I was thinking today about the rise and fall of fame. I’m not famous, nor do I know any famous people to speak of, but I know that it isn’t easy. Once you reach some level of fame, pretty much anyone who knows who you are is hungrily waiting for you to fail so they can tell all their friends they knew it was going to happen.
I found a link on my friend Ally’s blog that relates the sad story of ex-Creed frontman Scott Stapp being punk’d by some non-fans. The people doing the punking wrote about it on a live journal, which is where the link on my friend Ally’s blog led to.
Now, I’m not a creed fan… far from it. Aside from being a Christian rock band, I don’t find anything remotely interesting about their music. That isn’t to say that I think the band or Stapp are not human beings with the same frailties as the rest of us. Many music fans feel that Stapp is a hypocrite and that this is reason enough to fuck with the guy. Me? I don’t see it that way. When I don’t like someone or something, I just ignore them. If its personal, I might engage them in a discussion to air my views, but I wouldn’t set them up to entertain myself… which is what these people did to Stapp.
Anyway, I’d link it, but I don’t want to give them the traffic (all five or six of you regular readers) that might originate from my blog… you can find it your self with google if you’re interested.
Just go to google and type: punking scott stapp
Hmmm. All I can say is every song he sings sounds EXACTLY the same. And striking a “Jesus crucified pose” went out oh 2000 1966 years or so ago in my book.
I have no idea what “punking” means but assume that it is bad thing. Why does american english use “punk” in a pejorative sense? Just a question…
it’s because of a TV show, limey… called punk’d
It’s named after Ashton Kutcher’s show that he had on MTV in which he played practical jokes on celebrities… no matter how you slice it though, its still using a person’s fears and frailties against them as a form of entertainment.
Im against the whole “practical joke” school of humour for precisely those reasons. It seems to be based upon humiliation and laughing at people. Not that I am against laughing at people…
Yeah, I think that the reason why shows like punk’d and jackass are so popular among the 18-25 demographic is because that particular generation has absolutely no soul. The fact that they want to laugh is good, but the things they choose to laugh at aren’t. They’re more interested in which outfits and shoes are in fashion than whether or not they can contribute to the welfare of their peers… please don’t even get me started on that generation’s penchant for joining environmental organizations or the “cause” de jour in order to pretend to care about something other than getting drunk, getting laid, and getting ahead.