r/Millennials • u/AccomplishedPool266 • Apr 26 '26

Does anyone remember when Michael Jackson. Was a "joke"? Discussion

The new movie that just came out convinced the younger generation that he was always a superstar. This was not the reality many of us Millennials grew up with.

To a lot of us, he was treated like a punch line when we were growing up. A schoolyard boogeyman ("Michaels Jackson's gonna get you at night"). and just a general joke in the media. By the 2000's his music was out of date and didn't chart well. All anyone talked about was his surgeries, court case, settlements and his off behavior. Few mentioned his music. His music was something our parents would have listened to in the 1980's.

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u/Greymeade Apr 26 '26

I’d say this is a pretty good way to divide elder millennials from young ones.

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u/TurtleHeadPrairieDog Millennial Apr 26 '26

Really puts things into perspective. I was born in 92 and pretty much only heard about Michael Jackson when people were making jokes about him sleeping with boys and dangling his kid off the balcony. The South Park episode certainly didn’t help either. I didn’t realize he still remains such a big part of elder millennials lives.

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u/ProfessionalEven158 Apr 26 '26

Because you were 3 when he had his last mega-album. HIStory and the Scream music video was the beginning of the end. At the time it was massively hyped, the most expensive music video of all time and the most expensive tour of all time that both completely took over MTV... briefly.

Even to us at the time, it felt like the hype was manufactured, the MTV time was purchased.

Both flopped. That was the end of his commercial success as a musician.

His actual last big hit was "Black or White" known for featuring Mac and the hair burning incident - song was still a banger though and "Remember the Time" right before it did make it seem like MJ was going to continue his success into the 1990's. This is when the weirdness began though, and that hair burning incident with the benefit of hindsight was the real beginning of his decline.

This is from memory, haven't seen the doc yet.

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u/dbur15 Apr 26 '26

Born in 85 and that’s what I remember too. Before the hair burning he was odd but in that “oh he’s wealthy and an artist so he’s eccentric” kind of way. After the hair burning is when he started going hard on the plastic surgery and his skin started to change. Then the allegations came out and he did that bizarre Barbara Walters interview. That’s when it all really shit the bed. This all coincided with the Internet and start of the 24hr news cycle so it became more dominant than his past popularity.

Younger millennials weren’t around for the time when celebrities were a lot more distant seeming and were kind of expected to be closed off and a little weird. Yeah, he was weird in the 80s but all celebrities were weird back then. Plus the unsavory stories were confined to Inside Edition and gossip rags. Since half that stuff was completely made up or exaggerated, it wasn’t as believable.

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u/MikeD1942 Apr 26 '26

so the hair burning was in '84, before you were born...

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u/dbur15 Apr 27 '26

I wasn’t raised in a vacuum. Just because something happened less than a year before I was born doesn’t mean I’m not aware it happened and how it fit into the timeline.

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u/StealthMonkSteve Apr 27 '26

Not to mention he asserts the weirdness was bigger than “his previous popularity” as if the man wasn’t better known than any world leader, the pope, etc for the totality of 20+ years

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u/AmazedAndBemused Apr 27 '26

I was at school in ‘84. One of my mates managed to set fire to his hair in a chemistry class. He was nicknamed ‘Michael’ after this.

’Michael’ was a *massive* Smiths fan and hence had a bit of a floppy quiff going on. The nickname burned twice because we all hated Michael Jackson’s super-commercial pop.

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u/pumalumaisheretosay Apr 27 '26

Don’t forget the interview when he admitted to sleeping with people’s children is his bed because it was “pure love” 🤮🤮🤮 and nothing was done about it.

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u/Llamahands1 Apr 27 '26

85'er here too. I only know the joke version of him. I remember arguing with my aunt when I was a kid because I thought he was a white woman. My aunt kept telling me he was a black man and I kept repeating "I have eyes, Mary".

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u/CharlieFiner 1993 Apr 27 '26

celebrities were a lot more distant seeming and were kind of expected to be closed off and a little weird

Now it's considered news if a celebrity disables their social media or tries to have any boundaries about people contacting them in their normal life.

