Billy Mays (Not) Here

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Original post by Programmer One What the hell is going on this month? Fawcett, MJ and now that infomercial guy.

I don't get this phenomenon... The daily GD.net did the same thing last week... 4 million people die each month, and yet people are surprised to see a few people they know of (not even people you know!) pass away in the same month? OOoooohhh scary!! Wots going onn1!?!?!?

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Original post by Hodgman Quote: Original post by Programmer One What the hell is going on this month? Fawcett, MJ and now that infomercial guy. I don't get this phenomenon... The daily GD.net did the same thing last week... 4 million people die each month, and yet people are surprised to see a few people they know of (not even people you know!) pass away in the same month? OOoooohhh scary!! Wots going onn1!?!?!?

It is a conspiracy. Duh. (I can tell by the pixels, etc).

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Original post by Hodgman Quote: Original post by Programmer One What the hell is going on this month? Fawcett, MJ and now that infomercial guy. I don't get this phenomenon... The daily GD.net did the same thing last week... 4 million people die each month, and yet people are surprised to see a few people they know of (not even people you know!) pass away in the same month? OOoooohhh scary!! Wots going onn1!?!?!?

Part of it is that Jackson & Mays were only 50 years old, and they were both sudden and unexpected deaths. Also, he left Ed McMahon off his list.

You also have to consider that these are high profile deaths. Celebrity deaths are like hearing your friend's friend died, not person X you never knew existed.

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Original post by Hodgman I don't get this phenomenon... The daily GD.net did the same thing last week... 4 million people die each month, and yet people are surprised to see a few people they know of (not even people you know!) pass away in the same month? OOoooohhh scary!! Wots going onn1!?!?!?

Really? You're really, actually surprised by this? Surprised that people are more interested in the lives and deaths of people they know of more so than the nameless, faceless deaths that are known to us merely as quantities? 4 million is a number, certainly, it is even a big number in comparison to smaller numbers, but guess what? 4 million never yelled at me to buy OxiClean, 4 million didn't sing Thriller, and I didn't think 4 million was a total babe when I was 13. Get real. Of course we care more about MJ and Farrah and, now, Billy Mays.

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Original post by Samith Quote: Original post by Hodgman OOoooohhh scary!! Wots going onn1!?!?!? Really? You're really, actually surprised by this? Surprised that people are more interested in the lives and deaths of people they know of more so than the nameless, faceless deaths that are known to us merely as quantities? 4 million is a number, certainly, it is even a big number in comparison to smaller numbers, but guess what? 4 million never yelled at me to buy OxiClean, 4 million didn't sing Thriller, and I didn't think 4 million was a total babe when I was 13. Get real. Of course we care more about MJ and Farrah and, now, Billy Mays.

When did I say I was surprised to see people care about people they know of? I know of this pop culture thing...

I'm not surprised that people care, I'm surprised that people are surprised when people die in the same time period:

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Then Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson both dying yesterday. Craaaazzy week.

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What the hell is going on this month!?!?!?!?!!!oneoneone? Fawcett, MJ and now that infomercial guy.

You know if you get 22 people in a room with you, there's a 50/50 chance that you'll share your birthday with one of them.
Given the humongous number of people you know of, there's a pretty good chance that some of them will share the same death-month too.

Fair enough telling me to "get real" if you think I'm somehow disrespecting the dead, but it's a bit much going off like that over statistics.

If 2 or 3 famous people dying in the same day is weird, then let me blow your statistic-adverse mind with some other famous Americans who also died that day:
Don Coldsmith (author)
Morton Gottlieb (broadway producer)
James Baker Hall (poet)
John Giase (reporter)
Clifton Johnson (judge)
Sky Saxon (rock star)

[Edited by - Hodgman on June 29, 2009 7:01:04 AM]

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Original post by Hodgman You know if you get 22 people in a room with you, there's a 50/50 chance that you'll share your birthday with one of them. Given the humongous number of people you know of, there's a pretty good chance that some of them will share the same death-month too. Fair enough telling me to "get real" if you think I'm somehow disrespecting the dead, but it's a bit much going off like that over statistics. If 2 or 3 famous people dying in the same day is weird, then let me blow your statistic-adverse mind with some other famous Americans who also died that day: Don Coldsmith (author) Morton Gottlieb (broadway producer) James Baker Hall (poet) John Giase (reporter) Clifton Johnson (judge) Sky Saxon (rock star)

I'm sorry, what makes you think any of these people are even half as famous as the others mentioned? All of these people you mentioned require an interest in something specific to know who they are. For example, nobody will know Coldsmith if they've never looked at western novels before.

And who is Giase and what is the Asbury Park Press that he edited? You're telling me you know the names of your newspaper's editors by heart, let alone some other city's newspaper? And aside from him the others were all in their 70/80s. Again people expect the old to die, but not the young.

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Original post by HelplessFool Again people expect the old to die, but not the young.

QFT

I saw that one documentary on CNBC that dicussed Mays' history. It's crazy because that was on, like, last month, or possibly this one. Man, he was cleaning up (monetarily), too. Who will take his place?

