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Fame: The Road Trip

2009-10-26 · John · watch on YouTube · Pop culture · reflection essay

Answering the fame question from his Balloon Boy video, John rejects viewers' reasons (to live forever, to get rich) and argues people seek respect from those they respect, so the key is choosing whose respect you want.

What is said

00:00:00 — Road trip with the Yeti to the Container Store in Cincinnati for new bedroom closets; turns to last week's Balloon Boy video

  • ★ John and the Yeti drove two and a half hours to the Container Store in Cincinnati for their new bedroom closets; John says this is why he's old. (playful) — 00:00:01 · Sarah Urist Green

00:00:39 — The why-be-famous question from the Balloon Boy video; viewer answer 1, fame lets you live forever: no one does; Lauren Conrad vs a high school English teacher; be a teacher

  • ★★★ John recalls his Balloon Boy video last week and its question: why do people want fame despite ample evidence it is sucky and destructive? — 00:00:39 · celebrity
  • ★★ John says most viewer answers fell broadly into three categories. — 00:00:39
  • ★★ First category, fame lets you live after death: John says no one lives forever, since eventually no humans will remain to remember anyone. — 00:00:39 · celebrity
  • ★★★ John proposes that reality-show stars don't live on after death: Lauren Conrad is likely to be remembered less than a high school English teacher. (hedged) — 00:01:08
  • ★★ John's reckoning: a teacher who teaches 15-year-olds until 65 and dies at 85 leaves students of 35 who remember her 50 more years; Lauren Conrad won't be remembered 50 years after death. — 00:01:38
  • ★★ John: if you want to be famous to be remembered, be a teacher. — 00:01:38

00:02:07 — Viewer answer 2, get rich without working: fame is work and doesn't pay (Real World/Road Rules Challenge); answer 3, attention feels good

  • ★★ Second category, fame makes you rich without hard work: John is unconvinced; getting famous is peculiar but real work, and you don't get that rich. — 00:02:07 · celebrity
  • ★★ John asks why, if Real World cast members got wealthy, they must do the Real World/Road Rules Challenge every year to support themselves. (playful) — 00:02:07
  • ★★ Most viewers cited that attention feels good; John grants it may be so but says it isn't what he was thinking of. — 00:02:07

00:02:36 — John's answer: we seek respect from people we respect (TMZ, YA writers); who is your silverback gorilla? question of the day; sign-off

  • ★★★ John thinks we are genetically coded to seek respect, not from everyone but from the people whom we respect. (hedged) — 00:02:36 · celebrity
  • ★★ John says if the Heene family respects TMZ, they seek TMZ's respect by getting its attention, so they build a UFO balloon. — 00:02:36
  • ★★ John says he looks up to young adult writers like Walter Dean Myers, E. Lockhart and Markus Zusak and wants respect from them. — 00:03:05
  • ★★★ John asks whose respect you want, the 'silverback gorilla' of your life's jungle: Ellen DeGeneres, Shakespeare or Jay-Z is fine; Lindsay Lohan calls for a hard look at yourself. (playful) — 00:03:05 · William Shakespeare > «In the jungle of your life, who is your silverback gorilla?»
  • ★★★ John says we get to choose our silverback gorilla, and asks as his non-rhetorical question of the day: who's yours? — 00:03:41

Humor (significant)

  • John gushes over the Container Store while shopping for closets. — 00:00:01 > «It can contain anything except for my excitement about the container store.»
  • Getting famous is a peculiar kind of work, but it's work. — 00:02:07 > «Like, do you think that UFO-shaped balloon built itself?»
  • Fame doesn't make you that rich: if Real World cast members became wealthy, — 00:02:07 > «how come they have to go on real world road rules challenge every year for the rest of their lives in order to support themselves?»
  • Ellen DeGeneres, Shakespeare or Jay-Z as the silverback gorilla of your jungle is fine. — 00:03:05 > «But if the silverback gorilla of your jungle is Lindsay Lohan, you need to take a long... hard look at yourself.»

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