MetaChat - Is anything or anyone universally loved? (Bump)

John Hodgman?

posted by ethylene 19 July | 14:54

Jon's post made me wonder of there is anyone that EVERYONE loves

Two words: Swedish Chef.
Two more words: Bugs Bunny
Two More Words: Wooly Bully

also: the first Rocky movie.

If you don't like the aforementioned things, at least a little bit, you have no soul.

posted by jonmc 19 July | 14:55

I don't think there's such a thing as a bulletproof reputation. Even the people you mention have their detractors.

posted by ThePinkSuperhero 19 July | 14:56

Harry Dean Stanton and if I hear different from anyone I will kick you in the ding-ding.

posted by Divine_Wino 19 July | 14:56

Mother Theresa and the old Dolly Lammy are too easy anyway.

posted by Divine_Wino 19 July | 14:57

(still trying to dig up some dirt on Hodgman. . bear with me.)

posted by danf 19 July | 14:58

If Pete Seeger is secretly an alcoholic wife-beater, I don't want to know about it. I need to think there are some people out there in the world who are just, naturally, good.

posted by jokeefe 19 July | 14:59

I can't stand Pete Seeger. (sorry, jokeefe!)

I think loving pop-culture stuff is so culturally dependent that you could always find someone on the globe who didn't care for it - so 'universally loved' is a toughie. To get 'universal' you might have to look for things like 'a soft warm blanket' or 'water when you're thirsty.'

posted by Miko 19 July | 15:01

bingo!

posted by danf 19 July | 15:02

I think that Pete Seeger lives an exemplary life, and his music bores the plaque off my bicuspids.

posted by danf 19 July | 15:04

Mr Rodgers?

I think there are a lot of "mythical personages" that might be universally loved, for instance just today I wished that the person who invented Beef Pho was spending an eternity in the most deluxe of all the heavens.

posted by Divine_Wino 19 July | 15:05

Don Knotts

posted by Hugh Janus 19 July | 15:07

I can't stand Pete Seeger.

That makes two of us. I hate him for leading the charge against plugging in and for being the man beind all the folkie-inspired pseudo-authenticity fetishizing that still pollutes the music scene today.

posted by jonmc 19 July | 15:10

against Dylan plugging in, I should say

posted by jonmc 19 July | 15:11

General Tso.

posted by box 19 July | 15:12

As in General Tso's Chicken?

PETA comes to mind. . .

posted by danf 19 July | 15:14

I can't stand Pete Seeger or the Swedish Chef. So make that one strike against the chef. I guess I have no soul.

posted by iconomy 19 July | 15:15

Betty White

posted by Hugh Janus 19 July | 15:16

None of the Muppet Show characters, even overlaps, were as good as any of the Sesame Street characters.

posted by Hugh Janus 19 July | 15:17

Andre the Giant

posted by box 19 July | 15:18

OMG I HATE THE SWEDISH CHEF. His human hands FREAK ME OUT!!!!!

This is universally known by those who know me.

posted by Lola_G 19 July | 15:19

None of the Muppet Show characters, even overlaps, were as good as any of the Sesame Street characters.

I disagree. And my nomination for someone that everyone loves, Sam The American Eagle. I loved how he tried to keep his dignity despite the madness around him.

posted by King of Prontopia 19 July | 15:22

Denzel Washington

posted by Hugh Janus 19 July | 15:22

Edward R. Murrow?

(Mother Theresa has many detractors, and for a lot of good reasons, I think)

posted by taz 19 July | 15:27

Denzel Washington

(there is a principal of a school on my town. in place of the usual family photos on her desk, she has two pictures of denzel. am i wrong or is that weird?)

posted by danf 19 July | 15:27

Yogi Berra (and, along similar lines, Sam Goldwyn)

posted by box 19 July | 15:29

This sounds like I'm joking, but I'm not: the sun. Who doesn't love the sun, or at least fear and respect it as a worthy adversary?

posted by cobra! 19 July | 15:29

This sounds like I'm joking, but I'm not: the sun. Who doesn't love the sun, or at least fear and respect it as a worthy adversary?

Albinos?

posted by King of Prontopia 19 July | 15:31

Berra is a lifetime Yankee.

'nuff said.

posted by danf 19 July | 15:34

Yogi Berra? Might as well say Ty Cobb.

