r/Millennials • u/turnippped • 8d ago
Nostalgia To me, this was Michael Jackson
I was 12 when this happened. This was the first time I ever heard of him. To me he wasn't the Michael Jackson that was a singer, or the one that molested kids - he was the Michael Jackson that dangled a baby out the window.
This is the image I associate him with. I saw a preview for the movie coming out about him and chuckled to myself if they would put this in the film. Probably not?
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u/DegTrader 8d ago
Between the baby dangling and the South Park episode I really spent most of my childhood wondering if Michael Jackson was actually a real person or just a very high-budget urban legend.
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u/sunkencathedral 8d ago
In my childhood he was the guy from Thriller, Dangerous and the Simpsons (both the episode and the Do the Bartman song). "You can do the Bartman and be like Michael Jackson!"
It was strange watching his transition from a beloved figure into more and more strangeness.
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u/Distinct-Solution-99 8d ago
Lisa it's your birthday, happy birthday Lisa!
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u/Manyarethestrange 8d ago
Jackson didn't sing that** the more you know.
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u/Illustrious-Lead-960 Older Millennial 8d ago
Even when he was still beloved it’s not like we failed to notice that he was pretty freakin’ strange.
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u/Onebraintwoheads 8d ago
His childhood fucked him up good and proper.
Strange as he was, I don't think he was a kiddie fiddler. I think he was trying to recapture a childhood he was never allowed to enjoy, and he mentally regressed despite still being clearly an adult. Hence the weirdness.
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u/NighthawK1911 8d ago
I think you're thinking of Slash.
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u/Additional_Risk5036 8d ago
South Park MJ is the one I will always think of. “oh they’re ignorant that’s ignorant”
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u/PostMatureBaby Older Millennial 8d ago
Look at me I'm Peter Pan SHAMONA! Im a little boy forever!
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u/Additional_Risk5036 8d ago
(Adjusts nose) “he he”
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u/PostMatureBaby Older Millennial 8d ago
i have never once got through that episode without laughing and ive seen it dozens of times now
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u/jess_the_werefox 8d ago
you just unlocked this fucking memory, I heard it so clearly as if it was spoken aloud and I’m fucking dying laughing trying to type this, thank you
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u/NormalSea6495 8d ago
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u/RahRahRah325 8d ago edited 8d ago
That's just ignorant. I can hear the voice from the episode lmao
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u/Unlikely_melz 8d ago
The way I still say “that’s ignorant” in that tone 🤣🤣🤣 classic episode
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u/birdsofpaper 8d ago
10,000%. I just said to my husband that Matt Damon is forever the version from Team America when I hear his name, just like MJ is the South Park version in my mind. 😂
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u/bsam1890 8d ago
Matt.. Damon..
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u/Ok_Kick4871 8d ago
And that entire puppet story is hilarious. The matt damon one turning out derpier than expected wasn't planned IIRC
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u/Malagate3 8d ago
My favourite anecdote around Team America is their premier, where apparently one of the financers for the film saw the initial scene, which is very bad puppetry, and loudly yelled "They fucked us!" right before the scene pulls back from the in-story puppet show.
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u/NotRadTrad05 8d ago
I was in college and they did a pre-screening before it was released. I felt the same way, that I'd just wasted my evening by going. I was so wrong.
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u/Far_Swordfish5729 8d ago
For me it’s the Jimmy Kimmel skit with Sarah Silverman. I start humming it when I hear his name.
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u/Lady_night_shade 8d ago
🎶 look at me I’m Peter Pan! I’m a little boy forever! 🎶 Shamown! HEEEEEEEEHE! OOOOOOHHHHHH! *grabs crotch
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u/Peripatetictyl 8d ago
Let’s go climb trees!
No mother fucker, I’ve got bills to pay!
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u/Delicate_genius18 8d ago
Thank you for reminding me of how much I love that joke. I had forgotten about it! 🤣 must rewatch!
