New Zealand Instantly Fires X Factor Judges For Bullying Contestant

“You shall not pass.” Classic Lord of the Rings burn. Now, apparently, New Zealand’s employment strategy towards bullies.

The story: there is a version of the X Factor in New Zealand – because, well, why wouldn’t there be? – and it features four judges, two of whom are married.

Natalia Kills and Willy Moon are their names, and being generally unpleasant and delusional is their game.

Following a performance by contestant Joe Irvine, Natalia expressed her “disgust” over his flagrant copying of her husband’s inimitable style of wearing a suit.

Her speech continued thusly:

“As an artist who respects creative integrity and intellectual property, I am disgusted at how much you have copied my husband, from the hair, to the suit. Do you not have any value or respect for originality? You’re a laughing stock.”

It only got more brutal from there.

Then Willy piped up:

“It’s like Norman Bates dressing up in his mother clothing… It’s just a little bit creepy and I feel like you’re just going to stitch someone’s skin to your face and then kill everybody in the audience.”

No, none of that had to do with his singing, which was probably fine.

The audience was not on board, as you’ll hear in the embedded clip above.

Within 24 hours, the chief executive of New Zealand media company MediaWorks issued a statement, revealing that Kills and Moon had been given the boot. (He may have been nudged to take action by a 70,000-strong online petition.)

“We no longer have confidence that Kills and Moon are the right people to perform the role of the X Factor judges, and they will leave the show, effective immediately,” the statement read

Here’s the interesting thing: audience-baiting and contestant-bullying are (awful) staples of live performance programs, yet in Australia, the UK and the States, they’re allowed without consequence precisely because they enrage – and entice - viewers.

The New Zealand public and the show’s producers had no interest in plumbing Kills and Moon’s newly scandalous reputation for ratings. We’ve seen a million times before how this exact narrative plays out with Simon Cowell or Kyle Sandilands, and it never ends with their sacking.

Though the public’s social media-shaming of Kills and Moon is hardly an appropriate anti-bullying response, New Zealand can at least be proud of exhibiting a zero-tolerance policy towards intimidation and cruelty, especially on such a public stage.

Go forth New Zealand, and wear your suits. No one will stop you now.