Define Famous

[DarthTofu]

How would you define being famous? What is your criterion for it? Do you need to be asked to endorse a product, to appear on national/international television? Do five thousand people have to know your name? Do you have to appear in a specific branch of the media? In short, how do you define famous?

 

My criteria: I have to have my own Wikipedia Article, and it has to at least be nominated for a feature article. Failing Wikipedia, I'll gladly take Wookiepedia.

[Darth_Rob]

I think being famous is based on recognition. It doesn't matter about money/ wealth, because there are plenty of rich people worldwide who are very unknown.

 

I guess a person becomes famous based on his or her life and actions. Its the things they do which makes them interesting, and this general interest leads to recognition. Being able to place someone based on what they do or did is my idea of being famous. Whether it is a military leader, politician, scientist, inventor, sports player, etc, each person is famous based on what they do, and how well they do it.

[SOCL]

Name recognition. How many people know you per a certain amount of land. The more people, the more famous. What actually makes them famous (and by "makes" I mean creates the fame) is another matter entirely. You might become super-extra famous by streaking across campus, or you could become famous by hosting a television show.

 

Out of curiosity, why do you ask, Tofu?

[Darth_Rob]

I think he plans on writing a Wikipedia article about...famousity?

[SOCL]

I think he plans on writing a Wikipedia article about...famousity?

Perhaps one about himself.

[Darth_Rob]

Oh...HAHAHA! That makes a lot more sense now.

[Jahled]

A strange thread.. but it reminded me of something.

 

Years ago I worked for a paparazzi image agency called Bigpictures here in London, doing little more than spending all day in Photoshop. It was fun for about five minutes working 9-5, five days a week, on an entire photo shoot of 'famous' people, and then got boring as hell. I really have no interest what they get up to in their rather over rated lifestyles, and certainly would prefer to read about something more interesting in the paper on the way to work.

 

There was an incident while I was there which more or less made me leave. Prince Harry, third in line to the British Throne was having a 'quiet night out,' at about the most exclusive night club in London, when the poor lad lost the plot as he was leaving at two in the morning, pissed as a fart, and lashed out at a photographer, all of which was caught on film and camera by the massed hoards of paparazzi waiting outside. The photographer worked for us and later in the day we had various news crews outside our offices ALL DAY! Everytime I went for a smoke there was like a TV camera shoved in my face and a reporters asking if I had anything to say about the incident, which of course I or any of my colleagues didn't, because we had been told not to say anything. But the experience was horrible, and really intrusive. It made me realize what the industry I was working in, and what it must be be like for the 'famous,' having all this on a daily basis. I left shortly after.

 

When Princess Diana died there was a mass-hysteria in London and days of people making right prats of themselves at Buckingham Palace openly crying, etc for this dead aristocrat. I remember one incident when I was watching the news which genuinely made me growl at the TV screen. Some woman was being hysterical and started accusing the media of causing her death, like an idiot yelling at the journalists covering this mass out pouring of lunacy. 'You killed her!' she yelled.

 

No dear, You killed her. The paparazzi cater for demand, and if there is demand from rather sad people actually interested in the 'famous', who actually would prefer to read about some Hollywood divorce battle over what is really going on the world, then the paparazzi will have their industry, market, and profit. And so it will go on.

 

Just an angle. It might help Tofu dude!

[DarthTofu]

I just started the thread out of idle curiosity because, as I said, I think that famous is having your own Wikipedia article (that isn't deleted within two hours of posting) and was interested in what others might think.

 

As you probably know, getting onto Wikipedia doesn't necessarily make you "famous," it just means that some people know your name.

 

More than anything else, what I was asking is what's a sign that you're famous? (Sorry. I should've voiced the question better).

 

And for the record, there are differant kinds of fame; very few people follow the daily affairs of Stephen Hawkings's life, yet most people (at least, I should hope most people) know his name and some of his achievements in terms of physics.

 

... Then we have people like Paris Hilton and Anna Nicole Smith, who make the side bars of the papers when they sneeze and are all over the front page when they crash a car or die.

[SOCL]

Or go to rehad again, only to get out two days later apparently well... Lindsey Lohan, Brittany Spears.

 

I can't help but admire, though, the ability the famous have at acquiring "Get out of Jail Free" cards.