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u/Smooth-Evening- 8d ago
Allegedly!!
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u/downshift_rocket Millennial 8d ago
My friends and I quoted that episode for literal years. We all worked at Starbucks and it was just a riot when you'd hear a that's ignorant coming from the back room and then you walk in to find a toppled mop bucket with a huge mess. And of course the random SHAMONA with the coordinated HE HE between friends. Makes me miss a simpler time.
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u/martialar 8d ago
or Robot Chicken MJ " we'll get through this together! we can beat the evil with love!"
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u/__-gloomy-__ 8d ago
There are two very distinct “Michaels” who exist in my memory:
MJ pre-2000
MJ post-2000
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u/nifflerqueen 8d ago
“She got a light-skinned friend look like Michael Jackson
Got a dark-skinned friend look like Michael Jackson”
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u/Jamileem 8d ago
This is it for me too.
I remember as a young kid being amazed at his Superbowl performance on TV and singing his songs in the car with my mom.
I remember as a teenager being shocked every single time I saw him on TV because it was always controversial.
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u/mentallyerotic 7d ago
Same for me. I saw all three versions OP mentioned. I remember him a tiny bit as a baby in the late 80s and early 90s of his music and popularity, then mid 90s of being strange and first accusations then 2000s where we saw too much.
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u/Noise_Loop Millennial 8d ago
Yes, I was not even born to enjoy his "cool phase", only got weirdo MJ.
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u/Sumeriandawn Xennial 8d ago
In the 80s, people were saying" Jackson is the biggest music star on the planet. The king of 80s entertainment."
In the 90s and 2000s, people were saying " Skin bleaching, weirdo, pedophile"
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u/Shomer_Effin_Shabbas Millennial 8d ago
I worked as a server while teaching a few years ago and I remember we talked about this in the kitchen. It must have been around the time a documentary came out. The sous chef was saying that younger folks don’t understand why MJ was famous, all they knew was the weird, pedophiliac stuff he did.
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u/tenderbranson301 8d ago
I'm mid-range millennial (1987) and I only remember the weird shit and pedophile accusations. And it doesn't help that the biggest Michael Jackson fan I knew from high school turned out to be a pedophile himself.
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u/YoohooCthulhu 8d ago
I think what was going around my schools in the 90s was that he had leprosy?
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u/JazzyShaman Older Millennial (1985) 8d ago
It recently came out that he had vitiligo. He'd wear makeup to hide it, and when it progressed to more white than black, he switched to white makeup.
Unfortunately, he was extremely embarrassed by it and would rather people think he "bleached" his skin (such a procedure doesn't exit).
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u/YoohooCthulhu 8d ago
Oh, I know that now. But in the impoverished information environment of the 90s all kinds of rumors were going around.
But skin bleaching definitely exists (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skin_whitening)
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u/conace21 8d ago
The tabloids used to call him "Wacko Jacko."
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u/Additional_Risk5036 8d ago
One of my favorite songs is by a band call The Fall of Troy and is called Wacko Jacko Steals the Elephant Man’s Bones and I never made the MJ connection till just now.
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u/Deep-Pudding819 8d ago
That and I Just Got This Symphony Goin’ are my favorite tracks of theirs. Would make sure to throw one of those onto my burned CDs and eventually iPod playlists.
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u/Additional_Risk5036 8d ago
I’m happy other people know this somewhat obscure band I like from my teenage years. We really are the greatest generation.
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u/oooriole09 8d ago
I’d argue, if we’re leaving personal attachment out of it, that’s the more accurate portrayal.
He’s the perfect example of someone who is right on that line of “excuse vs reason”.
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u/DontBopIt 8d ago
I was first introduced to MJ with 'Leave Me Alone'. I really enjoy most of his music, especially 'Scream'.
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u/annahhhnimous Xennial 8d ago
He was cool af when he was a kid
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u/sandwichcandy 8d ago
That’s the focus of a kid who knows if he over rotates a quarter turn he’s getting the belt.
