Michael Jackson/Billy Mays postmortem

I care more that Billy Mays died than Michael Jackson.

There, I said it.

Michael Jackson was a cultural icon for many years. Indeed, he played a key role in bringing many new genres of music to America with his membership in the Jackson Five and his solo act. Undoubtedly, he was an influence on many musicians to this day. He will be remembered as such by many people.

Unfortunately, in my mind, he kind of went out on the bottom. I never really was a huge Michael Jackson fan – his music was great, but I never got into it beyond the very popular songs. The Michael Jackson I knew was this freakishly white pedophile who was the source for countless “little boy” jokes. His trial and shroud of public ignominy made up the better part of my life – or at least the part where I started paying attention to the news.

I feel bad saying it – but my reaction to his death was “okay? hm.” People in my office were giving updates every 10 minutes from Reuters and whatever else, but I honestly did not care. He’s been out of the public eye since his trial more or less, and I hadn’t thought about Michael Jackson in years. I didn’t even know he was back on tour.

Billy Mays’ death was a shock. I believe I saw the news on my Facebook feed and looked up the story immediately.

Mays was a ridiculous TV persona who I often times found to be quite belligerent. I remember one episode of Pitchmen where they were doing a commercial for the a product called the “Blackjack”. They couldn’t get the naming rights for that, so they kept having to reshoot with different names, and he was absolutely flipping out at the directors and the other people involved.

Nonetheless, Pitchmen was an interesting show. The few times I watched it, I enjoyed it. I thought it provided an interesting perspective to the direct-sales phenomenon known as infomercials.

Despite his career and his recent success with Pitchmen, I wasn’t particularly a Billy Mays fan, but his death seemed more relevant to me. He seemed like he had more life left in him than Michael, who has more or less been wasting away for the past five years.

Both Mays and Jackson were the same age when they passed away, so it’s an interesting paradigm to feel so much differently about one death versus the other. The things that Jackson allegedly did to children at Neverland Ranch are simply not excusable or even forgettable, for anyone, whether they’re “the King of Pop” or just a creepshow on “To Catch a Predator”. It’s sad that these allegations/acts overshadowed his successes in many ways, but I would ask you – how could they not?

RIP Michael Jackson & Billy Mays