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Source: (consider it)
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Thread: Celebrities. Do we need them?
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Ian Climacus
Liturgical Slattern
# 944
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Posted
This is a quiet week down here, where many businesses, including mine, shut down. So the news media seems to be scratching for stories as I'm hearing more and more about people I couldn't care less about.
Acquaintances I thought immune turn out not to be. The latest royal romance is on their lips, as is Prince Harry's bromance with Obama, as is any starlet or new hunk that comes on the scene. 2 friends practically live by the latest gossip magazines or showbiz tv programmes.
Whom did our modern celebrities replace? In the 1600s, who were people gossiping about? Neighbours? The queen?
Do we, generally, need such people to get through life? I personally find the appeal of the Kardashians or the Obamas in terms of knowing their personal life mystifying. That's not to say I don't have my idols...I practically worship my former boss given his traits. Is that any different?
Is knowing their lives escapism? Or is there some belief that interacting with them on Twitter or similar makes them like us, or us like them? What do they bring us?
I am really curious. Like sports, celebrities are a phenomenon that has passed me by.
Posts: 7800 | From: On the border | Registered: Jul 2001
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lilBuddha
Shipmate
# 14333
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Posted
Here is another thing where I find people odd.
I get not getting into celebrity, but I don't get not understanding why other people do.
It is vicarious thing, it is a community thing, it is fascination with things other/more than oneself, it is fantasy and distraction; the list goes on.
Whilst I think it can get a bit overdone, the reasons for why it exists are fairly simple.
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I put on my rockin' shoes in the morning
Hallellou, hallellou
Posts: 17627 | From: the round earth's imagined corners | Registered: Dec 2008
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Ian Climacus
Liturgical Slattern
# 944
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Posted
Sorry to be odd. Or thick.
I suppose I got the vicarious nature, but you honestly helped me with some others. I have trouble sympathising with others, truth be told: it can make interactions hard.
I tend to talk about the news, foreign tv programmes and books with others. I live a sheltered life.
Posts: 7800 | From: On the border | Registered: Jul 2001
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Golden Key
Shipmate
# 1468
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Posted
I think maybe polytheistic deities filled that job. (Still do, for some people.) And heroines/heroes.
There's a human tendency to want to look up to someone, maybe for good reasons and bad. But we also like to tear them down and stomp on them, especially if they're getting too big for their britches.
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Blessed Gator, pray for us!
--"Oh bat bladders, do you have to bring common sense into this?" (Dragon, "Jane & the Dragon")
--"Oh, Peace Train, save this country!" (Yusuf/Cat Stevens, "Peace Train")
Posts: 18601 | From: Chilling out in an undisclosed, sincere pumpkin patch. | Registered: Oct 2001
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Galloping Granny
Shipmate
# 13814
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Posted
I had a phone call one day. I was being offered, on behalf of the newspaper to which I subscribe, a few months' subscription to one of several magazines: Women's Day etc.
'Look,' I said, 'if you could offer me the New Yorker or New Scientist I'd be interested.'
'Oh,' said the (male) voice, 'intellectual.' and he hung up.
Frankly, if there's nothing in a waiting room to read but 'women's magazines' I turn the pages and, mostly, wonder who these people are. (The GP has the New Yorker, the Chinese fish'n'chipper has the New Scientist and National Geographic, the dentist has National Geographic (but you can go home and read the articles on line) and Time.)
GG
[ 28. December 2017, 07:19: Message edited by: Galloping Granny ]
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The Kingdom of Heaven is spread upon the earth, and men do not see it. Gospel of Thomas, 113
Posts: 2629 | From: Matarangi | Registered: Jun 2008
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Karl: Liberal Backslider
Shipmate
# 76
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Posted
It's utterly beyond me. I don't know who most of these people are; they seem merely famous for being famous.
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Might as well ask the bloody cat.
Posts: 17938 | From: Chesterfield | Registered: May 2001
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North East Quine
Curious beastie
# 13049
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Posted
Victorian newspapers covered society weddings in great detail, describing the bride and bridesmaids dresses minutely. They also often listed the presents received and the donors of said gifts. I assume this was the forerunner of today's celebrity culture.
Posts: 6414 | From: North East Scotland | Registered: Oct 2007
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quetzalcoatl
Shipmate
# 16740
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Posted
lilBuddha pretty much nailed it. I would add also the importance of gossip, which strikes me as an important social lubricant. I am not really into the royal family or the Kardashians, but people like Bowie fascinate me. I saw a film about Leslie Howard yesterday, and found it completely fascinating. And did you know that Jeanne Moreau's mother was from Oldham? I am all agog.