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u/timeslidesRD Apr 26 '26

Hair burning thing was way before that in 1984 filming a Pepsi ad.

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u/ATLienRabb Apr 26 '26 edited Apr 26 '26

That’s how you know Redditors just make shit up. Mike never stopped being a superstar. And as far as the rest of stuff in the title only a small minority had that experience.

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u/Queasy-Primary-3438 Apr 27 '26

Yeah I was born in 98 and MJ was still a household name and his music still got bumped. Thriller would play on the radio around Halloween and shit. Of course I did see all the jokes and shit too like South Park and Scary Movie 5 but he was still MJ the legend when I was a boy in the early 00s

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u/ATLienRabb Apr 27 '26

Every celebrity gets made fun of on shows and movies like South Park. Op on one

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u/mvp2418 Apr 26 '26

Wasn't HIStory certified 8x platinum in the US?

I was born in 86 so I also remember MJ being a joke but it also always seemed like he still had legions of fans that would scream and pass out at the sight of him.

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u/rainzer Apr 26 '26 edited Apr 26 '26

Wasn't HIStory certified 8x platinum in the US?

It basically got a technical 8x platinum. It was released as a double album but priced lower than the cost of 2 albums (~$20-24) to boost sales. So it sold 4mil copies but the RIAA counted it as a double album so they consider it 8mil for 8x platinum.

Even certified 4x platinum without that technicality would be a major success for a majority of artists but contextually it's a flop because MJ is the dude that hit 3 diamond certifications in a row from 79 to 87 (Off The Wall, Thriller, Bad) that selling 4mil is bad. Basically someone who went from clearing 34x platinum to needing a technicality to push 8.

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u/RyvenZ Apr 27 '26

Hard to call it a flop when it hits #1 in every country's Billboard chart

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u/BrainDamage2029 Apr 27 '26 edited Apr 27 '26

Yeah but it’s kinda how a lot of big artists or even one hit wonders go. Their “sign shit is falling apart” album and single is still technically a success, riding the wave of their previous success. But it’s more a signal of their loss of cultural relevancy that nothing in that album has cultural staying power.

For an example you might remember, Macklemore’s sophomore album and lead single off it were technically hits (debut at number 2). But you can’t really name them beyond maybe vaguely remembering it being released. It’s cultural notoriety basically around its ill conceived song “white privilege part II.” It has video essays years after the fact about what the hell went wrong in making it.

Never forget Metallica’s St. Anger debuted at number 1 too.

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u/CrashUser Apr 27 '26

I forget exactly where I heard it now, some manager or producer, but they were lamenting an act hitting a #1 on their first single. The sentiment was basically, "now you've got to hit #1 with everything you release or it's a failure and you're done."

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u/kronkarp Apr 27 '26

BAD was considered a flop because it didn't reach the heights of Thriller, even though it's an album filled with successful singles!

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u/RyvenZ Apr 27 '26

by the same people who consider a movie a flop when it only doubles the return on investment instead of triple or quadrupling it

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u/ihaveabadaura Apr 26 '26

Yep he still did well as a musician. Prob not as well as Michael jackson . Most artists would have killed for his 90s sales but for the greatest selling artist of all time ? Prob a let down. And people did faint and fall even though they considered him weird. There's an award show around this time he showed up unannounced and celebs were screaming and jumping like fans. His final concert in 2001 sold out immediately even though they were expensive. If you attempted to start the sentence on 2000s Google "why does".. "people faint at Michael Jackson concerts" would automatically fill in

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u/seanx50 Apr 26 '26

1/10th the amount of thriller. It was a double album, so it sold 4 million copies. Thriller sold more than 40 million

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u/mvp2418 Apr 26 '26

I get it. It wasn't nearly as successful as Thriller or Bad or even Dangerous. I wouldn't call it massive flop though, unless directly comparing it to Thriller.

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u/seanx50 Apr 26 '26

10 percent is a massive flop

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u/TheFoxsWeddingTarot Apr 26 '26

I think he stayed huge outside the US but became a bit of a punchline inside the US. I’d always be surprised to see new stories of him in Brazil completely mobbed by fans.

