To be creeped out by people who make a huge deal out of celebrity deaths?

[TealDreamer]

I don’t mean the normal “Oh, that’s sad” reaction when a famous person dies - I mean the people who act like they’ve lost a close family member. The ones who post long, emotional tributes, talk about how “devastated” they are and make the whole thing about them.

It just feels… off. Like they’re using someone else’s deaths to fill a gap in their own lives, feeding off the drama in a way that seems performative. I get feeling sad about someone whose work you admired but the extreme reactions just feel weird and attention-seeking.

AIBU to think this is creepy?

I was very upset when David Bowie died but I didn't make it performative. I am going to extremely sad when mick jagger eventually leaves us. Maybe these performative grievers are the same people who live their relationships on social media and post tributes to dead family members for years after the loss.

I agree. I’ve thought it sad when a celebrity has died, but I can’t imagine me crying over anyone famous dying.

I find the ones who go on and on and on to everyone about how upset they are to be annoyingly attention seeking.

Some artists are part of your life. Their music or acting or whatever means a lot to you. I still get upset that Prince is no longer with us as I have been a huge fan of his music for decades. If you can't understand that fair enough, but don't dismiss other people's feelings.

I had a boss years ago who took several days off work to grieve when Jon Bon Jovi got married. Her fiancé also apparently was devastated (I could not get my head around that).

Utterly ridiculous, performative drama seeking.

I think it’s strange to be that upset when a celebrity dies.

Bowie is the one that springs to mind. I couldn’t understand why anyone would get so upset about someone they don’t know. Teenagers, I get, but grown adults…. It’s weird

I hope that they were denied sick leave and made to take annual leave. Absolutely pathetic.

I remember when Diana died I went to Florida for two weeks just after the funeral. Got back and one of my colleagues who had been on holiday at the time had come back from annual leave, and the first thing she said was “it’s just so terrible what’s happened isn’t it.” I genuinely thought something awful had happened, either in her life or to someone at work so I asked what she meant, and she said “you know, with Diana dying.”

I think it was on here where someone told of how they were on an underground train just after Diana died, and there was a woman lying on the floor literally howling over the death of Diana.

These people should be embarrassed.

They’re not though. Their music is, and when they’re dead their music still is. So to the average person nothing changes.

This hits the nail on the head for me. I've only ever felt a passing sadness when I hear that anyone has died, famous or not, unless I've been particular close due to being family or close friends. Certainly not obsessed about nor randomly bursting into tears for people on the periphery of my life.

Yet, 2 years ago, for the first time ever, I shed a tear over a celebrity death. That was Olivia Newton John. My own reaction really shocked me! But it was because of the memories it brought back of my teenage years as she was the "background music" to my teenage angst, broken romances, etc - my "go to" back in my teenage years when I'd had a bad day was to listen to her LPs on repeat! Through my life, I've always kept an ear open to what she was doing in her life, reading magazine articles, seeing her on chat shows, watching her sing in the opening ceremony of the Sydney Olympics, then her opening her cancer centre and her Great Wall of China fundraising walk. I realised she's been a kind of "background music" throughout my life, all based on my teenage angst years. There are still a couple of her songs that I can't listen to without a tear in my eye. But it's because of my personal sad memories it brings back that are linked to her, not directly because of her.

Yes this one was a surprise who would cry for him.

I understand people being upset. It's natural that when someone who provided the emotional backdrop to your childhood/teenage years dies it will affect you.

It's people's insistence on putting themselves at the centre of the narrative which I find cringeworthy: having to take days off work, performative crying and self-indulgent SM posts for days and talking about how "devastated" they are. As if they had a personal relationship with the famous person.

Its knowing where the line is.

Grief vampires.

I've been sad when some celebrities have died, but the calling in sick and mass hysteria is weird.

A celebrity I really admired died a few years back, and I was in a music group where his sister was as well. I went on to privately message her with my condolences for her loss, but when I went on the group people were on tagging her and discussing their loss, and equating her loss with theirs. I was horrified. As if a singer you like dying is equal to your sibling dying.

i’m on a couple of websites devoted to an actor who died last year in his 80s after 20 years of ill health and a lifetime of cigarettes and alcohol and questionable behaviour.. It is full of people going on about how shocked they were and he died too young and they love him and how the light has gone out of their lives and offering each other support. I don’t think it’s creepy. I think it’s either sad or ridiculous. Sometimes both. Before anyone asks-I’m in the groups because of the pictures of him when he was the most gloriously beautiful young man.

I cried when The Queen died. My dm was the same age and ill at the time too,I think that had a part to play.
But I will never understand weeping and wailing over celebrity deaths.

Yes my MIL does this. Her Facebook page is some kind of unofficial celeb obituary interspersed with memes about immigrants. Not surprisingly I have unfollowed her as it’s just depressing

I was living in London at the time and I didn't get it. It was crazy.

YANBU

Its pathetic.
Main character syndrome.
People die.
Get over it.

I felt very sad when Michael Moseley died. My partner did too.

Although obviously not to the extent I would if it was someone I actually knew.

And I wouldn’t post about a celebrity death. I think it’s a hangover from when well-written posts used to go viral on facebook, and people would try to say something profound.

I knew one of them who did, and she just said something like "I know he was a paedophile but he was a brilliant singer" I was speechless! Just glossing over the abuse because she liked his songs. There is no hope for humanity with people who can shrug off abuse like that. It's no wonder so many "slebs" were at it if those close to them just shrugged off their abuse.

It's not a modern thing either. I remember going around to my best friends house the day Elvis died and the whole family (mum, dad, friend, and sister) were crying like they had lost a relative.

Another friend cried when John Lennon died, but that was desperately sad because he was minding his own business when he was assassinated.

I was shocked and saddened when Princess Diana died. Here’s the thing though. She was a young, fit and healthy woman, the mother of 2 young children whom she adopted. In my mind completely different from say a 90 year old dying. Or a drug addict who isn’t going to win father of the year.

I felt like you until Mathew Perry died and it hit me like a ton of bricks.

I didn’t follow him on social media or I wasn’t a super fan or anything but it really upset me.

I think it’s the reality of the fact that no one is invincible and if it can happen to them, it can happen to anyone. Which is obviously common sense but it still makes you sad.

I know for me I watched friends for the first time when I was going through severe PND/psychosis and it absolutely helped me. So it stirred up a lot of personal emotions.

Adored not adopted.

They feel like they know these people. They follow their lives snd work and admire them. They feel a bond and connection with them.

Its really not hard to understand why they are upset.

I’ve never really followed a band or celebrity, but I can still understand what’s going on here.