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I can't talk to you today; I talked to two people yesterday.
Posts: 9878 | From: UK | Registered: Oct 2011
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Schroedinger's cat
Ship's cool cat
# 64
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Posted
We have always had celebrities. They used to be the royals and their entourage, and before that, they would often be travelling people who could bring news from outside.
We just like the idea that other people are able to do things that we can't. I think they are important, because we need to have people we admire, people who are in a different place, where we wish we could be.
I guess it gives us dreams, hopes, that some magic might enable us to be in their world. Celebrities are people we cannot be like, but we wish we could.
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Blog
Music for your enjoyment
Lord may all my hard times be healing times
take out this broken heart and renew my mind.
Posts: 18859 | From: At the bottom of a deep dark well. | Registered: May 2001
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hatless
Shipmate
# 3365
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Posted
Don’t celebrities distance us from life? We can all sing songs or act in plays, but are encouraged to fixate on a few professionals pumped up so high they are available to adore, but not to learn from.
The really interesting people in modern culture are often invisible: the writers, composers, directors, scriptwriters, arrangers, etc, but celebrity culture puts all the attention on the actor or singer, so our response to popular entertainment is different from our response to art: we don’t engage with the artistic intent, we passively receive the product as consumers who can like or not like and nothing more.
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My crazy theology in novel form
Posts: 4531 | From: Stinkers | Registered: Sep 2002
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Amanda B. Reckondwythe
Dressed for Church
# 5521
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by hatless:
fixate on a few professionals pumped up so high they are available to adore, but not to learn from.
One can, though, learn from them by watching them carefully. Youtube has made it possible to do that. In the case of singers or instrumentalists, for example, you can learn by watching how they perform -- including their body language. The conclusion often follows that they're not so great as people make them out to be after all.
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"I take prayer too seriously to use it as an excuse for avoiding work and responsibility." -- The Revd Martin Luther King Jr.
Posts: 10542 | From: The Great Southwest | Registered: Feb 2004
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Stetson
Shipmate
# 9597
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Golden Key:
I think maybe polytheistic deities filled that job. (Still do, for some people.) And heroines/heroes.
There's a human tendency to want to look up to someone, maybe for good reasons and bad. But we also like to tear them down and stomp on them, especially if they're getting too big for their britches.
Not that I'm much for evolutionary psychology, but someone told me about an experiment in which they put monkeys in front of a TV screen equipped with a device that allowed them to switch channels between various types of films involving monkeys, and the most popular choices were films of other monkeys copulating, and films of monkeys who were high-ststus within the group.
I suppose the latter choice could be as simple as monkeys being comfortable watching individuals they were already familiar with. One wonders how they responded to films of familiar, but low-status, monkeys. Usual caveats about popular science-journalism apply.
Posts: 6574 | From: back and forth between bible belts | Registered: Jun 2005
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Enoch
Shipmate
# 14322
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Posted
The thought of monkeys watching porno for simians has quite spoilt my day.
![[Projectile]](graemlins/puke2.gif)
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Brexit wrexit - Sir Graham Watson
Posts: 7610 | From: Bristol UK(was European Green Capital 2015, now Ljubljana) | Registered: Nov 2008
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Moo
Ship's tough old bird
# 107
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Posted
I read a biography of Charles Dickens which said that he was the first modern celebrity. He was widely recognized wherever he went, which had not happened to anyone before that, except royalty.
Moo
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Kerygmania host
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See you later, alligator.
Posts: 20365 | From: Alleghany Mountains of Virginia | Registered: May 2001
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Karl: Liberal Backslider
Shipmate
# 76
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by lilBuddha:
Here is another thing where I find people odd.
I get not getting into celebrity, but I don't get not understanding why other people do.
It is vicarious thing, it is a community thing, it is fascination with things other/more than oneself, it is fantasy and distraction; the list goes on.
Whilst I think it can get a bit overdone, the reasons for why it exists are fairly simple.
But still, even after your explanation, still utterly inscrutable to me.
I don't even know who most of the people in these magazines and articles are, much less understand why anyone cares about the minutiae of their day to day lives. I know you explained it, but your explanation conveyed nothing to me, it really didn't. I just don't get it.
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Might as well ask the bloody cat.
