EXTRACURRICULARS: Fan Responses to Celebrity Deaths are Worse than Puberty

Brittany Murphy, aka Tai from Clueless and the voice of Luanne on King of the Hill, died Sunday. This is, unequivocally, a sad thing, as the woman was only 32 years old, and, as her death was from cardiac arrest, likely was suffering from either addiction or eating disorder issues.

It highlights, though, an EXTREMELY annoying phenomenon; I speak of course of "fan" responses to celebrity deaths.

Now clearly the internet is first and foremost an echo chamber, one where people feel compelled to call things out simply to hear the sound of their voices, but I still don't see why that means that any time a celebrity, whether at the peak of his or her stardom or, more often, not so much in the spotlight or even seen in a negative light, dies, thousands of people, maybe millions of people, suddenly manufacture a feeling of empathy so profound that they have to give internet-voice to it.

Forget about Michael - the turnaround there was glaring enough that people MAY have noticed it already, as the sorts of accusations flung at him pre-mortem were pretty horrendous - let's focus on Brittany.

If you look around the interwebs, articles posted in the last year, the last three years, the last anything-before-news-of-her-tragic-death broke, the comments are catty and awful; "those extensions are ratty," "her hair is awful, who told her to do it," "oh my god she is so anorexic it's disgusting," "she was on Craig Ferguson and was so totally wasted oh my god how pathetic." People definitely had opinions on Ms. Murphy, and they felt the need to voice them, it's just that the majority of what was bouncing around the room, reverberating against the blank walls, was bile.

It makes sense - if you're of the opinion "well, really, I don't think she looks much thinner than most of the starlets out there, and frankly, that was a really darling dress," why bother to comment? Comment boards, especially when an article deals with celebrity, are for superfans and vitriol; there rarely seems to be much of the middle-ground of "Is it all that important to know whether or not she works out twice a day, given the pressure of Hollywood?" Those sorts of opinions aren't particularly violent, and so they don't get voiced.

Why, though, the turnarounds as soon as any celebrity dies?

I don't believe in speaking ill of the dead, I agree that young people dying is inherently tragic, but does it sanctify someone over whom, a week before, you were spitting piss and vinegar? Am I the only one who finds all of these "OMG, i am sooooo sad about __. RIP ___" tweets shallow and disingenuous as opposed to touching?

Given the frequency of comments being made on the Huffington Post's article Sunday, when a single click to the slideshow of Brittany Murphy and then back to the article meant at least 100 new folks all mourning so deeply that they feel the need to tell the world about this emotional state, I suppose the answer to that question is "yes."

-Posted by Jilly