I’ve been more affected by Michael Jackson’s death than I thought I would be, so I’ve been thinking about this stuff for a few days. Mostly about pop stars and iconography and the image vs. the person–what do we mourn when we mourn a dead celebrity? In Heath Ledger’s case, it was so obviously the work he had left to do, but in Jackson’s case, it seemed fairly likely that he’d never make any music again, that his music was completely overshadowed by his court cases and plastic surgeries. Yet people have still been publicly mourning.
Daryl Cagle, cartoonist extraordinaire, wrote about Michael Jackson and editorial cartoonists, and his sadness was clearly only that he didn’t have an easy target for cartoons anymore.
Michael Jackson was God’s gift to editorial cartoonists. Now that the gift has been “returned to sender” the cartoonists are mourning the loss of one of their most evergreen gags.
Yet this cartoon, that I saw this morning, really seems to sum up all the feelings about Jackson.
Do you remember, indeed. Before the accusations and the surgeries and the baby-dangling, when it was just about the music.
June 29th, 2009 at 8:12 am
That’s a great cartoon.
June 29th, 2009 at 11:28 am
Thank you for posting this, Sarah. It is a really great cartoon. Like you, MJ’s death has affected me quite a bit as well. I’m a few years older than you, so my memories of Thriller and its cultural impact and the hysteria surrounding MJ at the time may be a bit stronger than yours, but I think we’re both on the same page when it comes to realizing the significance of his passing. MJ was a HUGE part of my childhood, and as silly as it sounds, I feel like a part of my childhood died along with him. Forget about the controversies and the child-molesting accusations. If there really is a God, let Him judge Michael now–that’s His job, not ours. Instead, let’s remember MJ for all the amazing music he left behind.
June 29th, 2009 at 12:58 pm
Someone should share this with Bendis, who has a different take on Twitter. And by “different” I mean “asshole-ish”.
June 29th, 2009 at 3:48 pm
You know, I agree, Tre: anyone who takes a hardline stance about someone with insanely strong allegations of being a child molester surely is being “asshole-ish”. Truly.
June 29th, 2009 at 6:31 pm
Sorry, I’m not getting all the love for Michael Jackson… I mean, OK, in spite of fame and wealth he had a pretty sad life. That’s unfortunate. I never cared for his music either, but if you liked it that’s fine. I must be the only person who never owned a copy of Thriller. I just don’t have warm feelings for a child-molesting freak who did bizarre things to his body, and also molested the Lennon/McCartney song catalog. If that’s being an asshole, so be it.
I do feel bad for the children he leaves behind though… What are the chances that they’ll have anything even close to a “normal” life? Now they’re going to be part of hellish custody fight.
June 29th, 2009 at 11:55 pm
Yes, it truly is sad that Michael Jackson has passed on and will never have another chance to affect the lives of other little boys.
Geez, a guy dies and all of a sudden he’s a saint and any talk of past wrongs and is considered heresy. Oh, wait I forgot about Thriller, well then he must be innocent.
June 30th, 2009 at 9:33 am
I think this is a testament to how badly our society has become with elevating “celebrity” in one’s personal life and tragedies over the actual contribution a person’s talent effected the mainstream consciousness. I mean just look at those “celebrities” (like Paris Hilton) who are famous with zero talent. The majority of Michael Jackson’s life was and will always be his contribution to music and pop culture. I think it’s sad that people do focus on the controversies that surrounded him. Things that were never publicly proven, all there was was the public trial. Sure he was weird and eccentric but to say that these things outweighed the fact that anyone in the world can name at least 10 Michael Jackson songs and can at least hum the tune is a testament to his talent. I really will never say he is saint but you don’t speak ill of the dead. You respect the good memories not the alleged “bad memories.” Oh yes I did make my fare share of Michael Jokes and laughed out loud with that “South Park” episode but I would never deny his music or place in the world’s history.
June 30th, 2009 at 2:39 pm
Wow, so many clueless, thoughtless replies….I’m not calling the man a saint for any reason, but I’m also not calling him a child molester either, since last I checked, nothing was actually, you know, proven.
I guess that’s just my “hardline stance”.
And I don’t think it’s the idea of making him a saint for many people, but much more about mourning the passing of a brilliant musician who, even if you didn’t care for his music, influenced and shaped a great deal of the people that came after him.
July 1st, 2009 at 3:12 am
Will you mourn football’s loss of a great talent after OJ Simpson dies as well? I mean his guilt was never, you know, proven either. But he was a great football player and contributed his talent to mainstream consciousness or at least to football history.
And yes, I do believe that Jackson was guilty. When I fist heard the allegations I decided I’d wait to make my opinion and when I heard what came out decided he was guilty. A “not guilty” verdict doesn’t PROVE innocence, it proves you don’t have proof of guiltiness. And yes, I do believe one’s personal life should be the factor of how people perceive you. Talent or not, if someone like Leonardo da Vinci was, let’s say, a murderous cannibal, I’d find him to be despicable, genius or not. I mean what did Michael Jackson truly contribute? A few songs? Impressive dancing? I wonder how much press the death of someone important like Stephen Hawking will receive. That’s what’s sad is that just making some songs will grant you more attention than actually doing something substantial that will actually last.
July 1st, 2009 at 7:47 am
I guess my point is this: I certainly don’t try to sidestep that MJ was surrounded by (unproven) controversy. My only beef is with people shoe-horning in the controversy when this editorial cartoon was purely a reference to MJ the music talent. It just seems desperate to try and quickly tack on the other things.
The ed cartoon doesn’t “messiah” him.
The ed cartoon doesn’t proclaim his innocence.
The ed cartoon doesn’t even say anything beyond “Thriller was great”.
And yeah, I knew someone would say “OJ” though I also think that is a wholly different beast because of the polarizing effect that case had on the entire nation.
We’ll just have to respectfully disagree on this, I guess.