WARNING: THERE WILL BE HASHTAGS
Back in my day, crazes were harmless.
Of course, some loonies buried their dead Tamagotchis, others fell over on their tassel trousers, and there was that one time when Shane Cullen got suspended for stealing Pokémon cards. But ultimately, the most trouble you can cause with a Panini sticker book is if you swap a shiny for Junichi Inamoto.
Over the past few weeks, a trend among the Internet-padding Yoof has been to get #RIPfamousperson trending on the old Twitter. If these trends are to be believed, Justin Bieber, Taylor Swift and Eddie Murphy have kicked the bucket in the last month, although Pluto Nash pretty much killed Eddie off years ago. Sherman, Sherman, Sherman!
Last Saturday night, I had a quick look at what was trending in between checking the pearls of wisdom coming out of the #totes #wise #mouth of Chino Wanker, and saw that #RIPWhitneyHouston was the most popular hashtag.
It didn’t take long for me to realise that this wasn’t another weird craze, and the woman who once sang the Jews out of Egypt had actually died. I have never been a massive fan of Whitney, but it is always shocking when a famous person dies, even if they did have a troubled past.
I did not feel the need to tweet about Whitney, but I soon realised that celebrity deaths bring out the worst in the Twittersphere. Everyone has the right to mourn on Twitter (even if you’re a User with an eggy piccy), but there is something incredibly vulgar about reducing sympathy, and a career, to 140 characters and a hashtag, especially when it is done by another ‘celebrity’.
Perez Hilton, who is looking more and more like a gay Ron Perlman every day, set the ball rolling with the heart-felt and poignant ‘So tragic! #WhitneyHouston has died!’ This came with a handy link to his website titled ‘Whitney Houston Dies!!!’, underneath which he had written ‘So sad!!! More details to come!’ If sympathy was judged on exclamation marks, Perez would win the tiara and sash.
Known for her demure and understated stage performances, Rihanna went for a characteristically subtle ‘No words! Just tears #DearWhitney’. While slightly less false than Perez’s attempt, Rihanna’s try at her own hashtag draws attention to her own celebrity status as a trendsetter.
Celebrity tweets of mourning are a particularly strange beast, because one is never sure whether it is a genuine expression of grief, or a transparent attempt to look like they care. This tension became evident when Jess Wright off of TOWIE heard that her interview on Sky was cancelled cos some bloke called Kim Jong Il or Ra’s Al Ghul or summink had done dying. She took to Twitter and wrote:
‘Interview on sky sunrise with arg has been cancelled due to kim Jong ill [sic] passing away. Rest in peace.’
Jess later claimed that she didn’t know who the dictator was, but if this was the case, why tweet in the first place? Obviously, mourning Kimmy and Whitney are different things, but the fact remains that celebrities might tweet condolences to dead famous people because they think it will make them look sympathetic, topical and technologically astute.
There is far more to be said about Twitter mourning, and I guess that’s what the Comments section is for. All I know is, I preferred the #uktrendscene2k12 when it involved the smooth edges of the safe and uncontroversial Pog.
most entertaining columnist in a while. keep it up
I agree that the examples of celebrities exploiting Whitey Houston’s death for self-promotion are completely out of line, but I think Jess Wright’s is just an example of damage limitation that backfired.
Essentially she was telling followers that her interview was cancelled, and gave an external reason so she wasn’t blamed for it. If she hadn’t put the RIP at the end, she may have come across as bitter about the interview being cancelled. Tabloids would gleefully splash it as “MY interview was cancelled. How dare Kim Jong ll die at such an inappropriate moment.”
Yes the post made her look ignorant, and I don’t condone its message. But given her show makes her the kind of celebrity people love to hate, “RIP” was probably good damage limitation. There are very few cases where the abbreviation is an inappropriate response to a person’s death, and a small chance of being labelled ignorant is preferable to a large chance of being labelled insensitive.
At the end of the day, she probably should have done a quick Wikipedia.
Definitely your most interesting piece, and still with all the brilliant #unleashtheniche references. #lampardcelebration
Finally, a columnist that doesn't feel the need to be crude in order to get hits.
Just in case you needed reminding: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gur8ccqrQ9c
The best craze we had in Donegal was having a few wee bevvies then go for crusing in our skoda and throw cupcakes at some golfers here.
So so shit.
i'm in mourning #RIPthetab