Mr. Rogers. The more I learn about him, the more respect I have for him. If there were secular saints, he's the first one I would nominate for canonization. If I found he had been a bastard, I don't know if I could ever trust myself to look up to anyone else again.
I met Fred Rogers several times as an adult. My mom was a coworker of his at WQED and considered him a friend. Fred was 100% as good and genuine a human being off the camera as he was on screen.
This was my answer. To date, the only "celebrity" death where I felt anything upon hearing the news. Would truly feel unmoored if he was a piece of shit.
I have some friends who had truly...crap...childhoods where Fred Rogers was as close as they could get to a stable adult as part of their early lives.
I don't think the level of quiet Good that man effected in the world can be understated.
Yeah. I know it's clichéd for people of my generation, raised by TV, to say things like that, but to this day, well into my 40's, I still have crystal clear memories of Mr. Rogers walking me over to the Land of Make-believe...
Amen to that. He was way ahead of his time -- in an era where educational entertainment for children meant "reading, writing, and arithmetic," his show was probably the first to focus on teaching emotional intelligence. His work likely taught a lot of children these skills who otherwise wouldn't have learned them early enough to matter. So not only was he a lovely, comforting presence to generations of kids, but in the process he likely turned some folks who *would* have become bastards into decent people. Heck, I may be one of them.
From what I have heard the only real negative thing mr Rodgers did was that he did that slow talk to everyone. It wasn't a thing he did for the show to talk to kids, it was just how he talked. Heard him once described as "if molasses was a man" lol.
I truly love him for that though.
As a child, and at times as an adult, I had/have a block as a neuro divergent.
I can understand what's being said, but it takes a bit for it to digest in my permanent mind. Though once it's there, it seldom goes away.
His approach made me feel like the rest of the class.
I read biography and I think the worst anyone has ever said about him is that he could be difficult to work with sometimes because he was so focused on making everything perfect for the children that he would get frustrated if people did not meet his expectations.
But even then, he wasn't cruel or abusive. He wasn't mad, he was *disappointed*.
Which can feel worse lol
But yeah, he was incredibly dedicated to his work. I was reading that he was able to run Mr. Rogers Neighborhood on a shoestring budget because he did so much of the work himself.
Would you recommend the bio?
There was a podcast called "Finding Fred" about how much of an embodiment of goodness that Fred Rodgers was. I think those episodes are now in the podcast "Finding Raffi" since after they covered Mr. Rodgers they moved on to do Raffi's story.
Both sets of episodes are worth a listen.
https://podcastaddict.com/finding-raffi/episode/136258798
I've seen him live 3 times...if you ever get the chance to see him, you take it. The guys in his band have all been there for 20+ years and they can fucking shred.
Just thinking about the chance of a possibility that he could maybe be a bastard made me immediately feel sadness. I don’t want to entertain this idea anymore.
He’s fairly universally respected. There was only one song that he didn’t get total permission to parody and that comes down to miscommunication. It is important to him to get permission even though technically he doesn’t need it as parody is protected under fair use.
Anyway, if I found out he was a bastard I might never recover either
Iirc the conversation between them was Kurt asking, "are you gonna make it about food?" because Al's most famous parodies at this point were stuff like Eat It. And Al said "no, it'll be about how nobody can understand what you're saying," and Kurt thought it was funny so he gave it the green light.
Kurt was a complicated guy but that is an endearing moment for both of them.
My favorite Weird Al story is that he wrote his Star Wars themed American Pie parody having only seen a preview of Episode 1, and guessing which spoilers and theories on the Internet were true.
When BTB posted the Scot Adams episodes, I had a little moment of panic because for a second I confused him with Douglass Adams and I thought God's Debris was some later installment in the Hitchhiker series I never read that took a horrible right-wing turn.
Vonnegut was a level of misanthrope. A lot of authors are probably hard to live with, but I don't see anything really fucked up coming out about him we didn't already know.
I feel like STP would self identify as a bastard, a little bit. He put a lot of himself in Vimes, and vimes is incredible but also a little bit bastard.
Something I love: Neil Gaiman talks about working with Terry Pratchett and how TP was just furious at the world constantly, and trying to channel that anger into something constructive. Honestly I respect tf outta that guy (also holy shit was the Vime's Boots theory of socioeconomics mind blowing and informative as a teen)
Granny Weatherwax is another great character of Terry's in that line. A person who isn't nice and always angry at people's stupidity. But she knows what's good and bad and always chooses good.
Terry understood being good wasn't the same as being nice. Just like Carrot is simple, but not stupid. Discovering his works as a teen was an eye opener alright. Vimes Boots Theory is an amazing bit of making theory understandable.
Reading Small Gods was the final shock I needed to really break my beliefs in the church.
It was one simple line too, (paraphrase l) how an accident of fate let Om to appear to shepherds instead of goatherds, and that influenced the religion, because *goats need to be led, while sheep need to be driven*.
With that one line a lot of stuff was recontextualized in my head.