Posts: 17938 | From: Chesterfield | Registered: May 2001
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Kwesi
Shipmate
# 10274
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Posted
Isn't it rather difficult to defined what constitutes celebrity? I rather like its association with vacuity: "A celebrity is someone who is famous for being famous".
For me one of the earliest references to the importance of celebrity is a reference to David:
1 Samuel 18: '6 When the men were returning home after David had killed the Philistine, the women came out from all the towns of Israel to meet King Saul with singing and dancing, with joyful songs and with timbrels and lyres. 7 As they danced, they sang:
“Saul has slain his thousands,
and David his tens of thousands.” '
Posts: 1641 | From: South Ofankor | Registered: Sep 2005
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Leorning Cniht
Shipmate
# 17564
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by lilBuddha:
Here is another thing where I find people odd.
I get not getting into celebrity, but I don't get not understanding why other people do.
It is vicarious thing, it is a community thing, it is fascination with things other/more than oneself, it is fantasy and distraction; the list goes on.
Whilst I think it can get a bit overdone, the reasons for why it exists are fairly simple.
But none of that explains why this particular person is of interest. I understand, sort of, people caring about the personal lives of world-class athletes and whatever, but there's a large class of people who seem to be famous because they are famous.
Take the Kardashians, for example. They're clearly very famous, and have successfully built a number of business ventures on top of that fame, but I'm completely confused as to why they're interesting in the first place. They don't seem to be famous for any particular skill or talent, or for any notable achievement. Why does anyone care in the first place?
Posts: 5026 | From: USA | Registered: Feb 2013
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Ohher
Shipmate
# 18607
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Enoch:
The thought of monkeys watching porno for simians has quite spoilt my day.
But it wasn't porno. It was footage of monkeys copulating -- something which, presumably, groups of monkeys in captivity get to watch in real life on a fairly regular basis.
What they're actually watching, in either case, is other monkeys getting social rewards. Most simians (us included) form hierarchical social structures. Typically, those at the tops of these structures are those gleaning the most, and/or the most desirable) social rewards. We watch the other monkeys, then, in order to understand what rewards to compete for, and how; to reinforce our own social understandings of the hierarchical structure we're part of (even those of us who claim we're not) and our own place within that structure.
Which is why so many of us (myself included) who are not reaping these particular rewards like to claim they're not rewards at all -- utterly strange and repellent: within the extant social hierarchy, we are not the alpha monkeys.
![[Biased]](wink.gif)
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From the Land of the Native American Brave and the Home of the Buy-One-Get-One-Free
Posts: 374 | From: New Hampshire, USA | Registered: Jun 2016
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Pigwidgeon
Ship's Owl
# 10192
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Galloping Granny:
Frankly, if there's nothing in a waiting room to read but 'women's magazines' I turn the pages and, mostly, wonder who these people are.
Me too. I usually take a book when I go to get my hair done, but if I forget to do so, I wind up looking through People Magazine. I have a game I play -- see how many pages it takes before I find some "celebrity" that I actually recognize. It's usually more than halfway through the magazine.
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"...that is generally a matter for Pigwidgeon, several other consenting adults, a bottle of cheap Gin and the odd giraffe."
~Tortuf
Posts: 9835 | From: Hogwarts | Registered: Aug 2005
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quetzalcoatl
Shipmate
# 16740
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Posted
I suppose the top slebs are the royals. Do we need them? Well, opinions differ. I find them boring, but then tons of people wet their pants over them.
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I can't talk to you today; I talked to two people yesterday.
Posts: 9878 | From: UK | Registered: Oct 2011
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lilBuddha
Shipmate
# 14333
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Ian Climacus:
Sorry to be odd.
You'll get no sympathy for being odd from the reigning Monarch of Oddity (me).
quote:
Or thick.
I suppose I got the vicarious nature, but you honestly helped me with some others. I have trouble sympathising with others, truth be told: it can make interactions hard.
It isn't thick if your mind works differently, just if it doesn't work at all.
quote:
Originally posted by Karl: Liberal Backslider:
But still, even after your explanation, still utterly inscrutable to me.
I don't even know who most of the people in these magazines and articles are, much less understand why anyone cares about the minutiae of their day to day lives. I know you explained it, but your explanation conveyed nothing to me, it really didn't. I just don't get it.
