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Celebrity deaths you really can't be arsed about

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    Celebrity deaths you really can't be arsed about

    Someone who was in Beverly Hills 90210.

    #2
    Surely most people don't care about most celebrity deaths. Any reason in particular to pick this one?

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      #3
      Originally posted by Fussbudget View Post
      Surely most people don't care about most celebrity deaths.
      I'm not sure 'surely' was the right word for this sentence. The sum total of all our lived experiences would indicate otherwise.

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        #4
        I care a bit. He was only 52 and had a stroke. That's especially sad.

        I haven't given it any thought until this news, but 90210 was such a massive deal in it's day. As far as I can remember, it was the first prime-time soap opera about young people and was a big part of the dominant enjoying-stuff-ironically culture of college in the 1990s. I didn't watch it much, but I remember that lots of people I knew in college - mostly women, but not only - gathered to watch it every week. It was one of those things that one knew about even if you didn't watch it. Pop culture was like that back then. I know what "Donna Martin Graduates!" refers to, for better and worse.

        It also single-handedly made sideburns popular for a while, a trend I valiantly resisted.

        I'm sure he got cast in Riverdale partly as an homage to 90210. Riverdale is even more ridiculous than 90210, but it had to be since reality shows have mostly dominated the so-bad-it's-good market for the last 20 years.
        Last edited by Hot Pepsi; 05-03-2019, 17:32.

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          #5
          "Surely" must be mathematically correct if we are looking at the entire world.

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            #6

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              #7
              Originally posted by Hot Pepsi View Post
              I care a bit. He was only 52 and had a stroke. That's especially sad.
              .
              Yeah. I'm not aware of ever seeing Luke Perry in anything, but living with someone who had a stroke at 50 I do feel some kind of connection.

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                #8
                Originally posted by ursus arctos View Post
                "Surely" must be mathematically correct if we are looking at the entire world.
                Is that true, though? I mean, surely there are people in India who rend their garments when some Bollywood star dies too soon.

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                  #9
                  Yeah but like most people they only care about a tiny fraction of celebrity deaths, i.e. the ones that they've actually heard of and that have touched their lives in some way.

                  I mean, there are loads of famous people who die that I've barely even heard of (pretty much anyone famous for appearing on TV before the mid-90s, for a start), never mind care about in any way.

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                    #10
                    Hell, if Luke Perry made sideburns fashionable again (which he probably did, on reflection) then I owe the man a debt. I was very much a sideburns man* before I went full beard.

                    But he was young, seemed like a nice guy, had a funny turn on the Simpsons ("A 19th century carousel!", "Ah, my face, my valuable face!") and we've reached the stage where 90s nostalgia is in, baby.

                    *there was a period at my rugby club where my nickname was JPR, since my practice kit was an old short-sleeved Cotton Traders Wales shirt, and I had long hair and long sideburns, down to the jaw.

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                      #11
                      WOM - to be literal about it, look at this list or that one. How many people do you reckon care about more than 50% of either, rather than just a handful of names? Hardly anyone, I reckon.

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                        #12
                        Originally posted by Fussbudget View Post
                        Yeah but like most people they only care about a tiny fraction of celebrity deaths, i.e. the ones that they've actually heard of and that have touched their lives in some way.
                        Well sure, but that's the same with all deaths, isn't it?

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                          #13
                          I have a fond memory of a bit in the pilot episode of Beverly Hills 90210 where Jason Priestley gets into Luke Perry's vintage sports car and picks an antique book up off the seat.

                          "The Collected Works Of Lord Byron?"

                          "Yes, he was mad, bad and dangerous to know - like me."

                          I haven't seen it in thirty years so the actual scene might be almost completely different but, even so, it has stayed with me.

                          What really gets my goat is when they pad out Final Score with all those other results instead of just reading out the one I want to hear.

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                            #14
                            I mean, Keith Flint died the other day. His tribute thread turned into a pisstake before the body was cold. The most interest I could muster was a mental 'that's a shame'.

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                              #15
                              Originally posted by Benjm View Post
                              What really gets my goat is when they pad out Final Score with all those other results instead of just reading out the one I want to hear.
                              El. Oh. El.

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                                #16
                                Originally posted by WOM View Post
                                I mean, Keith Flint died the other day. His tribute thread turned into a pisstake before the body was cold. The most interest I could muster was a mental 'that's a shame'.
                                Yeah, that's kind of my point. If we all start listing the celebrity deaths we don't care about, this thread will quickly reach hundreds of pages (though maybe that was Stumpy's cunning plan all along.)

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                                  #17
                                  I see where you're going now. It's more about the second 'most' than the first 'most' in your opening gambit. Yes, I don't care about most celebrity deaths. But I'm reasonably certain that there's someone who cares about each one individually. But not all...uh...agglomeratively. If you follow...

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                                    #18
                                    Yes, exactly. It doesn't help that the definition of "celebrity" has stretched to near breaking point, and that popular culture has fragmented so much in the last couple of decades that someone can be simultaneously insanely famous to millions of people and completely unknown to millions more within the same country/generation/social group.

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                                      #19
                                      He was in The Fifth Element. Leave him alone.

                                      (Luke Perry, obvs. Not Keith Flint... although Tricky and him did look a bit similar.)

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                                        #20
                                        He seemed a nice enough guy. Two things I found out on googling him - in order to find out exactly how old he was in BH90210 - was exactly how old he was in BH90210 (24-29) and that he appeared in Twisted Sister's video for "Be Cruel To Your School"

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                                          #21
                                          Originally posted by Bordeaux Education View Post
                                          ...how old he was in BH90210 (24-29)...
                                          As was memorably sent up in The Simpsons. But parodies only work if the audience recognise the subject itself.



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                                            #22
                                            Come on people. Beverly Hills 902-oh-no.

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                                              #23
                                              I'm with Fussbudget on this one. There are very few celebs indeed who would prompt any feelings beyond a passing mental nod to the general sadness of someone dying in particularly sad circumstances (which, on age grounds alone, actually applies way above average in Luke Perry's case), or the nostalgic melancholia at the disappearance of the cast of one's youthful memories (Andrew Preview et al). I suppose there are some celebs who are making ongoing contributions to the cultural or political scene where I would be sad to see society lose the benefit of their voice and influence, say prominent campaigners with sound agendas, or people at the peak of their abilities doing good stuff as actors, musicians etc. But that is a tiny proportion of all celebs.

                                              And Luke Perry seemed a good chap by all accounts. Better, say, than Shannon Doherty.

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                                                #24
                                                Celebrity is a funny word, though. Luke Perry was an actor whose work we all seem to know, whether we were fans or not. Hanging 'celebrity' on them seem a bit pejorative.

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                                                  #25
                                                  People over 80, I can't think their deaths especially sad if they're from natural causes. I don't really want to hang around much after that age (of course, the age I judge to be a fair innings is being pushed back with every passing year).

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