Fuckin' Yankees.

posted by Hugh Janus 19 July | 15:35

NOBODY doesn't like Sarah Lee.

posted by bunnyfire 19 July | 15:36

Who loves the rain
Who cares that it makes flowers
Who cares that it makes showers
Since you broke my heart

Who loves the sun
Who cares that it is shining
Who cares what it does
Since you broke my heart

Pa pa pa pa
Who loves the sun
Pa pa pa pa
Who loves the sun
Pa pa pa pa
Not everyone
Pa pa pa pa
Who loves the sun
Sun
Sun
Sun

posted by Divine_Wino 19 July | 15:36

Who doesn't love the sun

honeybaby, I'm SO not loving the sun right now. DO NOT WANT.

But, anyway, that one's not fair... no one would want to be without sunshine (or at least it's benefits) forever in the same way they might want to be without, say, Sex in the City forever. (STOOPID Sex in the City. STOOPID.)

posted by taz 19 July | 15:37

i've got problems with big flaming skyball, but even Bill Gates didn't say he didn't like Hodgman.

posted by ethylene 19 July | 15:39

I'm with box. Yogi Berra is a national treasure, as a ballplayer and as a philosopher.

posted by jonmc 19 July | 15:40

Isn't there some health-care pioneer who's universally loved by Canadians? That's a start.

posted by cobra! 19 July | 15:40

I feel like there might be some good candidates among people who are only known for one thing, and/or among people who died young.

posted by box 19 July | 15:46

Isn't there some health-care pioneer who's universally loved by Canadians? That's a start.

Tommy Douglas.

Yes, I just saw Sicko. I claim no knowledge of Canadian history.

posted by mullacc 19 July | 15:47

Also, I'm making an official challenge on Edward R. Murrow, without looking up or researching his love quotient at all - but you have to be fair... old nemeses slurs shouldn't count, since he was a journalist who challenged lots of people.

posted by taz 19 July | 15:53

When I last lived in Texas, I hated the sun. I loathed it, despised it, cursed it. I wanted it to fucking go away, just once in a while, and it wouldn't, not even when it poured rain, which it didn't, cause we were in that part of the drought cycle.

posted by crush-onastick 19 July | 15:55

Hodgman? That corporate shill?

Sara Lee? That bankrupter of local bakeries and purveyor of preservative-and-HFCS-laden desserts?

Tommy Douglas? Didn't I hear something about him being Canadian?

And here are a few more to knock down: Mark Twain, Groucho Marx, Charles Schulz.

posted by box 19 July | 15:56

Bernie Sanders, Norm Abrams, Jim Henson.

posted by box 19 July | 15:58

Lisa Simpson is hard to dislike.

posted by danf 19 July | 16:03

Isn't there some health-care pioneer who's universally loved by Canadians?

Are you thinking of Norman Bethune?

posted by tangerine 19 July | 16:05

Lisa Simpson is hard to dislike.

Lisa is my least favorite Simpson. She's a bit of a smug know-it-all, although she's still cool.

posted by jonmc 19 July | 16:06

I'm gonna second Divine Wino on Mr. Rodgers.

posted by bmarkey 19 July | 16:13

Lisa is my least favorite Simpson. She's a bit of a smug know-it-all, although she's still cool.

You gonna DIE!
≡ Click to see image ≡

posted by cobra! 19 July | 16:14

To give credit where credit is due, stabby Borgnine is the creation of Dave Campbell

posted by cobra! 19 July | 16:16

Denzel Washington

I once had the chance to meet Denzel and Hank Aaron, at the same time. Hank was an absolute sweetie, but Denzel acted like a stuck-up prick to those of us who were JTFC.*

I think Mr Rogers is as close as America has to a saint.

(*Just The Fucking Crew)

posted by BoringPostcards 19 July | 16:17

Ernest Borgnine
John Candy
Phil Hartman
Ellen

posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson 19 July | 16:24

Murrow was a sellout who spent his later years doing celebrity interviews that helped to legitimize a decline in journalistic standards that have brought us to the place we are today.

How do you like dem apples?

posted by Lentrohamsanin 19 July | 16:24

Yes, I'd go with Mr. Rogers.
The show could get a bit too "sunny"... but the person, Fred Rogers, seems to have been a genuinely good human being. I'd like someone like that in my life -

wouldn't you?

posted by mightshould 19 July | 16:50

Betty White

Mr. Rogers

Ding ding ding!

posted by mdonley 19 July | 16:59

the apples are .... bitter!!!! .... and they burn!... arrgh.

posted by taz 19 July | 17:00

I'll go with Betty White and Kermit the Frog.

posted by rainbaby 19 July | 17:10

Not to be a catrarian, but I never could stand Mr. Rogers. That cloyingly calm voice and sweater. Creepy.

Won't you be my neighbor? No.