Just goes to show you how wrong the "die in threes" theory is. It's, like, up to five now, right?

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Original post by shuma-gorath Who will take his place?

This guy?

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Original post by Hodgman You know if you get 22 people in a room with you, there's a 50/50 chance that you'll share your birthday with one of them.

Actually, it's more like 6%. You'd need to get more like 253 people in a room for there to be a 50/50 chance of you sharing a birthday with one of them.

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Original post by Hodgman Quote: Original post by Samith Quote: Original post by Hodgman OOoooohhh scary!! Wots going onn1!?!?!? Really? You're really, actually surprised by this? Surprised that people are more interested in the lives and deaths of people they know of more so than the nameless, faceless deaths that are known to us merely as quantities? 4 million is a number, certainly, it is even a big number in comparison to smaller numbers, but guess what? 4 million never yelled at me to buy OxiClean, 4 million didn't sing Thriller, and I didn't think 4 million was a total babe when I was 13. Get real. Of course we care more about MJ and Farrah and, now, Billy Mays. When did I say I was surprised to see people care about people they know of? I know of this pop culture thing... I'm not surprised that people care, I'm surprised that people are surprised when people die in the same time period: Quote: Then Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson both dying yesterday. Craaaazzy week. Quote: What the hell is going on this month!?!?!?!?!!!oneoneone? Fawcett, MJ and now that infomercial guy. You know if you get 22 people in a room with you, there's a 50/50 chance that you'll share your birthday with one of them. Given the humongous number of people you know of, there's a pretty good chance that some of them will share the same death-month too. Fair enough telling me to "get real" if you think I'm somehow disrespecting the dead, but it's a bit much going off like that over statistics. If 2 or 3 famous people dying in the same day is weird, then let me blow your statistic-adverse mind with some other famous Americans who also died that day: Don Coldsmith (author) Morton Gottlieb (broadway producer) James Baker Hall (poet) John Giase (reporter) Clifton Johnson (judge) Sky Saxon (rock star)

I probably should have read your whole post before letting you take the brunt of my annoyance. When MJ and Farrah died I heard a lot of people doing the whole "who cares lots of people die you should care about every single individual death" thing, as if being more interested in the deaths of celebrities than ordinary people you've never heard of was wrong. So, my apologies to you!

And, with respect to what you actually wrote in your post: it is kind of weird that three 50 year old celebrities (aka rich, insured people with lots of access to medical care) would die over a single weekend. Not saying it's a conspiracy, but you can understand people being surprised by it. It's not often that people as famous as Michael Jackson and Billy Mays die, let alone in "death clusters" as the weekend seemed to be.

Also, I've never heard of any of the people you listed that also died on that day.

On the coincidence: My junior (third) year in high school, 4 of the 600 students in the high school died within about 2 weeks, plus a middle school student and a kindergarten student.

Everyone panicked and they closed the school. Frantic parents were worried that something was going on, despite the various medical histories of the victims:

One of the high school students was fighting Leukemia.
Another high school student died of a different cancer.
Another high school student died of a brain aneurysm due to a congenital defect in his brain.
The kindergarten child had a lung transplant three years earlier (I didn't even know they could do that), which has an average post-op life expectancy of four years.

The others, I don't remember, but they were definitely not environmental. But it didn't matter to the parents. Six people died, something has to be going on, and we'll shut down the town if we have to until we have an explanation.

Just silly.

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Original post by HelplessFool I'm sorry, what makes you think any of these people are even half as famous as the others mentioned? All of these people you mentioned require an interest in something specific to know who they are.

Out of all the famous deaths (and the twitter-hoax deaths) in the news over this period, I only knew who MJ was...
So to me they're all obscure except Jackson, who I remember mainly for controversy and second for listening to his music as a kid ;p

For example, Farrah Fawcett is famous for what -- some crappy TV show from the 70's? I don't have a specific interest in sex-symbols of the 70's, or American advertising, and haven't had an interest in pop-music for quite some time, sorry.

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Original post by Samith When MJ and Farrah died I heard a lot of people doing the whole "who cares lots of people die you should care about every single individual death" thing, as if being more interested in the deaths of celebrities than ordinary people you've never heard of was wrong.

Lol, no problem. You tell those hermits what's what! ;)

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Original post by Hodgman Quote: Original post by HelplessFool I'm sorry, what makes you think any of these people are even half as famous as the others mentioned? All of these people you mentioned require an interest in something specific to know who they are. Out of all the famous deaths (and the twitter-hoax deaths) in the news over this period, I only knew who MJ was... So to me they're all obscure except Jackson, who I remember mainly for controversy and second for listening to his music as a kid ;p For example, Farrah Fawcett is famous for what -- some crappy TV show from the 70's? I don't have a specific interest in sex-symbols of the 70's, or American advertising, and haven't had an interest in pop-music for quite some time, sorry.