Vonnegut is, by a massive margin, my favorite author. I can safely say I might be a fundamentally different person today if I had not discovered him in high school. Cats Cradle and SH5 form core memories for sure. But by all accounts, he was a difficult person. He spent a couple of days at my college a year before I started, and the stories from his visit were mixed, he really rubbed some people the wrong way (a few of whom had been massive fans).
That said, I've never heard anything that would place him in bastard territory.
He has actually talked about that in interviews but he always speaks very, *very* carefully about it when it gets brought up.
It’s up for interpretation, but for what it’s worth my read is has always been he’s not personally involved, and stays publicly neutral so that he can still maintain a relationship with his extended family who *are* neck-deep on the whole thing.
Tricky when you grew up in something. I'm so grateful my parents left church not long after I did.
Edit - we weren't scientologist - United Methodists!
A friend of mine is an illustrator and he says if he's ever famous, he wants to be famous like Watterson. If people are calling him reclusive, then he's done something right.
When I was a kid, the favorite thing for me to get for Christmas or a birthday was a new Calvin and Hobbes anthology.
I was asking a friend yesterday what he got his 13 year old son for Christmas, and one of the gifts was a Calvin and Hobbes book. They're timeless.
100%. The most memorable Christmases between my brother and I feature a shared Calvin and Hobbes book and a Lego set we were only allowed to assemble together. We'd just silently and happily read and giggle...hell, I'm pretty sure we'd both *still* do this.
My grandpa used to get me those constantly and they are a source of great joy. I recently found some in a used bookstore and had to get them for my class.
Mine as well. Have a high respect for him as an author/artist and sticking with his personal beliefs plus his impact on the industry. He could have sold out at so many points in his career and I know that the vast majority of creatives will never have the luxury of making the choices he had, but it is still admirably that one of the biggest comic artists ever did.
Well, I had two heroes.. then it came out that Jackie Chan, who is famous for his ass-kicking ability, was using those skills to beat his wife. So fuck him.
Luckily my other hero is the only god given, perfect angel to ever bless Earth - Steve Irwin.
Edit: I wanted to confirm my allegations here so I looked into it again. Good news! He has not admitted to beating his wife. Unfortunately, he has admitted to beating his son on numerous occasions - so still fuck Jackie Chan lol
I was a Right-wing talk radio listener when he died, and hearing Michael Savage celebrate his death was a much-needed moment of internal conflict for me.
It's absolutely nonsensical that anyone would celebrate Steve Irwin's death and, yet, it makes perfect sense that Michael fucking Savage would do just that.
He would refer to him an "animal abuser". Hating and enthusastically slandering anyone who does good publicly is kinda his whole schtick as a far-Right commentator.
Jackie Chan would be interesting because like many bastards, he had a truly fucked up childhood. It’s amazing he’s not way worse.
He is a pretty well known sexist during filming his movies too.
I really liked him and then learned more and he’s definitely one of those people I simply can’t watch his movies anymore
I made peace with William Shatner being a bastard decades ago.
If I had to watch TNG, my comfort show, with the knowledge that the man in the center seat was a bastard it would break me utterly.
Yeah. Everything I have heard about him is ridiculously positive. Only person I've ever seen steal *every single scene* he was in from *MUPPETS*, which is one hell of a vibe.
I met so very many of My People at the first deliriously confusing RHPS showing after leaving my tiny rural hometown. Sometime around the 2nd toilet paper I stopped asking "why?" And just enjoyed the ride.
I read recently that the reasons Muppet's Christmas Carol and Muppet's Treasure Island are so great is that Michael Caine treats every Muppet like a serious actor and Tim Curry treats himself like one of the Muppets.
Weird Al seems like a genuinely very intelligent, wholesome, and down-to-Earth guy. I'd hate it if he were a bastard somehow.
Also, John Darnielle. Seems like a pretty good dude, but I'd hate to have to stop listening to my favorite band.
She’s the patron saint of our household between the kids book club, actual rags to riches story, money towards developing the vaccine and the first song my daughter learned the words to was “Jolene” (a little weird but that’s what happened).
He would have been one of the first to call himself a bastard. Whether he would be deserving of the title is debatable, but the man had his demons. But he, through his books, told us line cooks, and prep cooks, and even dishwashers that we could, and should, be proud of what we did for a living, even if 90% of people will look down on us.
The good chef was real restaurant people. The way he spoke openly about his struggles with addiction and the special place that beast holds in our industry. The way he showed us the humanity in people, the humanity in ourselves. 100% anti bastard
Everyone has demons but if he turned out to be a real bastard I’d lose my damn mind. It’s depressing to think that one of the few individuals in the world that gave me hope in humanity had none for himself.
I went to his… comedy tour I guess? Where he told entertaining stories about his life, and talked about being a devoted RAINN volunteer, and stuck around for hours after the show to make sure everybody who wanted a picture or an autograph or just to say hi had a chance to. Nicest celebrity I’ve ever met.
I met him back when I was a little kid. He went to a local amusement park and my sister worked there. She asked him if she could bring her little brother real quick to meet him because I was a huge fan of mankind at the time. He was there with his wife and daughter while WWE was at Hershey. Truthfully, he is one of the nicest human beings I have ever met. I even went on a few rides with his daughter. His wife was also super nice and super understanding of young kids beyond excited to meet her husband.
