From Pictures for Sad Children. (via @cianomahony)
It was pretty amazing, wasn’t it? I was on the 39 home, having left Anto, Darren and Gary with their pints and chatter and the news he had died suddenly filled my twitter stream. Tweet after tweet, line after line. “OMG Michael Jackson’s dead” and the like. “Is he really?”, “Is it verified?”, “Is this a publicity stunt?”, “No one but TMZ is reporting it”, “Sky News are saying it’s definite”, “CNN aren’t saying” and then suddenly “LA Times confirmed”.
I rang Anto who told me. We’d beeen talking about him earlier. I rang Steph who told me. Around me on the bus people started getting texts and calls and then calling others. For the top floor of a bus of about 20 people, at least 10 were made aware. My sister in Kilkenny texted me. Vincent Browne was talking about it on TV3. It was of course all over Sky News.
Boards.ie at last count had over 36,000 views on one of its threads about him. On Twitter it’s 6 our of the 10 top trending topics, with kind of an extra one there under Jeff Goldblum, who is not dead, but used for the “dropping like flies” gag. It’s a tweetmeme all on its own. Sickipedia had over 8,000 people looking at it last night apparently. The word is spreading. 9 newspapers in England this morning:
9 newspapers, 1 story - image via @robmanuel
The jokes are coming in hard and fast:
Very sad about Michael Jackson. HABITAT - for all your furniture needs - habitat.co.uk.
Wasn’t all that surprised to hear Michael Jackson died. He was looking very pale lately.
MJ didn’t have a heart attack… he’s in the children’s ward having a stroke.
‘What’s the difference between MJ and Alex Ferguson? The latter will be playing Giggs in August.
and the needed to be said:
@shanehegarty It’s ok, folks. I’ve just informed the last person on Earth who didn’t know Michael Jackson is dead. That’s everyone told now.
@hughgreen Michael Jackson dying really puts this Iran business into perspective
and so on, with far more tributes being paid to the man and his music. How he defined a generation, how he changed the music world.
@schwarzenegger: We lost a great entertainer and a pop icon. My thoughts and prayers go out to Michael Jackson’s family, friends and fans.
@theellenshow: So sad to hear about Michael Jackson. His music changed our lives. The world has lost an amazing singer and dancer. I will miss him.
@coldplay: MJ was the best of the best. His music and performances made the world a brighter place. His light will shine on forever.
@JohnnyBeirne I feel strange as people actually text me that Michael Jackson passed away.
@gavreilly Wow, Thriller is still a brilliant tune. http://url.ie/1x5m
@grahamallcott: “MTV didnt launch him, he launched MTV” - observer music journalist on MJ
@dermotcasey I find Michael Jacksons life sadder than his death. A childhood stolen. A life feeding the ravenous media beast,vampire like still feeding
And so on and so on.
One of my old posts over on The Blog Pound is currently at no. 2 in top posts. I’d written it last October. There’s now a mass moonwalk being organised at Liverpool Street Station for 6pm this evening, all based on one tweet from Rob Manuel and Milo Yiannopoulos taking the baton. … but look at how quickly it’s spreading.
It’s a strange world we’re living in, with this technology for spreading news we have. The news seemed to break so so quickly. I really wondered if it would turn out that it was wrong. I kind of hoped it would. I was reading on CNN how some fan had said “Well, at least he’s free from all his troubles now.” You’d like to think so, for the sake of his children at least. One of the nicest tributes I’ve read to him is Deepak Chopra’s.
But it’s nothing new. Just one more death. This too will pass.
The tribute from Deepak Chopra was very touching indeed, really emphasises how sad his life was. I really hope it wasn’t another drug-related death, unbelievable. Some ovely tributes and the usual ‘jokes’ I see. No doubt they’ll get a lot worse before they go away.
LOVE the comic - totally how it was last night.
Surprised you posted the jokes though - yeah some are funny, though I’m against encouraging them.
Great post, Darragh. More or less sums up my experience of last night. If I’d logged off Twitter a couple of minutes earlier, I’d have missed all the hullaballoo but it was fascinating to watch.
Poor MJ has been the butt of more jokes than anyone I can think of. I, for one, would be more inclined to take the ‘overly sentimental tribute’ route than indulge in any cheap shots.
The reason I posted the jokes is simply because I’m as surprised by how quickly they have spread as anything else. They’re arriving by text, twitter and emails in equal measure. Jackson reached such a celebrity figure that he was a target of fun being poked as much as praise. It’s just - people need to laugh at death and they’re doing it in this way. I wouldn’t see my post as condoning them as much as just commenting on them. You should see some of the ones I didn’t post!
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