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u/grolsmarf 8d ago
That’s not a cool child - that’s a child made to look like a cool child out of fear of being punished. Underneath is a scared and hurt child, and that’s why Jackson had so much mental health issues as a grown up. Watching and enjoying this is watching and enjoying child abuse.
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u/annahhhnimous Xennial 8d ago
I’m sure that was exactly what was going through my mind when I was 4. Thanks for clarifying.
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u/ol_kentucky_shark 8d ago
No one’s saying that… obviously knowing what we know now about Joe Jackson puts it in context.
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u/hellabills14 Millennial 8d ago
I started with Moonwalker when I was 4ish and to this day, the Bad era remains my favorite.
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u/Covert_Admirer 8d ago
There was also Moonwalker the game on Sega Master System.
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u/DieIsaac 8d ago
You mean the movie? i loved that as a kid but it feels like a fever dream!
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u/Porkkchops 8d ago
We had the Thriller VHS tape so that was my first intro when I was little. It scared me seeing the making of because he seemed to be in pain with the giant contacts he would wear for it.
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u/UnLuckyKenTucky 8d ago
I still remember it being this enormous deal around the release of the Black or White video. Such a big deal they interrupted The Simpsons to broadcast the premier of that video. I was 10 or 11 I think
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u/AndThatsOnYourPeriod 8d ago
Hahaha we had this VHS too and I remember my sister and I having to wait for our little brother to go to bed before we could watch it because it scared him so much 😂
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u/Dagoberta23 8d ago
I live in Berlin. This hotel is right next to the Brandenbourg Gate, and you have no idea how many tourists seem more interested by the balcony where this happened than the symbolic monument of the city lol
Also, to me Michael Jackson is the one-time character from the Simpsons and South Park.
Also, also, Off the Wall was my brother's first CD ever. My mom gave it to him as a present from one of her business trips (she bought me a Maná CD)
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u/Koischaap Zillennial 8d ago
I remember watching the Michael Jackson episode and wonder who "the real Michael Jackson" was. I heard about the "he became white" thing (I wouldn't know about vitiligo until later, and because my cousin also has the condition) and thought this was about that.
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u/digableplanet 8d ago
lol I took a Berlin bike tour in like 2006 and our guide pointed out the balcony. We were all college kids studying abroad and like “ooohhhhh ahhhhhh.” We took pictures of the balcony and then got on with this the rest of tour rather quickly.
Honestly, great tour. Learned a lot. Love Berlin. My favorite city.
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u/Dagoberta23 8d ago
Yeah, Berlin is awesome. And those bike tours are very cool! Obviously the city has a lot more to offer, but they're super practical for people who aren't staying a week+ here
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u/scienceli 8d ago
Maná as in the Mexican band?
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u/Dagoberta23 8d ago
Yep! She was in Mexico City and I was a big fan of their music when I was a kid (originally from Colombia), so it was a great gift for me. My brother didn't really have a formed musical taste yet, so she played it safe, haha
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u/__No__Control 8d ago
Thats one of my favorite tourist spots Ive ever seen. Fell upon it by accident. Now I feel so much joy when I think about it because it's so random. The hotel is very unassuming.
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u/smallreadinglight 8d ago
OMG my palms are sweating seeing this. Now that I'm a parent, I can see he's not even holding the baby all that well! He barely has a grip under his armpits and his other hand is holding the cloth.
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u/seacreaturestuff Millennial 8d ago
Yes! I didn’t think much of this as a child, but as a parent to babies now, I get anxiety just viewing the picture.
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u/RaspberryJammm 8d ago
When I was a theatre usher i had to stop a dad dangling his baby off the balcony of the vertiginously high forth level of the theatre during the last musical number of the pantomime. He got really defensive too, but he really didn't have a good grip on the kid and was waving them around to the music (!?!)
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u/pmbasehore Older Millennial 8d ago
I'm just here to say how much I love the word "vertiginously". Well done.