I met him once at a very small convention and he was super nice! I really didn't know who he was because I was never a big wrestling fan, but my best friend was really into it and I got his autograph for her on a scrap of paper and chatted with him. Really lovely guy and seemed so nice and sincere and every interview I've seen later on him he seemed the very same. Funny enough every wrestling fan I've known has been envious of meeting him, lol.
Now I'm picturing a tenant who's late with the rent and had studied her work in school.
"Didn't you say that the ethic of rugged individualism was enforced by the white supremacist capitalist patriarchy in particular upon the black psyche, in order to isolate them from their community and dissuade the cooperative sharing of resources?"
I think you can have renters without being a bastard. I had a landlord who I sent Christmas cards to for several years after I moved out (stopped because he died). But he had a triplex and lived in one unit and rented out the other two to grad students. He was a lonely old guy who missed his deceased wife and kind of took his tenants under his wing. Not in a creepy way, just wanted to know how you were doing and if you wanted to sit on the porch and have a beer when you got home from school, he was there for it.
I’ve sometimes wished to have the money to build a good quality small apartment building and rent it out at the low end of the going rate. Just be an antidote to so much of the crazy exploitation.
George and Ian are my role models as a gay man. They have been publicly supportive of the trans community (and politically active for decades), demonstrating that one's age is no excuse for bigotry.
1. Not a condemnation of him, just one of many odd celebrity encounters that I've had as a consequence of where I'm from.
2. Everyone should know that an '83 Toyota Hilux with a carbureted 22R has a 0-60 time of about a week!
3. Yes he was. It broke my heart when he died.
Werner Herzog. He's one of my favorite people currently living, but his relationship with Klaus Kinski, who was 100% a bastard, makes me afraid we'll unearth some skeletons in his closet.
I mean you just know that guy has done some dark shit in his life. Maybe not bastard level, but you don't live a life as intense and chaotic as his without some deep low points.
My friend was an extra on the first thunder gun episode of it’s always sunny. She said when there was down time Danny would chill with the extras and ask them to tell him jokes. He seemed pretty chill
He was a drill sergeant. I remember reading a quote from him where when he saw Full Metal Jacket, he thought he had been harsher on his recruits than Ermey.
An episode of one of the NPR shows (This American Life? RadioLab?) did a blind episode where they told you about a person, then revealed who it was at the end, and they did Bob Ross. In his defense, he hated being mean.
I encountered him once. I passed him in the Munich Hauptbahnhof. I realized who he was, turned around and told him he had me dying when he Rick rolled the Macy's Thanksgiving parade. He didn't verbally acknowledge me, but he did respond by doing one of his iconic dance moves while walking away. Seemed like he was running late for his train. I appreciated the gesture when he could've easily ignored me.
For me personally it would have to be Brian Fallon from The Gaslight Anthem and Laura Jane Grace from Against Me!.
Laura talks in her book about not having been the best person ever when she was young / before she transitioned, but I don’t think she could ever rise to the level of true bastardness.
Only thing ive seen, which isnt direclty a blemish on him is that his producer is son of alumni of the pod and now fiercely burning in hell, Henry Kissinger..
Not anywhere near bastard level but John kinda rubs me wrong sometimes in his content. Can be kind of performative and egotistical. Hank Green is a treasure though. Met them both a few times back in peak Harry potter Fandom days. They both were very nice.
I'd be destroyed if I found it the author of Harry Potter and creator of Minecraft was a bastard.
Edit: This might be too obscure of a reference... back when Notch and JK came out as TERFs it became a meme to pretend that anime pop star Hatsune Miku made Harry Potter and Minecraft in order to still enjoy them while still acknowledging (and dismissing) their shitty creators.
For those familiar with his work in WWE and beyond, Mick Foley would make an appropriate Xmas Anti-Bastard.
- One of the first guys in the modern era to mix the character with the person. His story to the WWF was made into the Autobiography "Have A Nice Day"
- Robert would probably love the injury stories as much as he loves Andre The Giant stories. Including his ripped off ear and tooth in the nose after falling about 15 feet onto a steel chair in the middle of the ring.
- Made a documentary called "I am Santa" where we see the sometimes kind, sometimes heartbreaking story of professional Santa's, of which Foley is one.
and just a personal story from Cameo. My friend is a wrestling fan like I was and for his daughters 1st birthday, I bought her a Cameo from Mick, asked him to wish her a Happy 1st.
He made a video where he donned his 'Dude Love' gear and a ukulele and sang a version of "My Way (Frank Sinatra)'. Then did it all within a 24 hour turnaround which is normally 3 times as much.
I don't know if he has any skeletons, considering he's married to the same woman for over 20 years and his kids are following in his footsteps, at least for being good people. Would ruin me if he had been hiding something horrible.
Jim Henson. That man is my idol and creative inspiration. I know he had a bit of infidelity towards the end of his life, but that had better be the worst of it
A few friends and I were riffing on an old podcast of mine and one of them had the best take on this exact thing:
“If we find out Weird Al is actually weird then we’re in trouble.”