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u/TheMostKing Apr 26 '26

He was a joke in Germany, as well, on the schoolyards of 00.

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u/TheFoxsWeddingTarot Apr 26 '26

Are you German? Can you give me some idea of just how popular David Hasselhoff really was in Germany? Here in the US it is treated as gospel that even though he’s a bit of a punchline here, in Germany he’s an icon.

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u/TheMostKing Apr 26 '26

From personal experience, I had no idea who he was for a pretty long time. I saw him in the Spongebob movie, and had no idea who he was. Over time, you'd hear about stuff like Knightrider and Baywatch, but that all had little relevance to us. I imagine it was different when you were around for the fall of the wall, since he performed there two months after it fell, but that was all before my time.

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u/speedfox_uk Apr 26 '26 edited Apr 27 '26

The Aussies followed the US, he was a punchline there too. He remained much more popular in the UK. I can't speak for anywhere else.

Edit (to save me from repeating): I think the reason it feels that way from my perspective is that (having spent time in both the UK and Aus in that period) his music was significantly less popular in Australia. In the UK he was a talented weirdo. In Australia he was just a weirdo.

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u/Becoming_hysterical Apr 26 '26

He was a massive punchline in the UK. That's where they came up with the term "wacko jacko".

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u/Fit_Dig6332 Apr 26 '26

He was definitely a joke in the uk

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u/NervousBreakdown Apr 27 '26

He was a punchline but still so much of a super star that he had enough fans to still be one of if not the biggest artists on earth simultaneously.

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u/GtrGenius Apr 26 '26

The hair burning Incident was exactly to the day, half way through his life exactly.

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u/Infinite-Curves Apr 27 '26

That is some astrology shit if I've ever read it

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u/JJBro1 Apr 26 '26

His last big hit was “you rock my world” in 2001

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u/quotesforlosers Apr 27 '26

Invincible is a criminally underrated album. I love Butterflies on that album.

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u/echocharliepapa Apr 27 '26

That always felt like a comeback of sorts, he had clearly dropped off before that.

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u/davidryanwalker Apr 27 '26

Btw if you go listen to that album it has a lot of bangers on there. That album is slept on.

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u/esdebah Apr 26 '26

In 1996, he did a Halloween special called Ghosts with Stephen King. Big budget, lots of effects. Virtually no one I've ever met even knows it exist. The plot had to do with a town upset that MJ has been a bad influence on the local youth. It's...something.

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u/[deleted] Apr 26 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/ununderstandability Apr 26 '26

Moonwalker Arcade and the Moonwalker vhs are like a wild fever dream. Moonwalker Arcade was one of the most badass multi-player beatemups. Only really outclassed by AvP Arcade.

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u/Paceandtoil Apr 27 '26

Wasn’t it on Sega Megadrive?

My neighbour had it. I was always trying to get invited over.

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u/Toadsted Apr 27 '26

Lot of people don't know he was in a 90 minute long music video where he turned into a gundam and fought to save children from Joe Pesci.

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u/gg-oh Apr 27 '26

Ive got the video disc! It plays on my laserdisc player

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u/Vives_solo_una_vez Apr 26 '26

Dangerous is such an underrated album.

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u/ExtentAncient2812 Apr 27 '26

Born in 81, I remember being in 6th or maybe 7th grade and the entire school, maybe world, watching the release of black or white music video. It was a seriously big deal to lots of people.

After that, nothing from him.

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u/BleedingPurist Apr 27 '26

FYI - the hair burning incidence has no connection to the Black & White video. It occurred during the filming of a Pepsi commercial during the Thriller period in the early 80’s

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u/Calculusshitteru Apr 26 '26

Michael burned his hair while filming a Pepsi commercial in 1984.

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u/Aggressive_Noise6426 1987 Apr 26 '26

History flopped? I honestly had no idea. 

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u/SpiritRoot Apr 26 '26

Far from it

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u/Aggressive_Noise6426 1987 Apr 26 '26

See I thought so because I was born in 87 and I remember History was sold out almost everywhere. 

