MetaChat - THIS IS AN ANTI-CELEBRITY SHOUTING THREAD!

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19 February 2007

THIS IS AN ANTI-CELEBRITY SHOUTING THREAD! I AM SICK OF ANNA NICOLE SMITH AND BRITNEY SPEARS! →[More:] I CAN'T TURN ON THE TELEVISION, THE RADIO, OR VISIT A NEWS SITE WITHOUT THIS BULLSHIT SEEPING INTO MY AWARENESS AS MUCH AS I TRY TO AVOID IT! I DO NOT CARE HOW SHE DIED, OR WHO GETS THE DAMN MONEY! I DON'T CARE IF BRITNEY CUT HER HAIR OR IS SETTING NEW LOWS IN THE HISTORY OF WHITE TRASH BEHAVIOR! AND WHOEVER IS WATCHING THIS SHIT AND DRIVING UP THE RATINGS, PLEASE CUT IT THE FUCK OUT!

post by: King of Prontopia at: 16:53 | 37 comments

And I am an idiot who forgot to do a More Inside.

posted by King of Prontopia 19 February | 16:54

thank you KoP you've nicely summed up why i have shunned my RSS feeds for the past 4 days.

/so tired of media douchebags

posted by lonefrontranger 19 February | 16:55

One man's celebrity gossip is another man's blow-by-blow of Jobs' keynote address.

posted by muddgirl 19 February | 17:00

Slow month for news.

posted by mischief 19 February | 17:03

I HEARD THAT ANNA NICOLE'S BABY IS BALD AND BRITNEY'S HEAD DIED!! OR SOMETHING!!

posted by jonmc 19 February | 17:04

One man's celebrity gossip is another man's blow-by-blow of Jobs' keynote address.

Hehe, no kidding. I was on a celeb gossip blog, and someone made an off-topic comment about how a RENT fanfic community totally tore apart their fanfic story. I was like, ??, so I go and look at the story and resulting thread- and it's like a Metatalk callout, for RENT fanfiction. And I'm like, man, this is so stooopid. But then I realized that's like the pot calling the kettle black. Eeeeeee.

posted by ThePinkSuperhero 19 February | 17:06

Thanks mod type people for fixing my error.

posted by King of Prontopia 19 February | 17:29

I like to live vicariously through celebrities. Even the dead ones.

posted by jrossi4r 19 February | 17:31

One man's celebrity gossip is another man's blow-by-blow of Jobs' keynote address.

But a Job's keynote address affects me. Will I buy a phone now or will is the iPhone really coming? Do I buy a macbook now or is a new one being announced? Etc. Etc.

They're not really the same, not that there's anything wrong with watching a celebrity cut off all her hair for entertainment. We do all have our own forms of entertainment.

posted by justgary 19 February | 17:46

But a Job's keynote address affects me.

No, it doesn't. You don't "need" to know if a new MacBook is coming out in the next 5 minutes. Plenty of people in the country manage to survivie and buy coomputers and iPods without obsessively following MacRumors.com. Some people even live without Macbooks and cell phones, OMG! You're just interested because you're interested. It is, in fact, the same thing.

posted by ThePinkSuperhero 19 February | 17:50

I'm sort of glad that you brought up fanfiction, TPS; one of my big internet pet peeves is when people denigrate other people's diversions (this isn't an attack on KoP or lfr! it's something I've been mulling over for awhile). It's common among "nerds" and it's common among hardcore media fans/fanfiction writers, etc. It's like the geek chart - we all think we're better than someone else. Well, I spend all day on Mefi, but at least I'm not a Farker! SomethingAwful is cool, but those Worth1000 nerds spend way too much time on the computer!

