A monologue written by J.P. Pressley and performed by Joshua Dickens.
You can watch the performance below and on Instagram, and read the original monologue copy at the bottom of this page.
Good Guys Do Wrong (Original Copy)
Listen up, numbnut. You’re a good guy. You know it. I know it. ‘Bout everyone who meets you knows it.
But that doesn’t frickin’ matter.
Just ‘cause you’re a good guy doesn’t mean you’re always the good guy.
You can do wrong. You will do wrong. You have done wrong.
Which is okay! You’re human, not Superman. Messing up here and there doesn’t make you the scum of the earth. It doesn’t make you a bad guy.
(Beat. Warning.)
Though you can be one—a bad guy.
(Lecturing)
When you refuse to acknowledge that you can do wrong; when you refuse to accept responsibility for your wrongdoings; when you refuse to assess your own shortcomings…you become less of a good guy.
Less and less. More and more. Until, objectively, you’re only good by your own subjective standards.
That where you want to end up? Huh?
(Beat. Stern and scolding, even scalding.)
Didn’t think so.
(Beat. A broiling calm.)
Good guys do wrong and fix it. Bad guys do wrong and leave it.
So stop acting all high and mighty. Clean up your trash before we throw you away with it.