I don't know if this is real or not, but the number of celebrities appears to be growing year by year. Every time I scan the media, I seem to come across another celebrity I've never heard of, as if large media outfits are pumping out ever increasing numbers of the blighters.
Equally alarming is that most of them seem to be celebrity celebrities, people famous for being a celebrity rather than someone who has achieved something beyond the celebrity circus. Official celebrity statistics would be useful here, because in the age of social media we may be on the verge of a celebrity pandemic.
The celebrity pandemic could perhaps be tackled by digital social distancing. It is possible to envisage an internet app which automatically blocks any online video, image or article featuring a celebrity. Sounds useful already.
The app could be similar to an ad blocker with a number of blocking criteria. It would obviously begin by blocking BBC newsreaders plus Harry, Meghan and Tony Blair as its default setting.
There would also be a range of adjustable settings for political celebrities, environmental celebrities, sporting celebrities, entertainment celebrities, celebrity pundits, comedians who aren't funny and so on. It sounds feasible to me.
8 comments:
Unfortunately it's not that new, just worse. Remember Katie Boyle, Robert Morley, Gilbert Harding and others who populated the three channels all that time ago? Famous for being famous . . .
I find that the off switch on the TV works well whenever one of these self-promoting nonentities is on screen. So the idiot-box is off 99% on the time.
Be careful what you wish for.
You, yourself could be blocked.
And once you are blocked the Streisand effect kicks in and you are even more famous.
Then before you know it you are on Daytime TV giving your opinion on Test Match hair styles.
One of the not-well-known musicians I rather like is Nigel Stonier, probably too sarcastic or acerbic for most people. But this song about celebrity culture has a couple of great lines 'she's well known for being famous' and 'she's bewildered but she's dim'. It's on YT https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXHnPJ6k2Rk if you fancy a listen.
It's largely a female thing, it seems to me.
Whereas men's innate competitiveness is expressed by over-achieving and dominating others, women have to establish pecking-orders and trash the reputations of rivals. Celebrities are a relatively harmless way of expressing this, especially now that women are isolated in the home or in work cubicles.
That should have been slim, not dim. wrong rhyme.
I like to celebrate my tenuous connections to celebrities. Frinstance, I passed Ian Rankin in the street. I refrained from saying "Wotcha, Rebus!"
I passed up my chance to knock down Germaine Greer with my bike. I saw Hugh Laurie and his boys clambering out of a sports car.
And so it goes.
Jannie - I do remember them, but smaller numbers seemed easier to ignore than the hordes we have now. One problem is that buries in those hordes may be one or two who do have something to say.
Ed - that works for us too. It was probably never worth watching and what little we did watch was too much.
Doonhamer - yes, to be blocked could be quite a boost. I'll check out those Test Match hair styles just in case.
Woodsy - thanks, I've bookmarked it for later.
Sam - I sometimes read online football comments. They seem to be male dominated as we might expect, but one aspect seems to be the use of football teams and football celebrities to establish a kind of virtual pecking order. They often try to trash the reputations of rivals.
dearieme - I don't have many examples although I briefly chatted with Sajid Javid on the doorstep. Not sure if that counts though. I once caught sight of Bo Didley in Derby, but I was on a passing bus and my friend had to tell me who he was.
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