Does anyone not like Clint Eastwood?

posted by Pips 19 July | 17:11

(contrarian... sorry)

posted by Pips 19 July | 17:12

I'll go with Betty White and Kermit the Frog.

But if we exclude fictional characters. . .

. . .nah that's too mean.

posted by danf 19 July | 17:17

OK, so, I'm not terribly keen on the Mr. Rogers of the show, but from all one reads of him, he is a good guy...
Betty White? Clint Eastwood? I'm not so keen on...
(no accounting for my taste)

posted by mightshould 19 July | 17:18

Jim Henson

That's a pretty good one, too.

posted by Miko 19 July | 17:18

I don't like Mr. Rogers either. My mother said that even before I could speak full sentences, I would turn off the TV if he came on.

Sorry.

posted by Specklet 19 July | 17:23

Does this all go to proove the challenge danf posed...

posted by mightshould 19 July | 17:26

If there is a hell, Mother Theresa is most certainly there, and the Dalai Lama doesn't approve of homosexuality, anal sex, or oral sex, yet he approved of the US bombing of Afghanistan, so there's no way he's in the running.

I'm pretty sure that every loves Danny Glover, and the dogs that have played Lassie over the years.

posted by cmonkey 19 July | 17:33

I love Danny Glover.

posted by Divine_Wino 19 July | 17:41

Danny Glover? All those Die Hard sequels? (and, really, the original - I hate it more every time I see it.) Please.

posted by taz 19 July | 17:43

You mean Lethal Weapon, taz?

posted by jonmc 19 July | 17:56

I hate hate hate Clint Eastwood.

I've met Danny Glover and he is very warm, sweet and humble.

Jim Henson and Mr. Rogers I vote yes.

I've heard too many industry people say Denzel's an ass to take him seriously as universally loved. His screen persona(e), perhaps.

Tom Hanks? Ellen?

posted by SassHat 19 July | 18:15

Tom Hanks sucks canal water.

posted by jonmc 19 July | 18:22

I don't think you're ever going to find any one thing or person that everyone can agree on. Which, I suppose, is as it should be.

Also, I'm apparently somewhat deficient in the soul department:

Two words: Swedish Chef.
Two more words: Bugs Bunny
Two More Words: Wooly Bully

also: the first Rocky movie.

If you don't like the aforementioned things, at least a little bit, you have no soul.

Swedish Chef: the Pepe LePew of Muppets - amusing at first, but repeated exposure shows him to be a one-joke character.

Bugs Bunny: I'm a huge fan of his work, so I guess I'm in the clear there.

Wooly Bully: it's OK, but I prefer "She's About a Mover".

1st Rocky movie: haven't seen it, have no desire to do so.

posted by bmarkey 19 July | 18:30

My mom.

*gives Hard Stare™ at potential detractors*

posted by Zack_Replica 19 July | 19:05

Everybody loves Raymond.

posted by bunnyfire 19 July | 19:25

Ellen?

I don't like Ellen.

posted by ThePinkSuperhero 19 July | 19:35

In our house, nobody loves Raymond.

posted by bmarkey 19 July | 19:36

1st Rocky movie: haven't seen it, have no desire to do so

bmarkey, old friend, trust me: rent it. it's very difficult not to get both pumped and choked up by it. put all your pre-suppositions about Stallone aside, he earns his keep in that one.

posted by jonmc 19 July | 19:48

I hate Raymond. Especially for employing that awful Patricia Heaton. Screaming is not acting, you self-righteous, holier-than-thou Republican c*nt!

posted by jrossi4r 19 July | 19:52

BORK! BORK! BORK!

I loved Mr. Rogers as a kid but my mom absolutely detested him. One time, she gave him the finger as I watched his show.

I wasn't aware of it at the time. She waited until I was an adult to mention the episode.

posted by jason's_planet 19 July | 19:58

I, too, hate Raymond.

posted by gaspode 19 July | 20:07

Oh man, I hate Raymond so damn much.

posted by Divine_Wino 19 July | 20:13

I just can't understand how "Everybody Loves Raymond" lasted so long or won all those Emmys. I don't know anyone who could stand to watch it.

Jim Henson is a good submission. How about Louis Armstrong? Johnny Cash? Elvis Presley?

posted by Orange Swan 19 July | 20:24

Elvis was a hero to most,
but he never meant shit to me.
Yes, he’s straight up racist
the sucker was simple and plain
Motherfuck him and John Wayne!

(Sorry...I had to. Those are probably my favorite lyrics of all time.)

posted by jrossi4r 19 July | 20:28

I'm in on J Cash, out on Elvis (I like Elvis and love Cash on aesthetic reasons, but just like Jrossi I'm inclined to let Chuck D handle this one.) Louis Armstrong I could see.

