Celebrity Deaths & Facebook

Before Facebook, when a celebrity died it was mentioned on the news and then there was a brief morning period and that was it.  End of story.  I remember as a child, playing in the street, when suddenly parents called all of us in from our game. We all ran home and watched the news about Marvin Gaye's death, at the hands of his father.  I was fourteen and I cried.  I remember when Thurman Munson died a few years earlier, it was the same routine.  My mother cried.  A day later it was back to normal.  They were gone, but not forgotten.  What has happened to us since the Internet?

I've noticed that when a celebrity dies, there are four different people that spring up.   There are the people who suddenly act as though they and the celebrity had this bond that nobody can understand.  There are those who immediately exaggerate the person's talents and praise them regardless of whether they were a horrible human being or a great one.  There are those who simply don't care, because it doesn't affect their lives.  Then there are the people like me, who while respecting their death, find it somewhat humorous at the reactions they can stir.  When Munson died, I was upset, because he was a baseball player and I loved baseball.  When Marvin Gaye died, I was upset, because he was a talented performer and that's all I knew about him.  As time went by, lots of people have passed.  When Michael Jackson died a few years ago, I was not affected, but found it funny how many people got upset by my jokes.  These same people don't have any problem with the fact he was a pedophile and a prescription drug addict, because he was such a good entertainer.  When Amy Winehouse died, everyone called her a tramp and a drug addict.  When Whitney dies, she's the greatest singer and they feel for her because she was troubled.  Troubled?  She made millions off her voice.  Then she made money off of exploiting her then pathetic life on reality TV.  How can I feel bad?  How can I not make a mockery our of her life, when she did herself?  It baffles me why people get upset.

When I die, I hope someone misses me.  I don't want any ceremony.  I want to cremated and you can scatter my ashes wherever the hell you please.  I don't care.  The one thing I do care about is how I am remembered.  I hope that soon after my death, someone takes a crack at me.  I hope people remember me for being a wise-ass and prankster.  I hope people tell stories and I hope I'm the butt of some jokes.  That's how I want to be remembered, so have at it.  For all the people who say how sad, or it was too soon, or whatever cliche is used, I hope there are ten people who find humor in my death.  Not that I'm dead, but that I enjoyed my life and made people happy.  So if someone gets a chuckle at my expense in death, more power to them, and me!

I haven't always done the right thing in my life and people tell me about it all the time.  So why when people, who live their lives in the public eye, end their lives "tragically," are we're made to change how we view them.  Whitney Houston was a drug addict.  She was a terrible mom, because from all accounts, her young daughter is too.  During her highest points she was seen as a classy, talented woman.  Soon after, she became a disheveled loser with an addiction.  Sadly, she died that way.  She did not die with dignity or grace and if some people want to make little jokes about it, that is fine.  What isn't fine is to pretend you have a connection to her or any other celebrity who wastes their talents and ridicule others who are just having fun.  If you are offended by my jokes, so be it and feel free to laugh and joke when I'm gone.