.. He was pretty much the biggest celebrity on the planet .. | TWoP: The Telefile Blog: TV stars on twitter respond to the death of Michael Jackson | comments

Rob Corddry, being awesome:
"I wish it had been Michael Jackson that broke the story of TMZ dying."

Coldplay tweeted this earlier:
"MJ was the best of the best. His music and performances made the world a brighter place. His light will shine on forever."

19 comments

-Sinkwriter72: I keep thinking about how sad it is that most kids and teenagers today probably see him as the odd eccentric and plastic surgery-obsessed 'weirdo,' rather than really having any concept of just how remarkable and huge he was in the music industry. My older sister had "Beat It" and "Billie Jean" posters of him on our bedroom walls. We got a rare opportunity to see him and his brothers perform during their Victory Tour. I was only 11 or 12 when his Thriller album hit big, but I was just astounded at his dancing abilities, his musical creativity, all the songs and the music videos (yeah, back when MTV actually focused on *music* and performance). He was a truly amazing performer. As I said to my sister last night, it feels like a big part of my childhood has died. So strange and sad.

-Sinkwriter72, I could not have said it better myself. I listened to Thriller over and over and over when I was a kid. My friends and I made up dance routines to the songs. He was the first celebrity poster I had on my wall. I know he had alot of problems and had become a "weirdo," but he gave us some fantastic songs and amazing talent.

-My first concert was MJ when I was 5. It was the best night of my young life.

- There were three giant posters that covered my walls when I was younger: New Edition, New Kids on the Block, and The Jackson 5. The Jackson 5 poster was the first thing I saw when I woke up. Michael was a performer more than anyone else on the face of the Earth and he inspired everyone since with his style and his vision. The tragedy of him (and his family) is that in many ways, they are profoundly displeased with who and what they are and they have acted in ways contrary to human imagination. This is just his physical death, I've been missing Michael Jackson for years now.

-MJ was HUGE when I was in elementary school. He was the one performer everyone loved, regardless of age, ethnicity, or musical taste and his videos were events. We all piled around the TV for the big debut of the Thriller video and it was worth it. By the end of the week we all had memorized the zombie dance. But the talented guy who gave us Off The Wall and Thriller has been dead for almost 20 years. I miss him.

-I can remember going to sleep listening to Thriller on cassette tape every night as a teenager. Dating myself even further, I remember watching and loving the Jackson 5 (ABC) as a kid. For all of his faults Michael Jackson was truly the King of Pop. I hope his soul gains the peace in death that he didn't seem to have in life. He seemed so tortured in life.

-How do you top Thiller? You don't and he didn't.
Didn't stop him from trying, which is what I find sad.

-"Thriller" is one of only a handful of albums I've owned on cassette, LP and CD. It makes me sad that the younger generation thinks Michael Jackson=freakshow, they missed out on Michael when he was magic.

-Whatever his faults may have been, you can't take away his musical genius. I also grew up during his magic years and I hope that his talent and humanity make up a bigger part of his legacy than the circus hysteria of his last 10 years.

-Born caucasian in a small midwestern town, I grew up surrounded by white faces. Born in 1973, Martin Luther King's work, while no doubt groundbreaking and incredibly, incredibly important, was a lesson in my history books. Michael Jackson's sweet nature and beyond-compare talent was my first real bridge to racial harmony, my first real experience with looking at the heart behind the skin. I know this is not a racial issue, and I don't mean to make it about that. But I need to thank that man for making me a better person. As I grew up, my heart broke as my once widely embraced grade school crush became the 'Whacko' so hunted by tabloids, and I prayed on more than one occasion that he would find some manner of genuine peace. I'm praying that same prayer today. My heart goes out to him, and to his family, especially his children. I hope the chaos of the world's mourning will not be obtrusive to them. Sleep well, Michael. We will miss you.

-I'm a child of the 90's, my mother was a child of the 60s. She grew up with Michael Jackson, loving and cherishing his music, and through her I discovered and loved his music. Michael was a polarizing figure to say the least, his life fraught with controversary and struggles; he did not truly love himself, and this self-hate manifested itself in many destructive ways, but Michael at his core was a very shy, sensitive and timid individual; blessed with talent that surpassed anything the world has ever seen, or will ever see again. Now, I hope he is able to see truly what an incredible, dynamic force of nature he was and finally he can be at peace with that knowledge. Even though today I am saddened, I know that Michael is at peace, for the first time in his life true peace, at home with his creator. God Speed Michael, and Thank You for your contributions to this world.

-It's weird how affected you get when a someone of this magnitude dies, someone you grew up with but is a stranger. I think one reason it's so sad is because he seemed immortal when I was a kid, I just adored his music. He will always be remembered for his music and not the other stuff I hope. I was surprised by how upset I was, as I went to work this morning Will You Be There came on the radio and I had tears in my eyes. He had a sad life in the past 10 years.

-Yes its true Michael Jackson was a frigging legend and seeing as I wasn't born when Elvis died, to me MJ is #1. And the King. At first when I heard the news it didn't seem real. Maybe because as others have so succinctly put it. The MJ of my youth is not the same guy that passed away this week. That guy was my first crush (celebrity and non-celebrity). For the first 10 years of my life I sincerely believed I was gonna grow up and marry him. It feels so weird that he's physically dead now. Also, it is so sad to think that he was so well known and loved that when I was growing up in Romania & Tanzania. People could not speak English but they could sing his songs and imitate his dance moves. The guy really did have a knack as a performer for bringing people together.
I feel like it truly is the end of an era. I also feel like with his death, I too have completely and fully "grown up". Neverland is closed for business y'all.