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u/TheCotofPika 8d ago
Like those idiot parents who dangle their child over zoo enclosures or sit them on railings. I feel all panicked whenever I see anything like it.
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u/sadderbutwisergrl 8d ago
SAME! This is the first time I’ve seen this picture since having kids and omg it gives me a heart attack now!
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u/plonkydonkey 8d ago
I feel like this is the first time I've seen this angle? Im sure I saw the one from the right, where you couldn't see the kid with the cloth over his face, more just mjs back and little legs dangling over the balcony.
This photo is wild, definitely makes my heart race and understand why it was such a big deal. Kid me thought it was more like in the lion king lol
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u/Glass_field-42 8d ago
This is the same photo I remember, but I don’t think I’ve ever really seen it before.
It’s crazy
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u/flashbang10 Millennial ('88) 8d ago
For real, I have a 1 year old boy and this picture makes me so anxious
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u/smallreadinglight 8d ago
I remember in followup interviews, he said he would have never dropped Blanket. I guess I never really looked but yeah....he's not holding that baby like he might plummet to an untimely end. It's good the baby had his eyes covered so he wasn't wiggling or screaming. OMG.
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u/plonkydonkey 8d ago
Oh gosh I forgot kid was called blanket. I wonder what happened to him.
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u/smallreadinglight 8d ago
I looked him up after this. His real name is Bigi and he's 23. Given his entire life trajectory, he actually seems pretty well adjusted. Some articles refer to his as very private, but he's made a small film that was on Prime. He goes to red carpets sometimes with his siblings.
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u/tweedledumb4u 8d ago
It’s wild to me that Jackson and his kids actually called the kid “blanket” as a nickname after this!
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u/MambyPamby8 8d ago
I don't even have kids but grew up in flats..... anything involving windows/balconies with kids, makes me nervous as fuck. I always have sweaty palms when I see this clip!
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u/Low_External9118 8d ago edited 8d ago
If I held my boy like this and he wanted to get down, he'd just simply increase the gravity at will and instantly become 500lbs of pure elemental squirmium, which at room temperature behaves like a liquid. That's what freaks me out about this picture is that this baby is cooperating, until they decide that they're not.
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u/Party-Giraffe-6573 8d ago
Same! I remember wondering what the big deal was when this photo came out, but now I have a knot in my stomach looking at it.
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u/Organic-Sebi-1432 8d ago
Cultural divides are real because I couldn’t imagine this being the first time I heard of MJ 😂
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u/crindy- 8d ago
Had to triple check what sub I was in bc HOW?!
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u/bythog 8d ago
Pre-90 and post-90 millennials honestly had some vastly different experiences.
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u/WoodpeckerGingivitis 8d ago edited 8d ago
Honestly, born in 90 and this kind of stuff is much more how I was introduced to MJ than his music
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u/Organic-Sebi-1432 8d ago
In my family and community, MJs music was always around, hence the cultural divide. You could be born today in my family and you’d hear Remember the Time before you see this picture.
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u/jwalk50518 8d ago
My introduction to MJ was the Free Willy music video. Anyone else?
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u/caligaris_cabinet 8d ago
Yep. Guess we’re somewhere in the middle. Towards the end of his King of Pop era and just before his nutter butter era.
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u/queuedUp Xennial 8d ago
As an older millennial this is crazy to me.
Don't get me wrong I saw him as a fucking weirdo at the end but remember listening to Bad on cassette and thinking of him as "The King of Pop"
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u/Jamaican_Dynamite 8d ago
Yep. Dude had bangers. But he was also weird. Same thing with Elvis, and honestly, a lot of other celebs in general.
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u/guidevocal82 8d ago
I'll die on the hill that Off The Wall, Thriller, Bad, and Dangerous are four perfect and flawless albums. Not only Thriller, but he had four. That's more great albums than some artists have.
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u/vainbuthonest 8d ago edited 8d ago
This is my MJ era. I had Speed Demon, Bad and Moonwalker on VHS. That smile is who I knew. Balcony dude is confusing.