[Darth_Rob]

I can't help but admire, though, the ability the famous have at acquiring "Get out of Jail Free" cards.

 

Just one of their perks. Many times, money does equal fame, and money can be used for special treatment.

[Mad78]

If people you have never seen before recognise you in the street then I guess you are famous (Wikipedia article or not).

[Darth_Rob]

One time I was walking around in NYC with some friends and this guy stopped me, snapped my picture, and ran off. Does that make me famous?

[SOCL]

One time I was walking around in NYC with some friends and this guy stopped me, snapped my picture, and ran off. Does that make me famous?

No. That makes him creepy and you violated.

[Darth_Rob]

I felt special at the time. I thought he was some paparazzi who thought I was someone famous. But he could just as well be a perv. I sleep easier thinking it was not the latter...

[Mad78]

I am affraid he surely was.

[DarthTofu]

*Looks at picture of Rob from New York*

 

Er, um- I wasn't doing anything! Nothing at all!

 

That is odd, man. Granted, it was probably some guy with some friends who said, "Hey, let's go snap pictures of random people and run off!"

 

Then again, maybe you were briefly on some prank show, with hidden cameras, where they weirded you out and then ran away.

[Darth_Rob]

One time my sister was coming in from the city via the train, and I went to pick her up at the local station. I ended up getting a white shirt, black vest, black pants, my awesome trench coat, and bowler hat and went to get her. I also had a hand-written sign with her last name written on it. So there I was, this dapper-looking fellow with a sign waiting for someone on the train. Someone asked me who I was waiting for, and I said that she was a famous NYC chef who was up visiting her family, and that they may have seen her on the Food Network. When she got off the train, she just looked and started laughing at me. Of course, I ran up to her to play it off, and took her bag and escorted her to my car. It was funny.

 

Another time her train came in at 2am, so my girlfriend, her sister, my friend, and I all drove to the train station with random masks. We had my friends Simpsons masks (Radioactive Man, Mr. Burns, and Groundskeeper Willy), and I had my classic Alf mask. Thus, when she got off she saw all the freaks waiting for her in masks. It was funny.

 

I guess my first story sorta ties in with being famous. A famous person would have a driver waiting to pick him/her up. As for my second story, Im just a nut sometimes.

[turtle]

being famous to me would be recognition by the masses for something you do better then others.

 

That is to say professional athletes are famous since they can achieve something within their sport that the vast majority can't. Actor/actresses are recognised by the masses though I have to say some seem to have achieved this without much talent!.

 

I do not see Paris hilton as famous however just an annoyance!

 

Though she poses no health threats she does pose a threat to people sanity and as such I believe Paris Hilton must be banned from public areas since she is as much a nuisance as smokers!

[Jahled]

being famous to me would be recognition by the masses for something you do better then others.

 

The public, the masses, pay money for media concerning the brain dead bint, though. It's not a case of saying we as the public are 'fed' this rather brainless woman; she serves no financial objective if you think about it to the papers, magazines, or TV stations other than feeding a public lust for media for her. She is whored everywhere because it attracts an economic response, what this says about western society may be quite sad, but rather this economy and ignorance in the masses than some Soviet-era socialist dictation of the ways to think, enforced by slaughter in Pol Pot's case, at an extreme, or the current Islamic enemies of modern reality we have to now fight.

 

Paris seems an insignificance, perhaps people should stop paying any interest to these rich, glamorous muppets.

[DarthTex]

.... muppets.

Oooww, muppets! I like Beaker

 

http://img338.imageshack.us/img338/7334/darthbeakerqc9.jpg

[SOCL]

Oh, man, that's funny!

[Mad78]

Bet you Tofu will want to use that as an Avatar.

[Darth_Rob]

Yeah, he's been using that one for a few weeks now. He's due for a change.

[Eagle]

Also thought about taking Beaker for my new avatar, but Waldorf and Staetler were also a great replacement untill Sam the Eagle is back from his feather-transplantation.

[Darth_Rob]

Also thought about taking Beaker for my new avatar, but Waldorf and Staetler were also a great replacement untill Sam the Eagle is back from his feather-transplantation.

 

You mean those two old, grumpy muppets aren't called "The Disgruntled Hecklers"?! I had no idea they had names. And such odd names at that.

 

Upon further reflection, all the muppets had odd names...