Imitation is the sincerest form of... something.
Yesterday on CP24, one of the scrolling news headlines declared, "British Eminem impersonator sentenced to life in prison in beating death of female law student." No other information was provided. This led to several questions coming to mind, not the least of which was, "There are Eminem impersonators?"
More on that later ("Moron. That later!"), but first let's address some of the secondary questions raised by this particular news-snippet.
The specific elements included intrigue me. The basic content is that this guy is going to prison because he killed a woman. Got it. How relevant is the fact that he was an Eminem impersonator? Or that she was a law student? Did he beat her to death because he thought that's what Eminem would do? (Something I'm almost sure Eminem's people would probably deny, given the inclination.) Did he do it because of the kitten theory? (Kittens are cute but they grow up to be cats. Law students may be cute, but they grow up to be lawyers.) Lord knows we could certainly do with fewer lawyers. (Some litigatory twit will probably try to sue me for saying that.)
But we don't know how relevant any of the factors are, because NO OTHER INFORMATION WAS PROVIDED. It wasn't covered on the "real" news on CP24. The yammering news readers didn't mention it all. Not a whiff.
Some of the scrolling headlines are self-explanatory. If, f'rinstance, the headline had read, "Shelly Long receives lifetime achievement award for beating agent to death" that would make sense and be clear to everyone. This headline left so many unanswered questions.
Which brings us back to the main point of pondering...
There are Eminem impersonators?
How low must your self-esteem be for you to base a career on pretending to be someone else?
OK, Elvis impersonating is a booming business and many seemingly misguided but probably quite clever people make a respectable living from it. Ski vacations notwithstanding, the town of Collingwood, Ontario owes its existence to Elvis impersonators.
Cher impersonators, solo or paired with the occasional Sonny clone, can be seen, and paid, quite regularly, as well.
Liza Minnelli and Michael Jackson are also lucrative impersonation subjects, though they both register much higher of the freak-meter than Elvis or his impersonators.
However, you gotta wonder about the second- and third-tier impersonators.
How screwed up does your life need to be for you want to be a Lindsay Lohan impersonator? A Bob Saget impersonator? A Jeff Probst impersonator?
Seriously, below a certain level, "celebrity" impersonation simply becomes a cry for euthanasia.
More on that later ("Moron. That later!"), but first let's address some of the secondary questions raised by this particular news-snippet.
The specific elements included intrigue me. The basic content is that this guy is going to prison because he killed a woman. Got it. How relevant is the fact that he was an Eminem impersonator? Or that she was a law student? Did he beat her to death because he thought that's what Eminem would do? (Something I'm almost sure Eminem's people would probably deny, given the inclination.) Did he do it because of the kitten theory? (Kittens are cute but they grow up to be cats. Law students may be cute, but they grow up to be lawyers.) Lord knows we could certainly do with fewer lawyers. (Some litigatory twit will probably try to sue me for saying that.)
But we don't know how relevant any of the factors are, because NO OTHER INFORMATION WAS PROVIDED. It wasn't covered on the "real" news on CP24. The yammering news readers didn't mention it all. Not a whiff.
Some of the scrolling headlines are self-explanatory. If, f'rinstance, the headline had read, "Shelly Long receives lifetime achievement award for beating agent to death" that would make sense and be clear to everyone. This headline left so many unanswered questions.
Which brings us back to the main point of pondering...
There are Eminem impersonators?
How low must your self-esteem be for you to base a career on pretending to be someone else?
OK, Elvis impersonating is a booming business and many seemingly misguided but probably quite clever people make a respectable living from it. Ski vacations notwithstanding, the town of Collingwood, Ontario owes its existence to Elvis impersonators.
Cher impersonators, solo or paired with the occasional Sonny clone, can be seen, and paid, quite regularly, as well.
Liza Minnelli and Michael Jackson are also lucrative impersonation subjects, though they both register much higher of the freak-meter than Elvis or his impersonators.
However, you gotta wonder about the second- and third-tier impersonators.
How screwed up does your life need to be for you want to be a Lindsay Lohan impersonator? A Bob Saget impersonator? A Jeff Probst impersonator?
Seriously, below a certain level, "celebrity" impersonation simply becomes a cry for euthanasia.
posted by tga | 12/07/2005 09:10:00 AM
1 Comments:
There's a joke in here about Bill King getting roles based on his ability to be a Bill Poulin impersonator, but it would be unseemly for me to make it.
The tribute act is a bizarre phenomenon, isn't it? Basically, if you work really hard, and do everything absolutely perfectly, you're still going to be no better than second best.
ggpoog
(side note: that is the naughtiest sounding collection of random characters I've ever had to type)
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