I'm confused.

In June of 2009, Michael Jackson was a complete joke.  He was a pedophile 
who got away with it, and everyone "knew" it.  All of his musical 
accomplishments were largely forgotten, or swept under the rug.

Then he died.

For the next 2 months, he was on TV every single day, often MTV or VH1, but 
nearly every day, someone was running a special about him on some channel. 
Someone put together a movie.  You'd hear his songs being played in cars as 
they drove by.  Suddenly, it was perfectly ok to like Michael Jackson again 
without being laughed at.  Why?

When OJ dies, are we suddenly going to celebrate his NFL accomplishments 
again?  This all seems wrong.  It would make more sense to either forgive 
the person while they are alive, or to continuing laughing at them after 
they die.  This sort of switch seems very disengenuous to me.

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On 26-1-2010 21:07, Jeremy "UncleHoot" Praay wrote:
> I'm confused.
> 
> In June of 2009, Michael Jackson was a complete joke.  He was a pedophile 
> who got away with it, and everyone "knew" it.  All of his musical 
> accomplishments were largely forgotten, or swept under the rug.
> 
> Then he died.
> 
> For the next 2 months, he was on TV every single day, often MTV or VH1, but 
> nearly every day, someone was running a special about him on some channel. 
> Someone put together a movie.  You'd hear his songs being played in cars as 
> they drove by.  Suddenly, it was perfectly ok to like Michael Jackson again 
> without being laughed at.  Why?

There is a real possibility that if the comeback show was a success that 
that would also have had a positive turn for him.

> When OJ dies, are we suddenly going to celebrate his NFL accomplishments 
> again?  

I don't, but you might.

> This all seems wrong.  It would make more sense to either forgive 
> the person while they are alive, or to continuing laughing at them after 
> they die.  This sort of switch seems very disengenuous to me. 

I disagree. You always judge a living person as who he is now. And even 
if you don't try to, the media will. When hse dies you look at the 
entire lifespan.

It is also sort of the same for family and spouses. You may be in the 
final stages of a divorce, but when hse dies you will mainly remember 
why you married in the first place.

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"Jeremy \"UncleHoot\" Praay" <jer### [at] questsoftwarecmo> wrote:
> In June of 2009, Michael Jackson was a complete joke.  He was a pedophile 
> who got away with it, and everyone "knew" it.  All of his musical 
> accomplishments were largely forgotten, or swept under the rug.

  You are seeing only one side of it. The internet and tabloids were full
of MJ jokes (and outright insults), but those were just a vocal minority.

  If *everybody* (or even the majority) had thought he was a complete joke,
his albums wouldn't have sold as much as they did.

> For the next 2 months, he was on TV every single day, often MTV or VH1, but 
> nearly every day, someone was running a special about him on some channel. 
> Someone put together a movie.  You'd hear his songs being played in cars as 
> they drove by.  Suddenly, it was perfectly ok to like Michael Jackson again 
> without being laughed at.  Why?

  Because making jokes about a dead person is considered a faux pas.

  Also, the majority who appreciated MJ are now more vocal than the minority
who laughed at him.

-- 
                                                          - Warp

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Jeremy "UncleHoot" Praay wrote:

> Then he died.

Have you noticed how every time a schoolboy is killed in a tragic 
accident or dies of a horrible disease or is randomly shot by gunmen or 
something, his friends from the school always say "he was a happy, 
out-going boy who was loved by everyone"?

I've never yet heard anybody say "it's a shame he's dead, but actually 
he was a bit of a tosser". Surely some people who get killed *are* not 
well liked. Not that they deserve to die or anything, but surely not 
everybody who gets killed was the very center of the community they 
lived in.

I sometimes wonder what people will say about me after I'm dead. Whether 
they'll claim I was popular and successful, liked by everybody. Or 
whether they'll say the truth: that hardly anybody even noticed me in 
their day to day lives. I can just see the conversation in the tea room 
at work now. "Andrew died." "Oh, that's terrible." "Yeah." "...anyway, 
so what did you do this weekend?"

Of course, most of the people who "know" me are only contactable online, 
so if I did die, most of the people I know would just assume my PC 
stopped working or something...

The fact that I've spent this long thinking about my own death probably 
tells you something about my mental state. o_O

-- 
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*

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Orchid XP v8 <voi### [at] devnull> wrote:
> I sometimes wonder what people will say about me after I'm dead.

  I'm sure that we will all be here laughing at your poor literacy,
your bloggish posts and your luck with women (or lack thereof)... ;)

-- 
                                                          - Warp

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It was not Michael Jackson who died, it was just this sad old freak, you know?
His persona, mannerisms, performances and music will live on.

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On 26-1-2010 22:32, Warp wrote:
> Orchid XP v8 <voi### [at] devnull> wrote:
>> I sometimes wonder what people will say about me after I'm dead.
> 
>   I'm sure that we will all be here laughing at your poor literacy,
> your bloggish posts and your luck with women (or lack thereof)... ;)

I don't think so.

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andrel <a_l### [at] hotmailcom> wrote:
> On 26-1-2010 22:32, Warp wrote:
> > Orchid XP v8 <voi### [at] devnull> wrote:
> >> I sometimes wonder what people will say about me after I'm dead.
> > 
> >   I'm sure that we will all be here laughing at your poor literacy,
> > your bloggish posts and your luck with women (or lack thereof)... ;)

> I don't think so.

  Your sense of humor is astounding.

-- 
                                                          - Warp

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On 26-1-2010 23:20, Warp wrote:
> andrel <a_l### [at] hotmailcom> wrote:
>> On 26-1-2010 22:32, Warp wrote:
>>> Orchid XP v8 <voi### [at] devnull> wrote:
>>>> I sometimes wonder what people will say about me after I'm dead.
>>>   I'm sure that we will all be here laughing at your poor literacy,
>>> your bloggish posts and your luck with women (or lack thereof)... ;)
> 
>> I don't think so.
> 
>   Your sense of humor is astounding.

Thanks, I aim to please

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On 01/26/10 12:07, Jeremy "UncleHoot" Praay wrote:
> I'm confused.
> 
> In June of 2009, Michael Jackson was a complete joke.  He was a pedophile 
> who got away with it, and everyone "knew" it.  All of his musical 
> accomplishments were largely forgotten, or swept under the rug.

	You must not have been on the newsgroups when it happened. Certainly,
the "everyone knew it" claim is quite questionable.

> For the next 2 months, he was on TV every single day, often MTV or VH1, but 
> nearly every day, someone was running a special about him on some channel. 
> Someone put together a movie.  You'd hear his songs being played in cars as 
> they drove by.  Suddenly, it was perfectly ok to like Michael Jackson again 
> without being laughed at.  Why?

	You do realize he still had a huge number of fans prior to his death,
right?


-- 
"Graphic Artist seeks Boss with vision impairment."

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