Heck, it's common in general. There's always an ask.metafilter question like, "Why do all those losers wear wrist watches! And they check them so pretentiously? Everyone knows that a cell phone can tell you the time. Wearing a wrist watch is just showing off! My question is: why do people still wear wrist watches?" That's a form of the same phenomenon.

justgary: at least half the people drooling over the iphone won't be able to support it. Following tech gossip is just as much a diversion as following celeb news. Perhaps I should have said "One man's celebrity gossip is another man's mac rumors forum".

posted by muddgirl 19 February | 17:51

...won't be able to afford it..."

posted by muddgirl 19 February | 17:53

Also, what TPS said. And again, I'm not trying to rag on you; I completely understand your frustration.

posted by muddgirl 19 February | 17:55

Hehe, that geek chart rules. And you're totally right, muddgirl.

posted by ThePinkSuperhero 19 February | 17:56

"People who write erotic versions of Star Trek where all the characters are furries, like Kirk is an ocelot or something and they insert furry versions of themselves into the story."

HAH!!!

posted by jason's_planet 19 February | 17:59

muddgirl: I wasn't slamming celebrity interest per se, what I was shouting about was that there was NOTHING else being covered. If they only reported the story and then moved on, I wouldn't care. Instead they cover the damn thing 24/7 even when there are no new happenings.

posted by King of Prontopia 19 February | 20:32

What!!! Jobs did a new keynote.
*checks*
I think you lie.

posted by seanyboy 19 February | 20:38

Don't worry, the media will find something new to chew on any minute now.

*glad she watches mostly C-Span*

posted by hojoki 19 February | 20:38

I'm better than all of you.

posted by Divine_Wino 19 February | 20:45

Where do I fit in the chart if I masturbate to said self-serving-furry-star-trek-fanfic?

I'm asking for a friend... :P

posted by qvantamon 19 February | 20:45

I'm better than all of you.

Which makes him a celebrity. Let's gossip about him. I hear he likes to drink. Ovaltine, sure, but it's still drinking.

posted by jonmc 19 February | 20:52

Yeah but Ovaltine was recently classified as a narcotic.

posted by hojoki 19 February | 21:25

only when snorted.

posted by jonmc 19 February | 22:03

What if someone blows it up your rectum?

posted by arse_hat 19 February | 22:28

No, it doesn't. You don't "need" to know if a new MacBook is coming out in the next 5 minutes. Plenty of people in the country manage to survivie and buy coomputers and iPods without obsessively following MacRumors.com. Some people even live without Macbooks and cell phones, OMG! You're just interested because you're interested. It is, in fact, the same thing.
posted by ThePinkSuperhero

Again, it's not the same thing at all, and I say that as someone who reads dlisted, the superficial, etc for entertainment. So I'm not putting that down at all.

I don't follow macrumors, and I didn't watch jobs keynote. But the news AFFECTS me. I don't need it in the next 5 minutes, but I do eventually need it if I'm interested in apple products. I can use the info, and I do. Part entertainment, but part to make buying decisions.

Britney cutting her hair, anna nicole dying, affects my life in no way. It's strictly entertainment.

So maybe it's the same for you. It's not at all the same for me. Not even close.

posted by justgary 19 February | 22:30

What if someone blows it up your rectum?

I'd ask them to introduce themselves.

posted by jonmc 19 February | 22:34

But the news AFFECTS me. I don't need it in the next 5 minutes, but I do eventually need it if I'm interested in apple products. I can use the info, and I do. Part entertainment, but part to make buying decisions.

It affects YOU. You. It's part of your life, because you've chosen to make it a part of your life. Good for you. But it's still just a hobby- following Apple gossip and buying Apple products is a hobby, not a necessity. Celebrity gossip does affect people in a lot of ways- it can spark fashion trends, or public debate on moral issues, for starters. It's something that people talk about in a way that brings them together. When you break it down to that level, it's MORE important than talk about if the new iPhone is going to have 4 or 8 GB of hard drive space.

posted by ThePinkSuperhero 19 February | 23:09

because you've chosen to make it a part of your life. Good for you. But it's still just a hobby- following Apple gossip and buying Apple products is a hobby, not a necessity.

That's bizarre logic. Very little is a necessity, besides food, water and shelter. We all choose our hobbies. But the way I choose to live, with the internet, with a computer, with apple computers, is affected by news out of apple, much of which comes from the key note. Britney cutting her hair does not.

When you break it down to that level, it's MORE important than talk about if the new iPhone is going to have 4 or 8 GB of hard drive space.