Does thinking of it as extended family help? Because it sort of is. We are a gregarious species. And the concept that family ends with direct, blood relation is artificial to how our species and cultures have evolved.
quote:
Originally posted by Leorning Cniht:
but there's a large class of people who seem to be famous because they are famous.
(I'd rather not)
Because they are famous. That is all it requires for some people.
Because they are a trainwreck. We like that.
Because it is famous people being stupid in a harmless way.
Because they are a distraction.
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I put on my rockin' shoes in the morning
Hallellou, hallellou
Posts: 17627 | From: the round earth's imagined corners | Registered: Dec 2008
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Bishops Finger
Shipmate
# 5430
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Posted
Having glanced through the odd issue of Hello or whatever, I ask two questions:
1. Why do male slebs have such weird hair?
2. Why do female slebs have such bony knees?
![[Ultra confused]](graemlins/confused2.gif)
IJ
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Our words are giants when they do us an injury, and dwarfs when they do us a service. (Wilkie Collins)
Posts: 10151 | From: Behind The Wheel Again! | Registered: Jan 2004
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Bishops Finger
Shipmate
# 5430
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Posted
So do I, but I still wonder about the weird hair, and the bony knees....
IJ
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Our words are giants when they do us an injury, and dwarfs when they do us a service. (Wilkie Collins)
Posts: 10151 | From: Behind The Wheel Again! | Registered: Jan 2004
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Schroedinger's cat
Ship's cool cat
# 64
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Posted
I am always interested in the Open University rounds where they ask for the names of famous people from pictures. I rarely get them, because I don't recognise them, even though I probably know their work.
These should be celebrities, but because they don't appear on the TV often, I - we - don't recognise them or give them "celebrity" status. Today, it seems that appearing on TV is one of the most important aspects of celebrity. If you appear of TV, you are a celebrity, even if you have done nothing worth while.
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Blog
Music for your enjoyment
Lord may all my hard times be healing times
take out this broken heart and renew my mind.
Posts: 18859 | From: At the bottom of a deep dark well. | Registered: May 2001
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Bishops Finger
Shipmate
# 5430
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Posted
Alas, yes, and you MUST also have weird hair, and/or bony knees....as here.
IJ
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Our words are giants when they do us an injury, and dwarfs when they do us a service. (Wilkie Collins)
Posts: 10151 | From: Behind The Wheel Again! | Registered: Jan 2004
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Pigwidgeon
Ship's Owl
# 10192
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Bishops Finger:
Alas, yes, and you MUST also have weird hair, and/or bony knees....as here.
IJ
Any idea who that might be?
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"...that is generally a matter for Pigwidgeon, several other consenting adults, a bottle of cheap Gin and the odd giraffe."
~Tortuf
Posts: 9835 | From: Hogwarts | Registered: Aug 2005
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Crœsos
Shipmate
# 238
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Posted
As a species we seem to need stories.
quote:
Storytelling is a human universal. From gathering around the camp-fire telling tales of ancestors to watching the latest television box-set, humans are inveterate producers and consumers of stories. Despite its ubiquity, little attention has been given to understanding the function and evolution of storytelling. Here we explore the impact of storytelling on hunter-gatherer cooperative behaviour and the individual-level fitness benefits to being a skilled storyteller. Stories told by the Agta, a Filipino hunter-gatherer population, convey messages relevant to coordinating behaviour in a foraging ecology, such as cooperation, sex equality and egalitarianism. These themes are present in narratives from other foraging societies. We also show that the presence of good storytellers is associated with increased cooperation. In return, skilled storytellers are preferred social partners and have greater reproductive success, providing a pathway by which group-beneficial behaviours, such as storytelling, can evolve via individual-level selection. We conclude that one of the adaptive functions of storytelling among hunter gatherers may be to organise cooperation.
The subjects of the most popular stories are always going to be famous ("celebrities" for lack of a better term), so if we posit a human need for stories and storytelling, there follows a consequent 'need' for celebrities. Of course such celebrities need not necessarily be currently alive (e.g. Achilles, Jesus of Nazareth) or have ever been alive in the strictest literal sense of the term (e.g. Sherlock Holmes, Luke Skywalker), but the need for celebrated persons seems intrinsic to the need for stories.
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Humani nil a me alienum puto
Posts: 10706 | From: Sardis, Lydia | Registered: May 2001
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Enoch
Shipmate
# 14322
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Pigwidgeon:
Any idea who that might be?
No. Should I?