Rocky is a fine film.

I also tend to loathe Tom Hanks, but I have a creeping feeling that as I get older I will develop a tiny feeling of sympathy for him, I admit to less cold feelings towards that movie with him alone on the island and in Saving Private Ryan. I suspect that having a tiny bit of feeling for the hated Tom Hanks is a sign that I'm getting older and therefore cannot be trusted and will never be cool again. Really, I feel that.

posted by Divine_Wino 19 July | 21:04

jrossi and wino: Chuck has actually revised his opinion of the King: "Elvis had to come through the streets of Memphis and turn out black crowds before he became famous," Chuck D said. "It wasn't like he cheated to get there. He was a bad-ass white boy. Just like Eminem is doing today. The thing about today is that Eminem has more respect for black artists and black people and culture today than a lot of black artists themselves. He has a better knowledge where it comes from. Elvis had a great respect for black folk at a time when black folks were considered niggers, and who gave a damn about nigger music?"

/big admirer of both Chuck and Elvis.

wino: I watched that Dragnet movie with Hanks & Akroyd on TV today and I admit it was funny, but that had more to do with Akroyd. It's what he became post-Big that irks me.

posted by jonmc 19 July | 21:09

also:

≡ Click to see image ≡

"Elvis was my close personal friend. He came to my Deer Lake training camp about two years before he died. He told us he didn't want nobody to bother us. He wanted peace and quiet and I gave him a cabin in my camp and nobody even knew it. When the cameras started watching me train, he was up on the hill sleeping in the cabin. Elvis had a robe made for me. I don't admire nobody, but Elvis Presley was the sweetest, most humble and nicest man you'd want to know." - Muhammad Ali

(oh to have been a fly on the wall at that meeting)

posted by jonmc 19 July | 21:12

"I wasn't just a fan, I was his brother. He said I was good and I said he was good; we never argued about that. Elvis was a hard worker, dedicated, and God loved him. Last time I saw him was at Graceland. We sang Old Blind Barnabus together, a gospel song. I love him and hope to see him in heaven. There’ll never be another like that soul brother". - James Brown

/game, set, match

posted by jonmc 19 July | 21:19

I actually like Elvis. Particularly fat, cheesey, big production number Elvis.

I just really, really love those lyrics. I would sing my baby to sleep with them if I thought I could get away with it.

And Tom Hanks has become a symbol of all that is bland and wrong with America. But I can't hate him. Not after his work on Bosom Buddies and in Mazes and Monsters. (Which someone did an FPP on Mefi about recently, much to my joy. Mazes and Monsters is my second favorite TV movie of all time. Number one is A Woman Scorned: The Betty Broderick Story starring Meredith Baxter Birney.)

posted by jrossi4r 19 July | 21:37

Yeah, no, it's weird... I just love the lyrics too. Jon you more than trump with those quotes, if James Brown and the GOAT tell me a thing, then it's a thing. I hate Tom hanks, except for when he was just a funny dude (pre-gump I guess, Bosom Buddies, and that island movie got to me and Saving Private Ryan, for some reason I just liked him in that), I fucking spit on Tom Hanks.

posted by Divine_Wino 19 July | 21:45

Yeah, no, it's weird... I just love the lyrics too.

Hey, I admire Chuck's sheer balls in just saying them out loud for the same reason I admire Malcolm X for saying 'white devils' back in the day* but Chuck's always been a thinking cat, so I knew he wasn't being literal.

(I'm with you on Hanks, in Bachelor Party of Dragnet, he's just being a goof and he's fine. It's when he got elevated to superstardom that he got irritating)

*these days that stuff is more problematic, but that's a whole other discussion.

posted by jonmc 19 July | 21:50

There was a recent article where some asshole claimed Mister Rogers (NO D) was responsible for all our "entitlement" problems. For me, that is evidence right there that he was a SAINT.