Not for me it isn't. The problem is you assume to talk for me, and you can't. Gossip is very important to you. Take it away and you'd miss it. I wouldn't. Look at my very first statement. I said a job keynote affects me. I didn't say it affected you. If watching britney shave makes a difference in your life, good for you.

It's something that people talk about in a way that brings them together.

Many, many people couldn't care less. Is that really that hard to believe?

posted by justgary 20 February | 00:05

I AM NOT DRIVING UP THE RATINGS./

It's only marketing, ratings and advertisers dollars. for god's sake, strap yourself down. Besides, look at the proliferation of tv 'star update' shows. They're pulling in the ratings, so you giv'em what they want. They also drive the fashion industry, nothing to sneeze at there.
I think it's easy to move on from though.
What others said, whatever floats your boat.
] BTW, what was Anna buried in¿ [

posted by alicesshoe 20 February | 01:58

When I supported a Mac-using company for a living, MacWorld was definitely not just for fun. It was about keeping up with changes to the platform and scouting out new products my users were going to start asking me for pretty soon anyway.

So that's one example... but I can't think of anyone who needs to keep up on the latest Anna Nicole bullshit for their job, except the media whores whose job it is to shovel said bullshit.

posted by scarabic 20 February | 11:50

Anna has not yet been buried. She's just been embalmed, so far. I'm guessing she's on ice somewhere.

posted by redvixen 20 February | 11:51

"This footage is worth money"

posted by matteo 20 February | 13:52

FWIW, TPS and justgary are saying the same thing, aren't they? We all have our time wasters. Some of us like celebrity gossip (TPS, aren't you a member of some sort of celebrity fantasy league?), some of us like to follow sports. Some of us watch TV, some of us watch only old TV. Some of us garden, some of us work on open source computing projects.

scarabic, do we have to fill every second of our time with activities that are worthwhile, in a business development sense? It's fine for you to say, "I am using these rumor sites usefully," but then to compare that to a liesure activity is a little disingenuous.

Furthermore, it's pretty easy to find news sources that pander to a particular outlook. I never watch TV news because frankly, I'm sick of "Man finds snake under house, news at 10. There's a product in your home that can kill you in seconds, but first..." sort of shock stuff. I don't really read cnn.com either, because they tend to have a weird focus. However, npr and bbc world both have excellent, non-celebrity-focused news sections.

posted by muddgirl 20 February | 14:02

I like celebrity gossip and I'm tired of Anna Nicole and Britney. Someone else needs to flameout and distract us.

Also: James Brown isn't buried yet. Shouldn't he be buried before Anna Nicole?

posted by deborah 20 February | 14:04

Also, I apparantly don't really know what "disingenuous" means, nor can I use it properly in a sentence.

posted by muddgirl 20 February | 14:12

FWIW, TPS and justgary are saying the same thing, aren't they? We all have our time wasters.

Partly yes. But I still think there's a difference.

I actually meant to bring up macworld in my last comment and forgot, so I'm glad scarabic brought that up. If I read macworld it's partly entertainment, but partly information I can use. I learned how to back my hard drive by reading macworld. That means my financial info, the family tree I'm creating, all my music, all my pictures, etc. are safe. So it's more than just choosing a hobby. it affects almost every part of my life. And if it wasn't an apple, it would be a windows pc, or linux...

It's more than entertainment. Britney having a breakdown isn't. I'd compare it to sports, something that's entertainment for me. Now if thepinksuperhero gets something beyond entertainment from britney losing it, I respect that, even if I don't get it. But for most people I think it's just entertainment, and to pretend it's something greater is a stretch. And it's not putting it down to say that, though I do find that fact that it's on CNN's front page disturbing and says a lot about our society, but that's another topic.

And I think I've said too much for one thread, so I'll just bow out and agree to disagree with tps.

posted by justgary 20 February | 17:54

Ok, I lied.

They also drive the fashion industry, nothing to sneeze at there.

The fashion industry is not anna dying or britney breaking down. This isn't like the scene in devil wears prada where she talks about the blue sweater.

Two completely different things.

O.k. NOW I'm done.

posted by justgary 20 February | 18:08

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