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Brexit wrexit - Sir Graham Watson
Posts: 7610 | From: Bristol UK(was European Green Capital 2015, now Ljubljana) | Registered: Nov 2008
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Pigwidgeon
Ship's Owl
# 10192
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Enoch:
quote:
Originally posted by Pigwidgeon:
Any idea who that might be?
No. Should I?
Well, if she's a "celebrity" I thought someone might recognize her.
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"...that is generally a matter for Pigwidgeon, several other consenting adults, a bottle of cheap Gin and the odd giraffe."
~Tortuf
Posts: 9835 | From: Hogwarts | Registered: Aug 2005
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Bishops Finger
Shipmate
# 5430
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Posted
Sorry, I assumed the image would also include a description. The lady is, I understand, presenter and model Alexa Chung, 32.
No, I'm no wiser, either, but I think she could do with subsisting for a while on Roast Beef, Potatoes, and Plum Pudding....
IJ
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Our words are giants when they do us an injury, and dwarfs when they do us a service. (Wilkie Collins)
Posts: 10151 | From: Behind The Wheel Again! | Registered: Jan 2004
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Marvin the Martian
Interplanetary
# 4360
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Leorning Cniht:
Take the Kardashians, for example. They're clearly very famous, and have successfully built a number of business ventures on top of that fame, but I'm completely confused as to why they're interesting in the first place. They don't seem to be famous for any particular skill or talent, or for any notable achievement. Why does anyone care in the first place?
It's all part of the vicarious wish-fulfilment thing. If they can be famous despite having no discernible skills or talents then so can I. See also Big Brother, TOWIE, Love Island, and all the other reality shows that lift perfectly normal people into the limelight for no particular reason.
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Hail Gallaxhar
Posts: 30100 | From: Adrift on a sea of surreality | Registered: Apr 2003
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Enoch
Shipmate
# 14322
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Posted
No, I've never heard of her either. I looked her up on Wikipedia but I'm no wiser.
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Brexit wrexit - Sir Graham Watson
Posts: 7610 | From: Bristol UK(was European Green Capital 2015, now Ljubljana) | Registered: Nov 2008
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SvitlanaV2
Shipmate
# 16967
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Posted
I think celebrity's become more generationally determined these days. Reality shows and social media platforms have their demographic, and if you don't belong to that demographic you probably don't watch the show and you won't know the people.
Moreover, skillful self-promotion on the internet has become essential if you want to sell almost anything at all, including your personality, or your beauty, or your sexual allure, or even just your problems. Being able to offer some amazing talent beyond that is almost incidental, ISTM, because success depends on how well you can promote yourself. If you can do that then you'll reach the right demographic for you, and hence become famous.
[ 28. December 2017, 20:35: Message edited by: SvitlanaV2 ]
Posts: 6668 | From: UK | Registered: Feb 2012
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Rossweisse
High Church Valkyrie
# 2349
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Pigwidgeon:
Any idea who that might be?
No.
I watch next-to-no television, so I recognize almost no alleged celebrities. I was finally made aware of the Kardashians, and remain mystified by their fame. What do they do? And why should I care?
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I'm not dead yet.
Posts: 15117 | From: Valhalla | Registered: Feb 2002
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rolyn
Shipmate
# 16840
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Posted
It could be that we like looking into the window of someone else's life so we are momentarily distracted from looking into the window of our own. Furthermore if such selected people are placed on pedestals, displaying frailties which humble folk like to keep hidden, then the allure seems all the greater.
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Change is the only certainty of existence
Posts: 3206 | From: U.K. | Registered: Dec 2011
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Belle Ringer
Shipmate
# 13379
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Posted
Second time it's been mentioned, so I'll bite -- I gather Kardashians are people? A tribe, or a family?
Posts: 5830 | From: Texas | Registered: Jan 2008
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Golden Key
Shipmate
# 1468
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Posted
BR--
Yes, an extended family--most of them famous for being famous, IMHO. The one legitimately famous member is Bruce Jenner, Olympic medalist, who married into the family. He later came out as trans, and is now Caitlin.
I don't know much about them, and don't really want to. But the media keeps spewing their latest spat or scandal.
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Blessed Gator, pray for us!
--"Oh bat bladders, do you have to bring common sense into this?" (Dragon, "Jane & the Dragon")
--"Oh, Peace Train, save this country!" (Yusuf/Cat Stevens, "Peace Train")
Posts: 18601 | From: Chilling out in an undisclosed, sincere pumpkin patch. | Registered: Oct 2001
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Ohher
Shipmate
# 18607
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Belle Ringer:
Second time it's been mentioned, so I'll bite -- I gather Kardashians are people? A tribe, or a family?