Sometimes too much ubiquity can destroy your chances of being universally - call that the Oprah rule.

musically: Johnny Cash, Dusty Springfield, (think about this one for a minute) Warren Zevon

Louis Armstrong, Nat King Cole, Ella Fitzgerald (you had to be absolutely perfect to be a black musician crossing over to pop in those days)

maybe not Betty White, but her late husband Allen Ludden (the Mister Rogers of TV game shows)

many beloveds in the "voice" business:
Mel Blanc (the voice of Bugs)
Jim Henson (the voice of Kermit)
Daws Butler (the voice of Yogi Bear)
June Foray (the voice of Rocky, Natasha and Tweety's Granny - still alive and beloved in animation circles and still able to do most of her voices)
Stan Freberg (voice of Cecil and the most successful advertising critic to also be an advertising creator, also still alive)
Gary Owens (original voice of Space Ghost and the nicest person in radio I EVER met)
Julie Kavner (voice of Marge Simpson)

Most lovable Republican: Bob Dole, you may not LOVE him, but nobody HATES him

How could you forget ABE VIGODA (I just checked... he's still alive)

Charles Lane (which is why I FPP'd his passing)

Jimmy Stewart (who Tom Hanks gets compared to way too often... your mileage may vary)

posted by wendell 19 July | 21:50

I'll go Jimmy Stewart and Warren Zevon, for sure.

posted by Divine_Wino 19 July | 21:54

Oh also, I'll stab you in the face if you have a bad word against Octavia Butler, but she might not be famous enough.

posted by Divine_Wino 19 July | 21:56

Jimmy Stewart is proof that there was once such a thing as a 'lovable Republican.' way more so than Bob Dole, (who to his credit has at least evinced a sense of humor post-election loss).

posted by jonmc 19 July | 21:58

Republicans used to be democrats jon, don't forget.

posted by Divine_Wino 19 July | 22:02

Oh, I know, and if Jimmy Stewart was alive today, I doubt he'd be a Bushite.

posted by jonmc 19 July | 22:05

In my preceding post I implied that democrats are defacto good or not worthy of derision or contempt, that was not in any way my intent.

posted by Divine_Wino 19 July | 22:11

Thirding specklet and pips on Mr. Rogers....though he was able to assert himself.

Witch Baby
Professor Lupin

posted by brujita 20 July | 00:19

Thirding, Yogi Bear.

posted by Feisty 20 July | 00:58

Dolly Parton
She's cute and horrifying, funny and poignant, talented and cheap ... and the first one in line to put herself down.

posted by rob511 20 July | 01:04

/me will defend Dolly to the death.

posted by mudpuppie 20 July | 01:30

Did anyone mention rabbits yet?

posted by casarkos 20 July | 01:54

I don't want to do it, but I should point out that neither Gandhi or Mother Theresa were as perfect as people assume.

posted by chuckdarwin 20 July | 02:38

...or, for that matter, is the Dalai Lama.

posted by chuckdarwin 20 July | 02:38

I love Dolly Parton. Not only has she been writing GREAT songs for decades, but she was the first I heard to posit the argument in favor of gay marriage that goes along the lines of gays having as much of a right to be miserable as straights. . .

Gotta love her.

posted by danf 20 July | 09:44

Dolly Parton is the winner.

posted by Divine_Wino 20 July | 12:35

I'll go along with that.

posted by taz 20 July | 13:07

Totally vote Dolly. Straight Talk? Jolene? Dollywood! Dude.

posted by SassHat 20 July | 20:00

Can't argue with Dolly.

I wish all those stories about Elvis being a racist would die. He was a flawed man to be sure, and he could be a real shit to women, but there's no evidence he was a racist. I heard one story that when he was touring, a hotel manager was giving his road manager a hard time because some of the musicians in his front band were black and the hotel manager didn't want them at his hotel. Elvis heard about it, and ordered everybody back on the bus so they could go find a hotel where they would all be welcomed.

posted by Orange Swan 21 July | 21:11

Jim Henson, definitely. I can poke holes in just about everyone else mentioned even if *I* like them.

I know Bo Diddley didn't/doesn't care so much for Elvis.

Louis Armstrong, Serious pot head, which counts against him for some people, was also a bit of an "uncle Tom" character to some people.

Nat King Cole, widely criticized in the '50s and '60s for being so milquetoast about civil rights even after he was attacked onstage by the KKK

Ella Fitzgerald is good, though I highly suspect she didn't love herself.

(you had to be absolutely perfect to be a black musician crossing over to pop in those days)
I understand the sentiment behind that but it really wasn't quite that way, Billy Holiday springs immediately to mind, that lady would and could beat up men upon occasion, not to mention the myriad of other difficulties she had. If she was a pop star nowadays she'd possibly be right up there with the Britneys, Linseys and whomever (major difference of course is Billy actually had buckets of talent).

Dolly is pretty good, but I do know people who don't like her.

posted by edgeways 28 July | 14:30

I nth Mr. Rogers. Even Mefi loved him, and Mefi doesn't love anyone.

posted by drezdn 30 July | 19:18

My vote's on Christopher Walken or Harrison Ford.

posted by spiderskull 31 July | 03:11

19 July 2007