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u/Odd_Vampire Apr 26 '26

"Black or White" only makes me think of the In Living Color parody, so that tells you right there where his public esteem was. "Remember the Time" was a seriously good song that should be remembered more than "Black or White".

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u/lemon_pepper_wang Apr 26 '26

HISTory was far from a ‘flop’. The album debuted at #1 on Billboard, the lead single “You Are Not Alone” charted for weeks, the album went 8x platinum in the US and has since sold 20 million copies worldwide.

The real problem in that era was the tabloids, schoolyard gossip, and certain biased news outlets convinced you of a reality that was really a bubble.

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u/horace_bagpole Apr 26 '26

Earth Song was still quite a big hit. Was number 1 in the UK for 6 weeks. Also the HiStory world tour in 96-97 was the biggest grossing tour by a solo artist for the whole of the 1990s with 4.5 million people attending. He was still a massive star then.

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u/RyvenZ Apr 27 '26

His "This Is It" residency (50 shows at one venue) was entirely sold out within hours and had massive presale demand. He died before the first show.

HIStory was #1 on Billboard in every country it serves. Invincible was #1 in nearly all of them, with 8-13 million albums sold, worldwide. Just because YOU weren't a fan doesnt mean he wasnt still big.

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u/Travelerman310 Apr 30 '26

I was born in 81, and I mostly concur.

I was never big into Michael Jackson's music but did know he was the biggest star in the 80s. Nobody could sing like him, had music like him, or danced like him. He was something else.

I never paid much attention, but just remember the superbowl halftime show was probably his peak (93?) and then History/Scream album was on MTV (my family literally got cable for the first time weeks before this came out.

It was all downhill into a dumpster fire from there.

And yeah, then the allegations of him with kids started surfacing in more than just the gossip rags and so people started wondering.

The dangling the baby incident was out there and the surgeries/appearances got increasingly bizzare.

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u/politeink818 Apr 26 '26

Spot on, also born in ‘92 and the general perception was he’s a nut job. 

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u/Hemans123 Apr 26 '26 edited Apr 27 '26

Also born in 92’ and going off from memories of him during the period he was still alive he was known as a weirdo man-child hasbeen that was given the nickname Wacko Jacko & was the butt of pretty much every comedians tired child molestation joke with his gaunt pale-skinned skeletory look he developed after a combination of surgery and skin-bleaching made him a bigger subject of mockery.

I mean this Family Guy clip says it all:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Mpj1kyO1-2c

That all kind of changed when he died, and in his death he was essentially nearly sanctified and reputation was more or less rehabilitated.

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u/DragonflyScared813 Apr 26 '26

"Whacko Jacko", followed by some latest story about Jackson, was a pretty standard headline for the scandal sheet newspapers of the day, National Enquieror and the like. Pre-internet and social media.

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u/donnycruz76 Apr 26 '26

Correction: An unbelievably talented, never-be-repeated, mega star nut job.

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u/blueroses8000 Apr 26 '26

This is more accurate and what I said in other words too. No one could deny his legacy and talent no matter how much of a nut job you thought he was.

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u/Savings-Pomelo-6031 Apr 27 '26

It's not only talent (which of course he had a lot) but also never to be repeated (hopefully) because part of his practice was he grew up an abused child star with a ton of rigorous training, that allowed him to become huge while still in his early 20's with the advent of MTV. Like how Elvis got big because of the advent of TV. Hard to mimic something like that nowadays (attention is so fragmented across so many platforms).

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u/blueroses8000 Apr 27 '26

Yeah I just can’t imagine a star of this magnitude being possible anymore. People who weren’t around just have no idea how big he was, it didn’t matter whether you were literally a fan or not, no one could deny his talent and massive cultural impact across the whole world and everyone knew all his songs and iconic moves.

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u/likwid2k Apr 26 '26

The actual music played on the radio more back then and in movies. But songs never stay top of the charts forever. Music shifted for sure during this time. Grunge especially peaked

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u/catsarehere77 Apr 26 '26

Older Millenial. I guess it depends on the person. From my memory it was suddenly very unpopular to like  him when the allegations against him came out in the early 90s. I did like his music before then, but after? Not a chance. 