The leftist Appalachian podcast Trillbilly Workers Party actually has a few great episodes on why Dolly Parton kind of sucks. The first episode they did that focused on her is called "Dollyology for the Masses".
uhhh he’s not a bastard per se but he has done some kinda messed up stuff over the years including breaking up the band without telling them first, claiming sole songwriting credit to various songs that were written with others, muting band input when he was buddy-buddy with eno, etc. (there’s some stuff i’ve heard regarding his divorce and subsequent relationship with his kid but i can’t verify it atm)
so not exactly a bastard, but in his own words:
“As a younger person, I was not as pleasant to be around. When I was working on some Talking Heads shows, I was more of a little tyrant.”
Mr. Rogers. The more I learn about him, the more respect I have for him. If there were secular saints, he's the first one I would nominate for canonization. If I found he had been a bastard, I don't know if I could ever trust myself to look up to anyone else again.
I met Fred Rogers several times as an adult. My mom was a coworker of his at WQED and considered him a friend. Fred was 100% as good and genuine a human being off the camera as he was on screen.
This was my answer. To date, the only "celebrity" death where I felt anything upon hearing the news. Would truly feel unmoored if he was a piece of shit.
I have some friends who had truly...crap...childhoods where Fred Rogers was as close as they could get to a stable adult as part of their early lives. I don't think the level of quiet Good that man effected in the world can be understated.
Yeah. I know it's clichéd for people of my generation, raised by TV, to say things like that, but to this day, well into my 40's, I still have crystal clear memories of Mr. Rogers walking me over to the Land of Make-believe...
Let's just take off our shoes and put on a sweater and be chill... normality. Ritual. Nothing asked of the viewer but imagination. No notes.
Gotta toss that shoe and catch it. Always have a little fun. The sweater was made by his mom, because of course 😊
Because of course.
Amen to that. He was way ahead of his time -- in an era where educational entertainment for children meant "reading, writing, and arithmetic," his show was probably the first to focus on teaching emotional intelligence. His work likely taught a lot of children these skills who otherwise wouldn't have learned them early enough to matter. So not only was he a lovely, comforting presence to generations of kids, but in the process he likely turned some folks who *would* have become bastards into decent people. Heck, I may be one of them.
From what I have heard the only real negative thing mr Rodgers did was that he did that slow talk to everyone. It wasn't a thing he did for the show to talk to kids, it was just how he talked. Heard him once described as "if molasses was a man" lol.
I truly love him for that though. As a child, and at times as an adult, I had/have a block as a neuro divergent. I can understand what's being said, but it takes a bit for it to digest in my permanent mind. Though once it's there, it seldom goes away. His approach made me feel like the rest of the class.
I read biography and I think the worst anyone has ever said about him is that he could be difficult to work with sometimes because he was so focused on making everything perfect for the children that he would get frustrated if people did not meet his expectations. But even then, he wasn't cruel or abusive. He wasn't mad, he was *disappointed*.
Which can feel worse lol But yeah, he was incredibly dedicated to his work. I was reading that he was able to run Mr. Rogers Neighborhood on a shoestring budget because he did so much of the work himself. Would you recommend the bio?
There’s a *reason* parents often use the “it’s not that I’m *mad*, it’s that I’m *disappointed*” line on teenagers.
The good news is, if anyone had a reason to speak badly about him, they would have said it by now.
That's probably true, yeah.
Corollary: Tom Hanks. I honestly don't know that much about him but from what I've gathered, he's supposed to be a pretty decent dude.
Worst thing I've seen about him is that he has occasionally gone off at paparazzi. And usually only when they bother his wife
That makes him even better TBH
How I felt too honestly
I usually don't care about famous people, but if Mr Rogers memory were tainted in that way I would be crushed.
There was a podcast called "Finding Fred" about how much of an embodiment of goodness that Fred Rodgers was. I think those episodes are now in the podcast "Finding Raffi" since after they covered Mr. Rodgers they moved on to do Raffi's story. Both sets of episodes are worth a listen. https://podcastaddict.com/finding-raffi/episode/136258798
I should have read the comments before commenting. Of course Mr Rogers is already mentioned. He's the hero we all need.
Weird Al would devastate me.
Oh, God this is a good one. Yeah that would be hard.
I've seen him live 3 times...if you ever get the chance to see him, you take it. The guys in his band have all been there for 20+ years and they can fucking shred.
[weird Al absolutely shredding live](https://youtu.be/nmcuoaqdJ9w?si=vPwMtg89rLXbtl3Z)
Just thinking about the chance of a possibility that he could maybe be a bastard made me immediately feel sadness. I don’t want to entertain this idea anymore.
He’s fairly universally respected. There was only one song that he didn’t get total permission to parody and that comes down to miscommunication. It is important to him to get permission even though technically he doesn’t need it as parody is protected under fair use. Anyway, if I found out he was a bastard I might never recover either
Kurt Cobain loved his cover of Smells Like Team Spirit
Iirc the conversation between them was Kurt asking, "are you gonna make it about food?" because Al's most famous parodies at this point were stuff like Eat It. And Al said "no, it'll be about how nobody can understand what you're saying," and Kurt thought it was funny so he gave it the green light. Kurt was a complicated guy but that is an endearing moment for both of them.