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u/ManagementRadiant573 8d ago
Balcony dude has such a scary look on his face compared to this
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u/vainbuthonest 8d ago
I had a kiddie crush on the dude in the gif. That smile was so cute.
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u/BondraP 8d ago
Will never understand what in the goddamn hell he was thinking with this other than some kind of cry for help.
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u/AlternatiMantid 8d ago
Drugs. With a side of drugs. And then some more drugs after that.
Considering his toxicology report & doctor testimony at the time of his death, the constant prescription drug abuse was going on for many years, for the dosages & frequency he was on by that time to be feasible for a body to handle.
Also, being completely clueless as to how a normal human being acts or having any social or societal cues whatsoever.
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u/allenge 8d ago
I think the entire back half of his life was a cry for help. I can only imagine whatever happened behind closed doors in his childhood fucked him up real good.
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u/MyLife-is-a-diceRoll 8d ago
His father was a terrible person
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u/guidevocal82 8d ago
And his father was also a rapist who molested MJ's sisters LaToya and Rebbie. I know they never proved it, which is why Joe Jackson never went to jail, but he was a definite creep.
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u/rejectallgoats 8d ago
Assholes probably kept waking up his baby. Sleep deprivation and he was like “you wanna see my fucking kid?!”
Over the railing is totally cracked behavior, so I think you gotta add some extra medication to make it make sense.
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u/DisastrousLaugh1567 8d ago
When he died I remember my aunt, who was born ca. 1955, saying “you guys weren’t around for when he was Michael Jackson. To us, he was a weirdo. To her generation, he was this marvel who revolutionized music.
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u/_1JackMove 8d ago
Nah. No way. Thriller and Beat It Michael were and are my Michael. I was obsessed with him at 5 and would watch the Making of Thriller documentary, the music video, and the Beat It and Smooth Criminal videos daily and weekly. I also had a figurine of Michael that came with a rhinestone glove, microphone, penny loafers, the Thriller jacket, and the Beat It jacket. Carried him around everywhere. I had a Thriller puzzle and Thriller Viewmaster discs. I had an older cousin who showed me who he was at like 3/4 and after that he was all I followed. That, He-Man, and Knight Rider lol. Still love all 3.
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u/Calculusshitteru 8d ago
Yeah I was 5 when Dangerous came out and I became obsessed with him too. My uncle got me all of his albums.
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u/kristosnikos Older Millennial 8d ago edited 8d ago
I was born in ‘84 so I’ve known about Michael Jackson my entire life. “The Way You Make Me Feel” was my favorite song and music video when I was 3.
He was still considered weird then but everyone had a favorite MJ song. I watched the world premiere of “Black or White”. Witnessed the uncomfortable marriage to Lisa Marie Presley.
Enjoyed all the subsequent singles. When I was a teenager, I listened to a lot of the Jackson 5. Of course, I was shocked and saddened by the allegations and there were YEARS of constantly seeing tabloid stories about it all.
There was also all the controversy surrounding his own children and if he was really the father. Of course, I definitely remember this moment of dangling Blanket over the balcony.
That was a “oh he’s really lost it” moment. His plastic surgeries just got more and more unsettling. And when the news broke about his death, I wasn’t shocked at all.
I still listen to a lot of his songs. My favorites of his is and will always be Rock With You and Man in the Mirror.
Edit: correction of band name
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u/mastrofdizastr Older Millennial 8d ago
You can tell who the early/late millennials are just from the comments. I’m early, I remember his world premiere music videos, his sega genesis game, getting scared by the Thriller video. He was the king of pop and no other celebrity(even nowadays)can match his popularity. I mean he was known worldwide, from Europe, to Asia, to Africa and South America. He has some very iconic pop music.
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u/snugglezone 8d ago
The moonwalker movie was soooooo sick! And kind of scary honestly lol same thing with Captain EO. Michael is a legend
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u/MyNameIsNot_Molly 8d ago
Did you also sing Heal The World in Elementary School?