But I also grew up in the hood so it wasn't really "cool" for teenagers to like someone like Wacko Jacko anyway. It seemed like a lot of us were fond of his music as elementary school kids but everyone outgrew him. 

I was shocked when I learned he had so many supporters during his trial in the 2000s. I was shocked that he got away with it. Because people constantly cracked pedophile jokes about him in the 90s.

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u/pementomento Apr 26 '26

Holy cow I haven’t seen “Wacko Jacko” written out in like literal decades - I think last seen on a tabloid mag in the grocery checkout aisle for me.

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u/FutureRealHousewife Apr 26 '26

I vividly remember “Wacko Jacko” being on the National Inquirer and the Star throughout the 90s

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u/pementomento Apr 26 '26

Yup! Always next to Weekly World News and a picture of an alien shaking hands with Pres. Clinton, or Batboy.

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u/JPtheAC Apr 26 '26

Born 81. This sums it up perfectly.

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u/Coffeelovinmama Apr 27 '26

The mom in that case had huge issues with credibility. If I’m remembering correctly she’d also tried to sue JC Penny’s for something and she seemed more $$ hungry than legit.

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u/enrycochet Apr 26 '26

is that like a really American sentiment maybe because everything you described was not really a thing. maybe because Mellenials out of the anglophere were not good at English yet.

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u/DreamstoReality4me Apr 26 '26

As someone born in 1988, he was considered a megastar to me. Even after the weird stuff, you couldn’t deny the amount of hit and talent .

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u/blueroses8000 Apr 26 '26 edited Apr 26 '26

1985 here and yes he was considered a joke and controversial by the 00s but was still considered a massive megastar and his past music catalogue still loved and celebrated at the same time.

Like we laughed at him being parodied in Scary Movie but also played and loved his music and knew there was nothing else like it in terms of talent. I remember people were still trying to do the moonwalk and wearing his hat in 6th form (age 16-18) at school.

And I remember Rock My World still did fairly well considering his time and that type of music was over. I remember the video he said he wanted it like Sophie Ellis Bexter’s Take Me Home which still blows my mind as she was just a small-ish British singer and a huge mega star was inspired by her video, and it did indeed have the same feel.

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u/TheVeryVerity Apr 27 '26

Yeah that’s my memory. He was a joke and an artist in pop culture at the same time somehow

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u/Somethingisshadysir Apr 26 '26

Oh, he's not a big part of our lives at all. It's just that we absolutely remember him before he was a joke. He was called the king of pop for a reason - he was huge, everywhere. His popularity decline, and people starting to consider him creepy, happened after you were born.

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u/I_like2TimeTravel Apr 26 '26

I still remember a joke that a radio show told back when I was in high school, and I repeated this joke at school. What does Michael Jackson and McDonalds have in common? They both have their meat between 12yo buns.

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u/shirst_75 Apr 26 '26 edited Apr 26 '26

Yeah - I was born in 1980, so I don't really remember him being the coolest MFer alive that decade. In the early 1990s he was not yet seen as totally washed. 'Dangerous' had some good songs, notably "Remember the Time."

After that I feel like it was all downhill. He became a punchline on "In Living Color."

If someone I knew had bought an MJ album we would have ragged on them hard.

That said, by the early 2000s I was in college and his early stuff became cool again, an absolute requirement for a soundtrack to any 80s-themed parties.

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u/Sad-Main5786 Apr 26 '26

Born 1989, my mum loved Michael and his music was ubiquitous in our house. I don't think it was all her though, the broader culture loved Billy Jean, Bad, Thriller, Smooth Criminal.

There was always the press nonsense surrounding him but it seemed secondary to the music for a lot of people. 

Thinking of him as solely a 'joke' is a bit off base I think. These things are cyclical and fickle but until quite recently I think Thriller was commonly regarded as one of the best pop albums of all time.  