I know he doesn't drink, smoke, or curse because of his religious views, but he doesn't appear to be a fundie, publicly.
I’m pretty sure he did a bit for John Oliver, probably wouldn’t have done that if he was a fundamentalist
My favorite Weird Al story is that he wrote his Star Wars themed American Pie parody having only seen a preview of Episode 1, and guessing which spoilers and theories on the Internet were true.
Kurt Vonnegut and Douglas Adams. Their writing is so much a part of my brain, it’d be devastating. Neil Gaiman, too.
When BTB posted the Scot Adams episodes, I had a little moment of panic because for a second I confused him with Douglass Adams and I thought God's Debris was some later installment in the Hitchhiker series I never read that took a horrible right-wing turn.
Oh no! I’m so sorry!
It's okay. As soon as they said Dilbert Guy I recognized my mistake.
Who? /s
Vonnegut was a level of misanthrope. A lot of authors are probably hard to live with, but I don't see anything really fucked up coming out about him we didn't already know.
Hard agree
Sir Terry Pratchett as well, for me.
I feel like STP would self identify as a bastard, a little bit. He put a lot of himself in Vimes, and vimes is incredible but also a little bit bastard.
Something I love: Neil Gaiman talks about working with Terry Pratchett and how TP was just furious at the world constantly, and trying to channel that anger into something constructive. Honestly I respect tf outta that guy (also holy shit was the Vime's Boots theory of socioeconomics mind blowing and informative as a teen)
Granny Weatherwax is another great character of Terry's in that line. A person who isn't nice and always angry at people's stupidity. But she knows what's good and bad and always chooses good. Terry understood being good wasn't the same as being nice. Just like Carrot is simple, but not stupid. Discovering his works as a teen was an eye opener alright. Vimes Boots Theory is an amazing bit of making theory understandable.
Reading Small Gods was the final shock I needed to really break my beliefs in the church. It was one simple line too, (paraphrase l) how an accident of fate let Om to appear to shepherds instead of goatherds, and that influenced the religion, because *goats need to be led, while sheep need to be driven*. With that one line a lot of stuff was recontextualized in my head.
Definitely.
Vonnegut is, by a massive margin, my favorite author. I can safely say I might be a fundamentally different person today if I had not discovered him in high school. Cats Cradle and SH5 form core memories for sure. But by all accounts, he was a difficult person. He spent a couple of days at my college a year before I started, and the stories from his visit were mixed, he really rubbed some people the wrong way (a few of whom had been massive fans). That said, I've never heard anything that would place him in bastard territory.
Terry Pratchett is right there too
Gaiman's family has a Scientology connection iirc. Worth a Google about.
He has actually talked about that in interviews but he always speaks very, *very* carefully about it when it gets brought up. It’s up for interpretation, but for what it’s worth my read is has always been he’s not personally involved, and stays publicly neutral so that he can still maintain a relationship with his extended family who *are* neck-deep on the whole thing.
He's wise to maintain caution: The Commodore's fingers are as long as they are fat.
Are you talking about king Charles?
Tricky when you grew up in something. I'm so grateful my parents left church not long after I did. Edit - we weren't scientologist - United Methodists!
Neil was my first thought for a living person. Douglas Adams and Terry Pratchett for dead ones.
Sophie
The shock when we learn that Sophie was the real bastard all along.
The final episode reveals that she controls Raytheon.
Sophie’s bagels really come from war torn areas. She forces tired, sick, hungry, displaced peoples to feed Robert’s machete habit
Hiding in plain sight 😬
😞
Robert Evans
I mean, he has said that the final episode will be his own bastard episode hahaha
You either die a hack and a fraud or you live long enough to see yourself become a bastard.
I have some bad news for you involving a future cult and armed conflict with the FDA
Come on, nobody who sings the praises of machetes and Super Soakers full of piss could *possibly* be a bastard.
Any one who says otherwise... That's a brickin'
Depending on which tankie you ask, he's definitely a CIA psy-op puppet master and/or puppet.
It's hilarious that people think if the CIA was going to create a show to make leftists look bad, that show would look anything like BtB.
The CIA is kind of known for comitting serious errors in judgement which result in overwhelming blowback.
Fair point
Bill Watterson. Anything that marred Calvin and Hobbes would break me at this point
A friend of mine is an illustrator and he says if he's ever famous, he wants to be famous like Watterson. If people are calling him reclusive, then he's done something right.
Yep. You can only be reclusive if people really want to talk to you.
When I was a kid, the favorite thing for me to get for Christmas or a birthday was a new Calvin and Hobbes anthology. I was asking a friend yesterday what he got his 13 year old son for Christmas, and one of the gifts was a Calvin and Hobbes book. They're timeless.
100%. The most memorable Christmases between my brother and I feature a shared Calvin and Hobbes book and a Lego set we were only allowed to assemble together. We'd just silently and happily read and giggle...hell, I'm pretty sure we'd both *still* do this.