To the final question, yes. The Kardashians are a tribe, or a family. To the first question about peoplehood, I think the jury is still out.
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From the Land of the Native American Brave and the Home of the Buy-One-Get-One-Free
Posts: 374 | From: New Hampshire, USA | Registered: Jun 2016
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Curiosity killed ...
Ship's Mug
# 11770
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Posted
Sadly, I have not managed to avoid the Kardashians entirely, however much I've tried. Kanye West has a pretty good claim to fame in his own right, before he married Kim Kardashian, with whom he has had children, named North and Saint (I had to look up the second one, knew the first). They have a TV reality show that used to run in one of the homes I visited to tutor students.
I didn't recognise the photograph of Alexa Chung, but do know who she is, a model turned fashion designer. She turns up on the society pages of the Metro which is pretty unavoidable commuting on the tube, even if the avoidance is picking said rag from a seat and placing it elsewhere.
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Mugs - Keep the Ship afloat
Posts: 13794 | From: outiside the outer ring road | Registered: Aug 2006
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Golden Key
Shipmate
# 1468
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Posted
Didn't think of Kanye. He's not really on my radar, except when he does something seemingly weird and it makes the news. IIRC, he's the one who's twice complained at music awards, loudly, that the wrong person won. On stage. Just after the winner was announced.
![[Roll Eyes]](rolleyes.gif)
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Blessed Gator, pray for us!
--"Oh bat bladders, do you have to bring common sense into this?" (Dragon, "Jane & the Dragon")
--"Oh, Peace Train, save this country!" (Yusuf/Cat Stevens, "Peace Train")
Posts: 18601 | From: Chilling out in an undisclosed, sincere pumpkin patch. | Registered: Oct 2001
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simontoad
Ship's Amphibian
# 18096
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Posted
I follow a different type of celebrity, such as David Mitchell, a British comedian, television actor and writer, and panel show regular. He is married to another celebrity, panel show regular, broadcaster and poker player, Victoria Corrin-Mitchell. Victoria is the brother of a celebrity food critic, Giles (?) Corrin. Giles Corrin did a wonderfully funny show with comedian and TV host Sue Perkins, the name of which escapes me, but which involved Giles and Sue dressing up in the costume of a particular time, and then only eating the food and drink eaten at that time and prepared for them by expert chefs who had studied the food of the period. They did this for a period of time, perhaps a week, all the while poncing about and cracking jokes. Giles and Sue are not a couple, but I rather hoped they would be in the early stages of my fandom.
I would not be interested in the Kardashians in a PINK FIT. I understand that they are famous because one of the ladies has an enormous bottom, so I suppose it appeals to fans of Queen. I consider the people who are interested in the Kardashians to be the SCUM OF THE EARTH (present company excepted) and REALLY REALLY stupid and not at all like me, because I am only interested in real celebrities who are British and who appear on the National Broadcaster and who sound clever and nice.
I am a hypocrite. Nice to meet you. In this post I only attack my own hypocrisy and nobody else's. While I do attack the taste of others, this is a device for attacking myself. That is all.
[ 29. December 2017, 09:28: Message edited by: simontoad ]
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Human
Posts: 1571 | From: Romsey, Vic, AU | Registered: May 2014
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SvitlanaV2
Shipmate
# 16967
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Golden Key:
[The Kardashians are an] extended family--most of them famous for being famous, IMHO. The one legitimately famous member is Bruce Jenner, Olympic medalist, who married into the family. He later came out as trans, and is now Caitlin.
They also had a brush with fame before the TV show. Kim Kardashian's first husband, Robert Kardashian, gained national recognition as O. J. Simpson's lawyer. According to Wiki he'd also been Priscilla Presley's boyfriend at one point.
[ 29. December 2017, 11:57: Message edited by: SvitlanaV2 ]
Posts: 6668 | From: UK | Registered: Feb 2012
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Karl: Liberal Backslider
Shipmate
# 76
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Golden Key:
Didn't think of Kanye. He's not really on my radar, except when he does something seemingly weird and it makes the news. IIRC, he's the one who's twice complained at music awards, loudly, that the wrong person won. On stage. Just after the winner was announced.
I gather he's some sort of popular musician. Wouldn't be able to pick him or his music out.