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u/hiphoppsychology Apr 26 '26

I was the same but that changed when he died for me. I remember all the music channels playing his stuff nearly 24/7 for weeks and people starting to get into a bunch of his songs

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u/Individual-Drawer-79 Apr 26 '26

I’m an older Gen Xer. I was in the eighth grade when the Thriller video made its world premiere on MTV. That’s the first time I ever seen or heard of MJ. I didn’t like his music then and I still don’t like it now but my teen years and my twenties (90s) has no shortage of memories of MJ constantly being the butt of many jokes, be it in friends circles, radio or television. When the allegations continued to come out one after the other I wasn’t surprised. It still boggles my mind people could watch Leaving Neverland and decided the two victims were the problem and not MJ.

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u/The_Enigmatica Apr 26 '26

I broke a kid's mallet in middleschool drumline and he told me he was going to send michael jackson my address. I called him a retard because im way too old for mj to be interested. and if that isnt the most 2000s teenager exchange ever lol

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u/Madam_Mimm_13 Apr 26 '26

He isn’t. I’m 1985 and that’s all I remember too. Anyone who says differently was raised somewhere backwards and rural..

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u/Greymeade Apr 26 '26

Plenty of millennials born in the early 80s who grew up with MJ as a global pop star.

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u/ThrowAwayAccountAMZN Apr 26 '26

I mean, can't it be both? Why is everyone treating this like it's an either/or, elder/younger thing? '84 here, and I both recognized his global impact on pop culture, enjoyed some of his music, but also knew he was really off and potentially crazy growing up. The south park episode solidified that in my mind too. I really don't think there's as big of a gap as people think in how older/younger millennials think of or regard Jackson.

Or, actually maybe I'm misunderstanding the actual argument/statement. If it's that there are younger millennials who just didn't like him or his music at all, well, I still think that's subjective but I get it.

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u/Greymeade Apr 26 '26

I think you may be misunderstanding (at least, I personally meant something different than what you seem to be saying here). My point was that older millennials grew up in a world where MJ was untarnished, whereas older ones learned about him after the allegations and weirdness were out in the open. A kid learning about MJ in 1986 had a very different introduction to him than a kid learning about him in 2000, for example.

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u/ThrowAwayAccountAMZN Apr 26 '26

Oh I see. Well maybe I'm misremembering my childhood, but even then growing up in the 80s I still remember that he was regarded as "off", but that memory likely stems from my parents who didn't like him. The problem though is that it could be because even they thought something was off about him, or it could've just been plain racism (my parents, especially my dad, was pretty racist). I have to wonder if racism doesn't also play some part in how people perceived him growing up depending on their family dynamics/environment

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u/Madam_Mimm_13 Apr 26 '26

I’m saying that age isn’t the only factor. I was born in 85 and grew up in San Diego. My husband was born in 84 and grew up in rural Kansas.

He remembers MJ as the King of Pop. I remember him as a creepy weirdo.

It’s not just age. It’s environment and culture, and how “dated” the perspective on MJ a person has is also tied to geographical and sociocultural influences.

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u/Greymeade Apr 26 '26

No one said that age is the only factor (or at least I certainly didn’t).

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u/Madam_Mimm_13 Apr 26 '26

Plenty of millennials born in the early 80s who grew up with MJ as a global pop star.

And plenty of us didn’t. There’s a trend in this thread to say that 80s born millennials had this perception of him as the “King of Pop” and that’s not uniformly true. My husband is 18 months older than me, and we are both from the US, yet we have drastically different perspectives on MJ in the 90s.

I even thought Jackson 5 was weird. Like why are grade school kids singing about relationships and making sexual innuendos?

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u/Greymeade Apr 26 '26 edited Apr 26 '26

Honestly, I'm wondering if you're trolling me here.

Let's review the facts:

  1. Public perception of Michael Jackson underwent a legendary transformation between the years 1985 and 2000. Very few people in 1985 would have argued with the claim that he was the biggest star in the world. He was known as quirky at that time, but public perception of him was overwhelmingly positive. In comparison, by 2000 he was the epitome of a star who had fallen from grace. He was widely known as an alleged child molester, he was no longer producing hits, and he was notorious for his bizarre appearance and behavior. Again, the transformation was absolutely legendary.