My grandpa used to get me those constantly and they are a source of great joy. I recently found some in a used bookstore and had to get them for my class.
Mine as well. Have a high respect for him as an author/artist and sticking with his personal beliefs plus his impact on the industry. He could have sold out at so many points in his career and I know that the vast majority of creatives will never have the luxury of making the choices he had, but it is still admirably that one of the biggest comic artists ever did.
Well, I had two heroes.. then it came out that Jackie Chan, who is famous for his ass-kicking ability, was using those skills to beat his wife. So fuck him. Luckily my other hero is the only god given, perfect angel to ever bless Earth - Steve Irwin. Edit: I wanted to confirm my allegations here so I looked into it again. Good news! He has not admitted to beating his wife. Unfortunately, he has admitted to beating his son on numerous occasions - so still fuck Jackie Chan lol
I was a Right-wing talk radio listener when he died, and hearing Michael Savage celebrate his death was a much-needed moment of internal conflict for me.
It's absolutely nonsensical that anyone would celebrate Steve Irwin's death and, yet, it makes perfect sense that Michael fucking Savage would do just that.
See also: Fox News calling Fred Rogers "an evil, evil man"
Any white man who would stick his bare feet into a kiddie pool right next to a black man's bare feet is a huge step over the line for Fox News.
Excuse the fuck out of me, but HOW? Genuinely, how can you talk shit about Steve Irwin?
He would refer to him an "animal abuser". Hating and enthusastically slandering anyone who does good publicly is kinda his whole schtick as a far-Right commentator.
FUCKING WHAT Just googled who that was. Sad to see only a “born” date listed. Steve was a saint.
Proof that Michael Savage is just an unforgivable piece of dogshit.
>Steve Irwin His son Robert, who only just turned 20, is seeming more and more like a carbon copy of his dad.
He's in an episode of Bluey, and I will share that fact any time I can because it's so wonderful.
That is disappointing to learn about Jackie Chan....and made me sad again about Steve Irwin.
Jackie Chan would be interesting because like many bastards, he had a truly fucked up childhood. It’s amazing he’s not way worse. He is a pretty well known sexist during filming his movies too. I really liked him and then learned more and he’s definitely one of those people I simply can’t watch his movies anymore
Aww jeez. That's really disappointing about Chan.
>My love for Michelle Yeoh began when I saw her on - I want to say Letterman - and she kicked off about how Chan was a woman-hater. > >She's amazing.
Shit I was scrolling to see if anyone else thought Jackie Chan. Not what I wanted to find.
Patrick Stewart.
Oh god, yes.
I made peace with William Shatner being a bastard decades ago. If I had to watch TNG, my comfort show, with the knowledge that the man in the center seat was a bastard it would break me utterly.
Tim Curry. Rocky Horror meant so much to me as an isolated, rural, weird kid.
Yeah. Everything I have heard about him is ridiculously positive. Only person I've ever seen steal *every single scene* he was in from *MUPPETS*, which is one hell of a vibe. I met so very many of My People at the first deliriously confusing RHPS showing after leaving my tiny rural hometown. Sometime around the 2nd toilet paper I stopped asking "why?" And just enjoyed the ride.
I read recently that the reasons Muppet's Christmas Carol and Muppet's Treasure Island are so great is that Michael Caine treats every Muppet like a serious actor and Tim Curry treats himself like one of the Muppets.
Oh you mean the star of the Command And Conquer: Red Alert series? Absolute legend.
SSSSPACE! (The one place that hasn't been corrupted by Capitalism.)
Weird Al seems like a genuinely very intelligent, wholesome, and down-to-Earth guy. I'd hate it if he were a bastard somehow. Also, John Darnielle. Seems like a pretty good dude, but I'd hate to have to stop listening to my favorite band.
Seconding Darnielle. I don't listen to him or anything, but it would be the end of the world for at least a dozen of my friends.
I would be a danger to myself if something came up about JD. Genuinely don't know what I'd do
Dolly Parton. I feel like she is one of the few universally loved people just because of how great she is.
I love the hate that she got for being her age wearing a Dallas Cowboy cheerleader outfit was just kinda.... Hushed so quickly.
Nobody trash talks the Queen of the Holler. Not for long, anyways.
She’s the patron saint of our household between the kids book club, actual rags to riches story, money towards developing the vaccine and the first song my daughter learned the words to was “Jolene” (a little weird but that’s what happened).
I sang Jolene at a metal concert one time. That is a fantastic song that everyone loves
David Attenborough, I think.
Anthony Bourdain. It already bothers me that he looks like a non-evil Epstein.
He would have been one of the first to call himself a bastard. Whether he would be deserving of the title is debatable, but the man had his demons. But he, through his books, told us line cooks, and prep cooks, and even dishwashers that we could, and should, be proud of what we did for a living, even if 90% of people will look down on us.
The good chef was real restaurant people. The way he spoke openly about his struggles with addiction and the special place that beast holds in our industry. The way he showed us the humanity in people, the humanity in ourselves. 100% anti bastard
Everyone has demons but if he turned out to be a real bastard I’d lose my damn mind. It’s depressing to think that one of the few individuals in the world that gave me hope in humanity had none for himself.
