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.