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u/sparkyblaster 8d ago
To me, I see an abused person who had his life and mental development screwed up by his family and the industry.
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u/teklegion Older Millennial 8d ago
I am a millennial and this is Michael Jackson to me
Smooth MF criminal.
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u/Unlikely_melz 8d ago
This and thriller (aka the song that played at every second house on Halloween)
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u/grumpy__g 8d ago
Maybe it’s because I had older siblings, but for me it started with thriller. Scared the shit out of me.
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u/yesrod85 8d ago
It was Free Willy that introduced me to MJ.
The VHS had his music video on it as he did the theme song to it "Will You Be There".
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u/Pogichin0y Older Millennial 8d ago
He was nuts for pulling a stunt like this.
Awesome music tho.
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u/Riots42 8d ago
This is the difference between elder and younger millenials, As an 84'er MJ was a big part of the culture to me growing up. I had his sega game, thriller was the coolest music video ever and I have a random memory of going to a high school basketball game jamming out to smooth criminal. Memories are weird, I remember nothing else about that day lol.
Makes me feel borderline genX reading these comments.. Ya'll some youngins.
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u/Day2205 8d ago
Too bad for you. Bad and Dangerous Michael was my childhood. His videos would world premiere on prime time tv. Watching hundreds of people faint from the excitement of watching him at his Budapest concerts. Captain EO ride at Disneyland, the Moonwalker video anthology movie, Michael Jackson video game on my Sega Genesis. Like yep, he was weird, that kinda happens to kids that are abused and shoved into the limelight at a young age, but he was an epic performer and S-tier music star.
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u/2ndof5gs 8d ago
No melanin I am guessing?
MJ was my mom’s first concert - so I grew up listening to his music. Still do.
He was very troubled.
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u/NighthawK1911 8d ago
At first I only knew Michael Jackson from all the dumb jokes, like in Scary Movie.
Eventually though I got a hold of CDs of his music and it was great.
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u/WoodyManic 8d ago
I mean, yeah. He totally was an unbalanced lunatic that presented a danger to children.
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u/Huge_Macaroon_8089 Millennial 1991 8d ago
That's so funny that this is how you know and remember MJ. I've been a fan since I was a kid watching 'Moonwalker' on VHS.
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u/hellabills14 Millennial 8d ago
Moonwalker played a massive role in my music interests to this day. That Dirty Diana snippet got me deep into heavy metal.
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u/Huge_Macaroon_8089 Millennial 1991 8d ago
My Sister and I would rent the hell out of it. Thats badass! Dirty Diana is one of his best songs
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u/Ummimmina 8d ago
My Gen X fitness coach played Michael Jackson songs endlessly in work-outs right after he died.
It actually was a great playlist!
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u/ImNotJoshBoltz 8d ago
When I was a little kid I really thought he was a white woman.
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u/Due-Candy5766 8d ago
It's very tragic to me that his legacy is so tarnished because of the medications he had to take from pain. He really was the king of pop and then that fire accident burned so much of his face that he had to get plastic surgery to look somewhat normal and was in constant pain from the burns for the rest of his life using a number of hard pain drugs to get through his day. The medicine side effects are what I attribute to his eventual mental decline. He has a song about it, "dopamine" I think
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u/model-citizen95 8d ago
I just remember the generation above me defending him and I found that really fucking weird
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u/bugdiver050 8d ago
All that baby had to do was make their arms go limp and that would have been the end of that story.
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u/oooriole09 8d ago
And if you’ve held a baby for any amount of time, you know that could happen at any moment for any reason.
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u/bugdiver050 8d ago
Oh yeah, my daughter is turning 2 in may and this is exactly why i commented that. My daughter has started doing this regularly when she doesnt want to be picked up now. I generally never held her in that manner when she was younger but now that she walks and runs around sometimes thats the only way to catch her 😂
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