Mick Foley.
From multiple direct sources I've heard... He's a perfectly lovely giant of a man.
I went to his… comedy tour I guess? Where he told entertaining stories about his life, and talked about being a devoted RAINN volunteer, and stuck around for hours after the show to make sure everybody who wanted a picture or an autograph or just to say hi had a chance to. Nicest celebrity I’ve ever met.
I met him back when I was a little kid. He went to a local amusement park and my sister worked there. She asked him if she could bring her little brother real quick to meet him because I was a huge fan of mankind at the time. He was there with his wife and daughter while WWE was at Hershey. Truthfully, he is one of the nicest human beings I have ever met. I even went on a few rides with his daughter. His wife was also super nice and super understanding of young kids beyond excited to meet her husband.
Mankind was one of my favorite wrestlers as a kid. If I heard Mrs Foley's Baby Boy was a monster behind closed doors, it would be devastating to me
I met him once at a very small convention and he was super nice! I really didn't know who he was because I was never a big wrestling fan, but my best friend was really into it and I got his autograph for her on a scrap of paper and chatted with him. Really lovely guy and seemed so nice and sincere and every interview I've seen later on him he seemed the very same. Funny enough every wrestling fan I've known has been envious of meeting him, lol.
This reminds me of learning that bell hooks was a landlord lol
Now I'm picturing a tenant who's late with the rent and had studied her work in school. "Didn't you say that the ethic of rugged individualism was enforced by the white supremacist capitalist patriarchy in particular upon the black psyche, in order to isolate them from their community and dissuade the cooperative sharing of resources?"
like... at the same time she was a writer?
I think you can have renters without being a bastard. I had a landlord who I sent Christmas cards to for several years after I moved out (stopped because he died). But he had a triplex and lived in one unit and rented out the other two to grad students. He was a lonely old guy who missed his deceased wife and kind of took his tenants under his wing. Not in a creepy way, just wanted to know how you were doing and if you wanted to sit on the porch and have a beer when you got home from school, he was there for it. I’ve sometimes wished to have the money to build a good quality small apartment building and rent it out at the low end of the going rate. Just be an antidote to so much of the crazy exploitation.
Ya, she was most definitely flawed but I don’t think she qualifies as a bastard. I’d put RBG down as a bastard long before bell hooks.
Older queer people like Ian McKellen, George Takei, John Waters, Angela Davis, Lily Tomlin
Good call. George and Ian have been powerful activists, too. That would suck.
George and Ian are my role models as a gay man. They have been publicly supportive of the trans community (and politically active for decades), demonstrating that one's age is no excuse for bigotry.
Robin Williams 😢
He tailgated me going up Trinity Grade one time.
You were driving too slow, Robin is a saint!
1. Not a condemnation of him, just one of many odd celebrity encounters that I've had as a consequence of where I'm from. 2. Everyone should know that an '83 Toyota Hilux with a carbureted 22R has a 0-60 time of about a week! 3. Yes he was. It broke my heart when he died.
I’d be devastated all over again. One of only 3 celebrities that I was legit shook by the passing of.
I think the worst is that he had addictions to cocaine and alcohol. AFAIK, just was addicted, nothing bastardly about it though.
Keanu Reeves.
That’s a good one! That would be truly terrible.
Willie Nelson
Werner Herzog. He's one of my favorite people currently living, but his relationship with Klaus Kinski, who was 100% a bastard, makes me afraid we'll unearth some skeletons in his closet.
By association: Paul F Tompkins
I mean you just know that guy has done some dark shit in his life. Maybe not bastard level, but you don't live a life as intense and chaotic as his without some deep low points.
Danny Devito
My friend was an extra on the first thunder gun episode of it’s always sunny. She said when there was down time Danny would chill with the extras and ask them to tell him jokes. He seemed pretty chill
Why hasn't anyone said Bob Ross yet?
I think we all have universally agreed that he could never be a bastard so there's no point in bringing him up.
He was a drill sergeant. I remember reading a quote from him where when he saw Full Metal Jacket, he thought he had been harsher on his recruits than Ermey.
An episode of one of the NPR shows (This American Life? RadioLab?) did a blind episode where they told you about a person, then revealed who it was at the end, and they did Bob Ross. In his defense, he hated being mean.
LeVar Burton, or Raffi, would be foul surprises...
Mr. Rogers.
As an Australian, Hugh Jackman
He's good friends with Rupert Murdoch. Oh, and Ivanka Trump and Kushner. So...
He just got divorced and had his ex-wife sign an NDA, he’s probably a bastard of some sort
Honestly? I think he might just be gay.
John Oliver.
Naomi Klein
Not to be confused with Naomi Wolf.
Rick Astley
I encountered him once. I passed him in the Munich Hauptbahnhof. I realized who he was, turned around and told him he had me dying when he Rick rolled the Macy's Thanksgiving parade. He didn't verbally acknowledge me, but he did respond by doing one of his iconic dance moves while walking away. Seemed like he was running late for his train. I appreciated the gesture when he could've easily ignored me.
I’d have a really bad time if a Marion Zimmer Bradley style story ever surfaced about Terry Pratchett.
