A gleeful announcement to the world about the birth of his first son turned into a strange “X-frenzy” when former-actor-turned-farmer, Brandon “Bug” Hall, engaged with some detractors on the social media platform. Newsweek magazine took an interest and wrote up the kerfuffle, giving Hall the rare distinction of professing Catholic dogma in the pages of that highly secular publication. Following that, The New York Post did their own story.
Hall graciously consented to an interview today, and his responses to my question are below.
Bug Hall achieved fame as a childhood actor when he played Alfalfa in the Steven Spielberg movie version of The Little Rascals in 1994. His career as a successful actor (an Emmy Nominee) in film and television continued until 2020, when he left Hollywood and undertook, with his family, the life of a farmer, embracing poverty and a much simpler lifestyle. Even before quitting the business altogether, Hall’s career trajectory had taken a different turn after his conversion to Catholicism in 2013.
In recent years, the former actor’s life has centered around his traditional Catholic commitment to faith and family. This, combined with his outgoing personality and acting talent, has made his engagement on social media both humorously and provocatively counter-cultural. He has become, in short, a traditional Catholic culture warrior.
This past Tuesday, without intending to, Hall ignited a firestorm on X when he announced to the world the birth of his first son:
I have an heir!
Mark Athanasius Chad Anthony Hall-Barnett of the Holy Cross was born at 4am, weighing in at 9.5 lbs. Mama and baby are both doing great. My bride’s fifth delivery, third all natural 💪⚜️
Athanasius Contra Mundum
Some of his followers — and trolls — know that the boy has four older sisters, and when an obvious instigator asked about his calling the boy an heir when he already had four girls, Hall responded in a rascally way: “I said heir, not dishwasher.” (Did I mention that Bug Hall is provocative?)
The original posting garnered 3.7 million views and over a thousand comments so far. Two days after the posting, Newsweek came out with its article: ‘Little Rascals’ Alfafa Actor Bug Hall Under Fire for Controversial Comments.
At publishing time here on Catholicism.org, I have just learned that The New York Post ran its own story on the incident: ‘Little Rascals’ star Bug Hall faces backlash for calling newborn son his ‘heir,’ daughters ‘dishwashers’
With that background, here is my short interview with Bug Hall:
BAM: For the edification of our readers, can you explain why, after having four daughters, you announced to the world your first male child — Mark Athanasius Chad Anthony Hall-Barnett — by saying “I have an heir!”?
BH: While I could probably drill down a book’s worth on my beliefs about family dynamics, headship, and heirs, I’ll condense my answer as to my meaning of “I have an heir” as much as possible.
The first sense of what I meant was the simple fact of my family name being passed on. That’s no insignificant thing. My belief in the significance of a name comes from the Holy Faith, as does my newfound love for my fathers before me.
The second sense is rooted in my duty, headship, and stewardship. A son means there will be someone to replace me in caring for the family that God has entrusted to me. As I grow old in this more difficult lifestyle I’ve chosen for my family’s well-being, I can reasonably rely on my son to continue my work, and in doing so, continue to provide for and protect his mother and sisters. Once his sisters are married, that headship will fall to their husbands, but some of my daughters are already interested in a religious life on land. He will see to their needs just as I would have.
BAM: How would you describe the reaction to that announcement?
BH: I was only surprised at first by the level of visibility of the post. I can’t begin to speculate on how or why it reached such levels, but the actual responses weren’t surprising to me at all. The most vitriol I get, and I get a decent amount, is always related to my posts about my family values and our simple lifestyle. What one might consider my more extreme positions/posts are usually met with less anger than the ones that simply promote a happy family.
BAM: When someone who calls herself “Childless Cat Lady” objected to your “heir” comment, pointing out that you already had four girls, your response was, “I said heir, not dishwasher.” Now, I’ve seen your X feed, and know that you are a pretty funny man, so I assumed right away that this was said in good humor. But for those whose impression is that you’re some kind of “Taliban Catholic” misogynist how would you explain your answer?
BH: The irony of my response there is that that joke was only rolling around in my head because I had made a similar joke to my wife in early labor. She likes to laugh in the early stages of labor, and so part of my job is to entertain her. I told her our dishwasher was broke. She asked what was wrong with it, and I responded that a baby was coming out of it. She got a good chuckle. So later when I was having fun responding to the silly mad mob, it must have still been on my mind. I respond all different ways to all different people, but I usually respond to clear hostility with mocking jabs. Not to overanalyze simple humor, but I find steering into hostile people’s wrong cogitative associations is usually useful in revealing them, and this case seemed to prove that.
BAM: What does your lovely wife think of all this?
BH: I’ve sheltered her from the majority of the nastiness, but I’ve spent a few minutes on and off reading some of the better responses, both positive and negative. We love humor, and some of the negative responses have been witty.
I told this story somewhere in the endless comments, but when I ripped my bicep tendon off the bone, my wife found me rolling on the ground whimpering with tears in my eyes. She has seen me injured A LOT since entering into this new lifestyle, and she knows I have a high pain tolerance. So she was nervous and knew that the injury was serious. Her response was a beautiful moment of humor. She asked me what was wrong, and I responded that I had done something to my arm. She shot back with “And it made you a faggot?”.
While some people may not appreciate this kind of humor, it was a wonderful moment that we still laugh about. Our children’s humor, while age appropriate, is no less witty. Our family thrives on humor, I only wish more did.
BAM: Are you surprised that this got the attention of Newsweek, and what do you think of that?
BH: A little, but I’ve found that there’s usually an outlet or two willing to drag for clicks whenever some false scandal pops up around me. It’s par for the course at this point.
BAM: With all the attention that your little X firestorm created, you took the opportunity to make a last humorous double down statement accompanied by a very direct and public witness to the Faith: “Alright this was some wild fun. The dishwashers are making a ruckus. While you’re all here; Viva Cristo Rey! There is no salvation outside the Church! Repent and believe in the Gospel! All that good stuff, God loves you ⚜️.” What motivated that?
BH: It occurred to me that I had a good opportunity to share a few brief fundamentals of the truths we hold so dear with an audience who might have otherwise not seen them. I decided a light hearted and short approach would be better than some drawn out soapbox routine. The whole exchange was fun, and I wanted to keep it fun.
Also we keep a routine of two weeks bed rest for my wife after each birth. I had devoted probably too much time already to the banter, and genuinely needed to get back to tending to my beloved dishwashers.
BAM: Lastly, is their anything else you think our readership should know about this incident — lessons learned, things you would do differently, etc.?
BH: I’ve always seen Twitter as a kind of personal experiment and opportunity of data collection. I find the intersectional outrage and approval interesting on various topics, who stands where, and what categories of people overlap in their positions. I’ve learned a lot from this last one.
I’ll also point out that I try to approach all of my public engagement with an open book policy, no pretense, no branding, no human respect, just me presenting a window into the little world I’m trying to make for my family. I try not to filter anything, as the danger is false expectations for anyone who might aim for something similar. Because of that candidness, I do take for granted that reasonable people know that my family is my world, and Christ is its axis. The only surprises in all this were the few followers who seemed to either not know that, or were swayed by my joke. May my Beloved make of this (and me) what He will. Viva Cristo Rey.
