They're dropping like flies!

[Grace]

Perhaps, but he should have specified MJ, and left FF and BM out of the equation, since there is not much of anything being published or televised about either them.

Sure there's a lot of hoop-la over MJ, but I'll bet most of it is far from celeb worship. I see a lot of people wanting to congregate at a place that had some meaning or ties to MJ, just so they can say "I was there when".....and there are many ways that sentence could be finished.

I don't remember this much criticism of a situation when Elvis passed.

There was no internet back then.

As for the celeb worship, you haven't seen the scenes from Detroit - it's enough to make one gag. Please, I don't mean to be rude or contrary, but why would someone feel such an overwhelming need to be at a specific spot?

Edit: Of course it is celeb worship. There were two 50 year old local men whose obits were in our local paper the other day. No one is wailing on a street corner - laying wreaths and flowers and toys on their front lawns.

[pomtzu]

There was no internet back then.

As for the celeb worship, you haven't seen the scenes from Detroit - it's enough to make one gag. Please, I don't mean to be rude or contrary, but why would someone feel such an overwhelming need to be at a specific spot?

Edit: Of course it is celeb worship. There were two 50 year old local men whose obits were in our local paper the other day. No one is wailing on a street corner - laying wreaths and flowers and toys on their front lawns.

Damn the Internet!!

Hey - you're not being rude - and I'm just stating my opinion. There are too many people in this world with the "know-it-all, been there/done that" attitude and mentality, that makes them feel important about themselves if they can say that they were part of a certain event, be it good or bad, and no matter how far removed from it that they really were. I personally feel that there's a lot of that going on now. And the mob gatherings appear to be localized, don't you think? Unfortunately, Motown is going to take a big hit in that department. If Neverland was still in the picture, I can only imagine the mob scenes there. Remember Graceland?

As far as the wreaths and flowers and toys, I see that everywhere anymore. At a house fire where someone perished (especially a child), at the site of fatal accident along the roadway, where a police officer was gunned down - it's just everywhere - even for the ordinary Joe or Jane like you and me!

[TamanduaGirl]

Edit: Of course it is celeb worship. There were two 50 year old local men whose obits were in our local paper the other day. No one is wailing on a street corner - laying wreaths and flowers and toys on their front lawns.

Actually that happens a lot. Can't seem to drive 5 miles in some areas without seeing flowers and crosses beside the road or those white bikes in cities. And people do break down and cry on street corners for people they knew and congregate with others that knew them.

All the people morning a celebrity did know a part of that celebrity even if they never met that person. And really we never know all of a person so we all only know parts of people.

It really comes off more like jealousy. "celebrities shouldn't be normed more than normal people" But if that's true then "popular people shouldn't be mourned more than unpopular people" but then "people with homes and families shouldn't be mourned more than people who have neither" The amount of people morning will directly relate to how many knew you and if you are a celebrity then lots of people know you, again even if it's just a part of you, and why shouldn't they mourn the lost of that part they loved and did know?

I do think the media tends to go over board but they always do.

[Vela]

Laughing at things someone did in life and at pictures and stories about them is not the same thing as making fun of their actual death and treating it like a joke or making comments to the effect of "Good you are dead, now I don't have to hear your voice anymore!"

I guarantee you if someone said that at a funeral of your friend or loved one and meant it, you'd be highly upset.

Some comments and lighthearted things relating to the recent deaths of celebrities are humorous and meant as a tribute, some are not funny at all and if someone can't differentiate between why that is so, that's too bad.

Celebrities are "known" to the public in general, and someone like Michael Jackson was known worldwide for 40 years. Only a few people knew the man down the street who died, compared to a celebrity of 40 years, of course reactions are going to be different.