Michael Jackson will not be down for breakfast

[Syndrome]

Here is the most tasteless one I've heard so far:

Q) What are Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett getting for Christmas this year?

A) Patrick Swayze

It gets two dead and one vulnerable all in there together.

[Disneyguy85]

Here is the most tasteless one I've heard so far:

Q) What are Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett getting for Christmas this year?

A) Patrick Swayze

Wow...That's pretty nasty.

[GRUMPY PIRATE]

Oh, I remember one that my kids came home from school with about Natalie Wood...

Why didn't Natalie Wood take showers?

She preferred to wash up on shore!

I does seem strange that the first thing that we humans come up with after someone dies tragically is a joke about it. Maybe it's our way of coping with the situation and keep ourselves away from it all. Who knows! It is very common though.

Humor is a good coping mechanism, I have seen this in action at accident sites, and when we recovered some bodies from misadventure. It seems to me that most people feel uncomfortable at the reminder that we are all mortal.

(yes, a princess bride reference!)

[Princess Susi]

Ah, I get to be the unpopular one yet again. I am going to use the statement I said on my Facebook after I had posted a picture with "RIP Michael, you will be missed" and then receiving a few snide remarks.

"You are entitled to your opinion, but I know in my case I am sad he is gone. He was an amazing entertainer, regardless of his personal life.

And I am sure I am not alone in thinking that."

I didn't find jokes about him funny when he was alive either. Maybe that makes me the odd duck out, but I was never ashamed to say I was a fan. Ever.

Too many folks forget or choose not to acknowledge just how many musicians and others in the industry owe their careers to his innovations and imagination.
I am not saying he didn't have some eccentricities. But what celebrity doesn't or didn't?

Who out there watched that Thriller video and thought so many different things and grew up to do them? Such as Rick Baker's makeup or John Landis' directing? Or being a band and knowing that they could push that envelope a bit more instead of the same things that were popular at the time?

I'm not saying he's a god, but take out your cd collection today. Look at it and think, "If Michael hadn't done all the things he did in his life, would this even exist?" I'd bet it wouldn't.

That's my soapbox and I'll thank you to put it back when you're done.

I don't remember a time when Michael Jackson ever acknowledged the people he mimicked. Fred Astaire for example, just watch the "Blood on the Dance Floor" video. Michael Jackson uses fireworks in his dance when Fred did it in Holiday Inn so many years before! The "Say it With Firecrackers" clip from Holiday Inn is at youtube You can see Fred's origianal firecracker dance. Again if you missed the link to the origins of the Moonwalk video, all the dancers in that video ran the vaudeville circuit back in the early part of the 20th century and Michael got most of his moves there. I think the only original move he ever did was the crotch grab. And even then, Mick Jagger used to do that as did a number of rockers!

He WAS an excellent dancer and I liked lots of his songs from the 1980's. No one can argue that he changed the face of music with videos on MTV. He made it possible for black entertainers to move into the mainstream of pop.

But his later troubles really put a different face on a man who destroyed what good he did with some of the truly strange and bad things he did.
Whether or not he was ever convicted, it was weird how some of the evidence pointed to his guilt. He even said in an interview that the best thing one could do is to share their love with others and that by sleeping in a bed with a child he was doing just that. He actually said it was OKAY to sleep with a child in bed, a child not your own! That is just not right! I don't care how you paint it, it is sick.
There were many other performers Michael got his moves from. You can watch the old musicals and see most of his steps in them, Fred Astaire being the most copied, Gene Kelly and others...All the steps are there. He just was able to dance the same steps very well and in a time when pop was king, he made a splash with old dance moves from the early to mid 1900's. Sure, there is no denying he was talented.
In case you missed it, here is the link to the origins of the Moonwalk. All the performers in this clip are from vaudeville or shows at that time, back in the early 1900's...See Michael's moves there?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxZcLWAmdco

And here is Say it with Firecrackers" by Fred Astaire

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rV_CUBaekL4
See Michael's fancy footwork inthere too?

Here is "Blood on the Dance Floor" by Michael Jackson. Check out the fircrackers at 2:40-2:42... Fred's work in Holiday Inn all over again...but Fred really did it up.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVxDFoTtsm8

As an aside, Michael Jackson met Fred Astaire before Fred died and they admired one another's work. It looks like Michael did more than admire it...He used so many of Fred's moves in his routines.

[Princess Susi]

correction: was not in time to edit WTV to MTV. Please note correction. He changed the face of music with his videos on MTV.
I am happy that is fixed.

[Note: Spelling correction made. Admin.]

[GRUMPY PIRATE]

Its sad that I remember the Fred Astaire bit...from seeing the movie!!

[drcorey]

Its sad that I remember the Fred Astaire bit...from seeing the movie!!

Gene Kelly was great also.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZg2MXPy14I

[GRUMPY PIRATE]

Gene Kelly was great also.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wZg2MXPy14I

Again, saw the original (and have it!)

[Switchbeam 9]

The memorial service today was so beautiful. Masterfully done and very emotional. Yet at the same time it was uplifting.

Some critics billed this as going to be a rock concert spectacle. It wasn't that at all. It really humanized Michael. He was a father and a brother. A man.