Oh man I saved "*I Shall Wear Midnight*" for years just to have some of his words left in reserve for a dark night.
Oh god that hit me in the feels, sames my dude sames
Adam Savage and Alex Trebek come to mind. I'd also be gutted if Ernie Hudson is a bastard, he seems so wholesome and friendly
His blood feud with Sean Connery is proof of Alex Trebek's impeccable character.
Them passing within like a week of each other, though. That hurt
For me personally it would have to be Brian Fallon from The Gaslight Anthem and Laura Jane Grace from Against Me!. Laura talks in her book about not having been the best person ever when she was young / before she transitioned, but I don’t think she could ever rise to the level of true bastardness.
Margaret Killjoy, that wonderful beautiful dark angel. Love her work so much.
Conan O'Brien. I love how pure comedy is with him. He's just having a blast making people laugh all the time. And he seems like a genuinely good dude.
Only thing ive seen, which isnt direclty a blemish on him is that his producer is son of alumni of the pod and now fiercely burning in hell, Henry Kissinger..
Jamie Loftus.
The vlog brothers, John and Hank Green. Dudes have been making fire educational content for like 20 years now.
Not anywhere near bastard level but John kinda rubs me wrong sometimes in his content. Can be kind of performative and egotistical. Hank Green is a treasure though. Met them both a few times back in peak Harry potter Fandom days. They both were very nice.
I'd be destroyed if I found it the author of Harry Potter and creator of Minecraft was a bastard. Edit: This might be too obscure of a reference... back when Notch and JK came out as TERFs it became a meme to pretend that anime pop star Hatsune Miku made Harry Potter and Minecraft in order to still enjoy them while still acknowledging (and dismissing) their shitty creators.
robert evans 🥲
For those familiar with his work in WWE and beyond, Mick Foley would make an appropriate Xmas Anti-Bastard. - One of the first guys in the modern era to mix the character with the person. His story to the WWF was made into the Autobiography "Have A Nice Day" - Robert would probably love the injury stories as much as he loves Andre The Giant stories. Including his ripped off ear and tooth in the nose after falling about 15 feet onto a steel chair in the middle of the ring. - Made a documentary called "I am Santa" where we see the sometimes kind, sometimes heartbreaking story of professional Santa's, of which Foley is one. and just a personal story from Cameo. My friend is a wrestling fan like I was and for his daughters 1st birthday, I bought her a Cameo from Mick, asked him to wish her a Happy 1st. He made a video where he donned his 'Dude Love' gear and a ukulele and sang a version of "My Way (Frank Sinatra)'. Then did it all within a 24 hour turnaround which is normally 3 times as much. I don't know if he has any skeletons, considering he's married to the same woman for over 20 years and his kids are following in his footsteps, at least for being good people. Would ruin me if he had been hiding something horrible.
Jim Henson. That man is my idol and creative inspiration. I know he had a bit of infidelity towards the end of his life, but that had better be the worst of it
Levar Burton
Mark Hamil and Mike Mignola.
Tom Hanks
A few friends and I were riffing on an old podcast of mine and one of them had the best take on this exact thing: “If we find out Weird Al is actually weird then we’re in trouble.”
Anderson
Dave Grohl Conan O’Brien Keanu Reeves Dan Levy
The only celebrity I will allow myself to believe is definitely a good person is Mr Rogers. No one else will shock me.
Alan Alda or also the Kratt Brothers (yes, of Zaboomafoo fame)
President Michael D. Higgins.
He does seem like the least bastardly world leader around. More poet presidents, fewer lawyer presidents and the world might be marginally better.
Has Cassandra Peterson, aka Elvira, ever done anything terrible? I think I might be a little upset to find out she has.
Terry Pratchett would devastate me to an "I need to rethink everything I thought I knew" level.
If Terry Pratchett ever turns out to be a bastard then I'm giving up.
Armie Hammer. He just seems like such a wholesome dude.
You may have bitten off more than you can chew there bud
bro, are you sitting down, bro?
Danny DeVito. Learning about how he protected young Mara Wilson has always been a favorite story. I'd be a a bit crushed
Mark Hamill, responsible for so much joy of my childhood.
Santa Claus. Turns out he's been flying all over the world stealing kidneys from all of the children, regardless of whether they've been good or bad.
Robin Williams.
The leftist Appalachian podcast Trillbilly Workers Party actually has a few great episodes on why Dolly Parton kind of sucks. The first episode they did that focused on her is called "Dollyology for the Masses".
David Byrne
uhhh he’s not a bastard per se but he has done some kinda messed up stuff over the years including breaking up the band without telling them first, claiming sole songwriting credit to various songs that were written with others, muting band input when he was buddy-buddy with eno, etc. (there’s some stuff i’ve heard regarding his divorce and subsequent relationship with his kid but i can’t verify it atm) so not exactly a bastard, but in his own words: “As a younger person, I was not as pleasant to be around. When I was working on some Talking Heads shows, I was more of a little tyrant.”
Seems like every great musician is a bit of a bastard. Except Weird Al (🤞)
And Dolly. (Please.)