The annual Bassmaster Classic Night of Champions is of course serious business – a chance to celebrate the season gone by and to anticipate the imminent change in one angler’s life. It’s also typically a “dress to impress” event, with the anglers’ long-suffering wives and girlfriends, and occasionally their mothers and grandmothers, rightfully claiming their place in the spotlight.
Tonight in Tulsa, however, five-time Classic qualifier Luke Palmer of Coalgate, Oklahoma, took the term wardrobe malfunction to new levels. Actually, that’s not giving Palmer – or his partner in crime, his best-friend-slash-cameraman-slash-yin-to-his-yang Aaron Skrzypczak – quite enough credit. Indeed, it was very much an intentional effort. With Palmer in a baby blue and only slightly ill-fitting suit, and Skrzypczak in an equally demure traffic cone orange model, they lit up the room with the light of a thousand moons in their technicolor ensemble.
“I don’t get too wound up anymore,” Palmer said as onlookers tried to figure out the origin of their look. Remember, more than a few members of this week’s field were not born yet when the 1994 movie “Dumb and Dumber” which inspired the look was released. “We’re like brothers, and we know that you can’t be serious all the time.”
Asked who which of the two is dumber, Palmer claimed the throne: “I’ve got a couple of years on him.”
But to the extent there are hijinks, misdeeds and mistakes among them, it’s a 50/50 deal. Palmer recalled running across Santee Cooper during an Elite event last year, outside the boat lanes, a journey that could’ve ended in disaster, but instead led to a six-figure check. They took just over 1 percent of that, a grand total of $52 apiece, and sent it to Amazon for the suits. They’d expected them to be “trash,” but found them to be appropriately suited to the task.
“We’re only here a short time,” Palmer said. “If we can make a couple of people laugh, that’ll be great.”
Of course, Palmer – hardly a dark horse just three hours north of home – will be the one laughing if he’s hoisting the trophy on Sunday afternoon. Once launch starts, the pair will immediately shift from comic roles to dead serious. Well, maybe not completely. They keep each other loose and productive on the water. But as long as there are still casts to be made, Palmer’s thinking there’s a chance.
“This might be our one and done,” he said of the pair’s eye-catching garb, implicitly pledging a more conventional look should there be a next time around. Nevertheless, as the Elite Series field seems to perpetually skew younger, there are legions of future Classic qualifiers who’ve yet to see the Jim Carrey/Jeff Daniels magnum opus. Accordingly, don’t expect this year’s outfits to make a repeat appearance, but a sequel is always an option. Their vibe isn’t quite business up front, party in the rear, but in the end all that really matters is what drops on the scale. Having fun is typically the residue of that success.
