:39I'm very worried for my colleagues.
05:40I don't think that things are getting better for them.
05:43It also might be because new opportunities have come Gunn's way.
05:47Ray Gunn's new career.
05:48While Breaking Badly leaves Gunn on a positive note,
05:51it's unclear what exactly is next for her.
05:53I'm open to where this journey may take me.
05:57As it turns out, quite a lot.
05:59This finally feels like I can share my story.
06:02Not long after leaving her university job,
06:05she launched raygunofficial.com.
06:07It primarily spotlights Gunn's new career path as a public speaker,
06:11offering her services for panels, workshops, brand collaborations,
06:15charity fundraisers, and other events.
06:17The site also chronicles Gunn's academic achievements.
06:20As of writing, the site is just on the verge of introducing a shop.
06:24So, expect plenty of raygun swag in the foreseeable future.
06:27Gunn remains active on social media as well.
06:30You can even book her on Cameo for roughly $70.
06:33Her Instagram reads that she's, quote,
06:36embracing the chaos.
06:37Sounds like the chaos is proving lucrative, too.
06:39I'm just excited at maybe what other opportunities come.
06:43I want something fun, something creative.
06:45Cultural appropriation accusations.
06:47Some might argue that a white person breaking is cultural appropriation,
06:51seeing as how African Americans and Puerto Ricans created the dance style in the Bronx during the 70s.
06:56There was a rope, there was the equipment, there was the DJs, there was the MCs.
07:01So, they needed the b-boys.
07:04The b-boys, what you would call, would be the energy.
07:06Of course, this is a nuanced debate that doesn't just apply to raygun.
07:10She was more specifically targeted for one of her signature moves, the kangaroo.
07:14I was watching the Olympics, and I saw Raygun doing her kangaroo bit,
07:19and I looked out of the window, there were the six kangaroos hopping around outside my living room.
07:24Gunn says in the documentary that she wanted to celebrate Australia.
07:28While the kangaroo pose she turned into a meme reflects Australia's most famous marsupial,
07:32the move is traced to Australian Aboriginal culture.
07:35As such, there was backlash when news broke that Gunn was seeking to own the kangaroo dance.
07:41Those reports proved somewhat misleading,
07:43although the controversy contributed to a wider discussion,
07:46with some linking Gunn to phrases like columbusing.
07:49I know for sure I'm never going to stop dancing.
07:55Contrary to some reports, Gunn didn't exactly try to trademark the kangaroo dance as her property.
08:01Gunn clarified that she aimed to trademark her name
08:03along with the kangaroo silhouette pose of herself.
08:06Not being able to take a joke is not what the issue is here.
08:11Gunn explained that the market was flooded with unofficial raygun merch
08:14that she wasn't seeing any income from.
08:16Gunn also claimed that other parties were, quote,
08:19trying to trademark her name and image for commercial purposes.
08:22I think that she maybe saw this as a way of, like,
08:25oh, someone else is benefiting from me and my name.
08:28And of course you can want to protect that.
08:31She's seemingly taken control of her brand,
08:34as the mouse cursor on raygunofficial.com is her kangaroo silhouette pose.
08:39However, she's reportedly struggled to trademark the nickname Raygun.
08:43Although an application was filed,
08:45the trademark office issued an adverse report stalling the process.
08:49Even so, Gunn has been particular with how the Raygun name is used.
08:58Raygun has inspired memes, merch, and, believe it or not, a stage musical.
09:11Raygun the musical was the brainchild of Steph Broadbridge, an Australian stand-up.
09:15Seeing some of the other parodies directed at Raygun as, quote,
09:18mean, Broadbridge's musical came from a more sincere place,
09:22wanting to tell an inspiring Australian story.
09:24Despite this, Gunn's legal team took action against the musical,
09:28which cancelled its first preview at the 11th hour.
09:31This wasn't the final curtain, though.
09:33Broadbridge revised the show as breaking the musical,
09:36telling the story of Spraygun.
09:37Once you're out of, like, Australian legal jurisdiction,
09:41are you going Turbo Raygun, like, changing the name back to Raygun?
09:46International Waters.
09:47Yeah.
09:48I don't know, I'll have to check it out.
09:50Like, I think we'll just stick with Spraygun,
09:52because, to be honest, like, it gets an extra laugh.
09:53Yeah.
09:54This might have been a blessing in disguise.
09:56Broadbridge felt the legal dispute not only resulted in a more broadly appealing story,
10:01but it seemed to bring the musical more attention.
10:04If you're the only one having fun...
10:07You're doing the Spraygun.
10:10Retirement from competitive breakdancing.
10:12Gunn makes it clear in Breaking Badly that her dancing days aren't in the past.
10:16Still gonna dance, I'm still gonna go to community jams,
10:19I'm still probably gonna get down and dance.
10:22She's reiterated this across numerous interviews,
10:24as well as on her Instagram page.
10:26Yet there is one aspect of breakdancing Gunn has reportedly left behind.
10:31The competition.
10:32In November 2024, Gunn appeared on the Jimmy and Nath show.
10:36Gunn mentioned that although she initially had plans to continue competing,
10:40the Olympics changed that.
10:42I still break, but I don't compete.
10:44You won't compete again.
10:44I'm not gonna compete anymore.
10:45No, no.
10:46While Gunn didn't retire from dancing live on the air,
10:49she said she wouldn't compete anymore.
10:51We still wouldn't be all that surprised
10:53if Gunn became a Dancing with the Stars contestant down the line.
10:56Whether or not Gunn returns to competitive breaking someday,
10:59it's safe to assume that it won't be on the Olympic stage.
11:07Did you watch Ray Gunn breaking badly?
11:09Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
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