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Might as well ask the bloody cat.
Posts: 17938 | From: Chesterfield | Registered: May 2001
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Marvin the Martian
Interplanetary
# 4360
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Karl: Liberal Backslider:
I gather he's some sort of popular musician. Wouldn't be able to pick him or his music out.
A heck of a lot of other people would, though. As most adults tend to work out at some point, it’s perfectly possible and valid for someone to be a celebrity without their personal approval.
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Hail Gallaxhar
Posts: 30100 | From: Adrift on a sea of surreality | Registered: Apr 2003
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Leorning Cniht
Shipmate
# 17564
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by simontoad:
Giles Corrin did a wonderfully funny show with comedian and TV host Sue Perkins, the name of which escapes me, but which involved Giles and Sue dressing up in the costume of a particular time, and then only eating the food and drink eaten at that time and prepared for them by expert chefs who had studied the food of the period.
I enjoyed that show. "The Supersizers" IIRC. I'd make my usual complaint about such light entertainment shows that they aren't very good at distinguishing between things that are actual historical scholarship and things which are fond stories, but it was enjoyable none the less. I could have done without the comedy "medical" examinations before and after purporting to be able to measure anything relevant after a mere week.
I'm also an Only Connect fan. It's more entertaining than University Challenge, with more scope for groansome puns on the part of the question setters. I remain unconvinced by most of Mrs. Coren Mitchell's opening monologues, but on balance prefer her to the sarcasm that Mr. Paxman develops when someone mistakes Titian for Tintoretto.
I think they'd all be enjoyable people to have dinner with / spend an evening in the pub with, but I don't really care what they do in their day-to-day lives. As far as I understand the cult of "celebrity", I would be supposed to care when they bought a new house, redecorated a bedroom, or went to some party in the company of other well-known people. These are the kinds of things that I am happy to read about in a Christmas letter from friends and family. Is that the secret - people are pretending that these celebrities are their friends?
Posts: 5026 | From: USA | Registered: Feb 2013
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Karl: Liberal Backslider
Shipmate
# 76
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Marvin the Martian:
quote:
Originally posted by Karl: Liberal Backslider:
I gather he's some sort of popular musician. Wouldn't be able to pick him or his music out.
A heck of a lot of other people would, though. As most adults tend to work out at some point, it’s perfectly possible and valid for someone to be a celebrity without their personal approval.
Yeah, and there ate plenty of artists I could pick out. Probably ones many people have never heard of. What I find bizarre though is the idea that there are these celebrities that 'everyone' knows about, and the ones who appear to be famous for being famous. There'll be a front page on a tabloid saying "Claudia splits up with Harrison!" as if I'm somehow going to know who Claudia and Harrison (names random) are.
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Might as well ask the bloody cat.
Posts: 17938 | From: Chesterfield | Registered: May 2001
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Nicolemr
Shipmate
# 28
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Posted
People do things. They then get famous for the things they do, and become celebrities. Need them or not, I think they're unavoidable.
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On pilgrimage in the endless realms of Cyberia, currently traveling by ship. Now with live journal!
Posts: 11803 | From: New York City "The City Carries On" | Registered: May 2001
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lilBuddha
Shipmate
# 14333
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Posted
How fast did this turn from an interesting topic on the psychology of celebrity to the vapid “Well, I’ve never heard of him”?
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I put on my rockin' shoes in the morning
Hallellou, hallellou
Posts: 17627 | From: the round earth's imagined corners | Registered: Dec 2008
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SvitlanaV2
Shipmate
# 16967
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Posted
quote:
Originally posted by Karl: Liberal Backslider:
There'll be a front page on a tabloid saying "Claudia splits up with Harrison!" as if I'm somehow going to know who Claudia and Harrison (names random) are.
You're not supposed to know, because you're not the target audience for tabloids.
The celebs I'm most interested in are normally writers, and the interesting thing is that they too have a tightly defined target audience. Most people won't have heard of the average novelist, even though his or her fans may be very devoted.
Then there are the writers whose lives, personalities and fame transcends their books. Surely this makes them rather like the Kardashians. You don't have to watch this family's TV show to be interested in the phenomenon of their fame, and you don't have to read 'The Satanic Verses' to be curious about Salman Rushdie and the drama of his life and his significance in our culture.
[ 29. December 2017, 16:06: Message edited by: SvitlanaV2 ]
Posts: 6668 | From: UK | Registered: Feb 2012
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