I wouldn't expect you or anyone else outside of the US to know Billy Mays, but most anyone here who watches even a few hours of TV a week likely has at least seen him, even if they don't know his name (or one of his many rivals, he has had a large influence on the infomercial). Similarly, Charlie's Angels was a US show and Fawcett was a US actor. It's just become a part of culture here (though I can't speak for generations following me).

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Original post by HelplessFool Quote: Original post by Hodgman Quote: Original post by HelplessFool I'm sorry, what makes you think any of these people are even half as famous as the others mentioned? All of these people you mentioned require an interest in something specific to know who they are. Out of all the famous deaths (and the twitter-hoax deaths) in the news over this period, I only knew who MJ was... So to me they're all obscure except Jackson, who I remember mainly for controversy and second for listening to his music as a kid ;p For example, Farrah Fawcett is famous for what -- some crappy TV show from the 70's? I don't have a specific interest in sex-symbols of the 70's, or American advertising, and haven't had an interest in pop-music for quite some time, sorry. I wouldn't expect you or anyone else outside of the US to know Billy Mays, but most anyone here who watches even a few hours of TV a week likely has at least seen him, even if they don't know his name (or one of his many rivals, he has had a large influence on the infomercial). Similarly, Charlie's Angels was a US show and Fawcett was a US actor. It's just become a part of culture here (though I can't speak for generations following me).

I know who Mays is, but I've never even heard of Fawcett until she died and I live in the U.S.

Btw, when I first saw Mays doing a commercial, I assumed he was a retired baseball player endorsing useless products. Did anyone else get this impression? He would say, “I’m Billy Mays and I wouldn’t put my name on it if I didn’t believe in it.” That seems a bit odd to say if he is just a pitch man. In addition, I don’t watch sports, but he looks how I generally picture a baseball player.

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Original post by shuma-gorath I saw that one documentary on CNBC that dicussed Mays' history. It's crazy because that was on, like, last month, or possibly this one. Man, he was cleaning up (monetarily), too. Who will take his place? Just goes to show you how wrong the "die in threes" theory is. It's, like, up to five now, right?

I thought it was in threes, as like last years loss of Bernie Mac, Isaac Hayes and George Carlin.

So with the losses of Ed, Farrah, and MJ the deaths in three is fufilled, but wait, if you order now you can get another celebrity absolutely free, it's got the Billy Mays guarantee

">Would you expect anything less from him? (Wonder if he'll make it a triple offer?)

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Original post by ManaStone Btw, when I first saw Mays doing a commercial, I assumed he was a retired baseball player endorsing useless products. Did anyone else get this impression? He would say, "I'm Billy Mays and I wouldn't put my name on it if I didn't believe in it." That seems a bit odd to say if he is just a pitch man.

You've never seen the commercial in which someone says, "If they're saying it on tv, then it has to be true"? Or the one where they said, "If it wasn't real, we wouldn't be able to offer a full money back guarantee"?

American advertising has no requirement to be truthful, but a substantial portion of the American public expects it to be so. (This, incidentally, is also how they continue to fall for "Nigerian scams" and so forth. Given the recent history of "your word and a handshake" being enough to seal significant financial deals, a shocking number of Americans are still extremely naïve when it comes to being propositioned.)

The only constraint recognized by advertisers and marketers in America is liability, thus the profusion of small print at the bottom of commercials. "Professional driver on a closed course. Do not attempt." "Past success is no predictor of future results." "Individual results may vary." "When compared to super-specific category Grognard that makes our ludicrous claim true, such as claiming best mileage in its class but only for vehicles we manufacture."


Farrah Fawcett's death wasn't surprising. She was losing her fight with her cancer, and everybody knew it was coming. (By the way, she had also recently reclaimed a smidgen of relevance with the checkout counter magazine crowd by starring in a "reality" show and rekindling her on-again-off-again romance with Ryan O'neal, who married her - again - just before she died.) (Disclaimer: my girlfriend is a gossip hound, and watches The View.)

Michael Jackson's death was a shock. He was rehearsing for a new concert. It also highlighted how warped many notions of MJ are - the media coverage includes too much "controversy" and "scandal," and not enough celebration of the greatest entertainer that ever was, bar none. Worse, it highlighted how little he has remained in the spotlight for new consumers: a friend's daughter didn't know who he was and, on learning he was a singer, asked if he was as good as Hannah Montana.

Yes, I just threw up in my mouth, too. (Disclaimer: "Beat It" was the first favorite song, and I had a red and black "MJ jacket".)

Billy Mays' death was a shock as well, given his age, his healthy appearance, and his rising profile with the Pitchmen show on TLC.

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Original post by Oluseyi ...The only constraint recognized by advertisers and marketers in America is liability, thus the profusion of small print at the bottom of commercials. "Professional driver on a closed course. Do not attempt."...

The most hilarious thing about the professional driver one, is that many manufacturers put a clause in your warranty that says any kind of competitive driving/motor sports will void your power train warranty. There have been quite a few autocrossers who have found Mitsubishi & Subaru to pull that one on them.