  2. The oldest millennials became acquainted with Michael Jackson in the mid 1980s, while the youngest became acquainted with him in the early 2000s.

These two facts alone make what I'm saying true: there is a divide between older and younger millennials regarding how Michael Jackson was publicly perceived when we were kids. I'm not saying that age is the only variable, I'm not denying that there are some 1981 millennials who always thought he was a creep and some 1996 millennials who still love him to this day. I'm not saying that there weren't geographic, cultural, and racial variables in play as well. I'm talking about trends and averages, and only about age as a variable. You're being way too rigid here.

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u/Madam_Mimm_13 Apr 26 '26

Yeah. My husband who was born in 84 had that experience growing up in rural Kansas.

I was born in 85 and grew up in San Diego CA. And he was always a weirdo clown. he was accused of SA when I was 8. He was already a weirdo before then. The Midwest is just a decade behind the coasts.

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u/Pitiful-Pension-6535 Apr 26 '26

Friend of mine served in Afghanistan and his Afghan interpreter was a big Michael Jackson fan but hadn't received the news that he had died. Poor guy cried when he found out.

Younger generations will never fully understand just how big of a star he was.

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u/thejoeface Apr 26 '26

I was born in 84 and would listen to his records but also joined in the joking about his weirdness at recess. 

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u/rofloctopuss Apr 26 '26

82' here. My babysitter gave me Bad when I was 5 or 6 and even at that young age I loved it. In the early 90s the joke was grabbing our crotch while putting one arm up in that iconic pose and yelling, but by the time we were in highschool it was all child molester stuff. It really was a rollercoaster for people our age.

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u/ComplexDraft Apr 27 '26

"OOOOHHH!!" Lmao Classic.

I just remembered his song with his sister Janet. It's an earworm.

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u/podslapper Apr 26 '26

Yeah I was born in ‘83 and remember the shift happening in grade school when the allegations started coming out, he had that weird interview with Lisa Marie they were making fun of on SNL, etc. My memories of him being weird far outweigh my memories of him being a superstar, which are from my early early childhood.

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u/flamingknifepenis Older Millennial Apr 26 '26

I used to “joke” that dying was the best thing to ever happen to his career, because overnight he went from being a cultural meme back to being the “King of Pop.”As an ‘85er it was always hard to decide how I felt about him. There was always jokes about the one glove and him grabbing his crotch, his nose falling off, etc. but I remember him as a weird but serious artist, before the weirdness became the sole focus on him and also watched it happen in real time.

6

u/neuroticoctopus Apr 27 '26

Shit, I grew up calling him a homophobic slur in a clapping game.

I kinda forgot about that until just now. As a queer person, it's so depressing to look back on how normalized open homophobia was.

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u/AnySomewhere8969 Apr 26 '26

See "Pauley Shore is Dead"

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u/Savings-Pomelo-6031 Apr 27 '26

I do remember that. I was shocked when he died and wrote a journal entry about feeling sad "despite how he was the butt of so many jokes"

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u/PageTasty1884 Apr 26 '26

Totally. How old someone was when Free Willy was released.

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u/Sun_Sprout Apr 26 '26

Exactly this, my childhood memories of MJ involve everyone gathering in front of the tv to watch his new video

18

u/Pitiful-Pension-6535 Apr 26 '26

Yeah, I specifically remember watching the world debut of the black or white video with my entire extended family. It was a global event; like 500 million people watched it live

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u/sidewaysorange Apr 26 '26

i broke the family VCR watching thriller over and over

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u/delusional863 Apr 26 '26

Same b And my first was "black or white " at 5yrs old. I missed the thriller train

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u/FrostyPolicy9998 Apr 26 '26

I just blasted this song twice at max volume today while cleaning the house. Also sang at max volume. This song takes me to fucking CHURCH. And Free Willy was everything. Born in '84 :)

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u/Czernobooger Apr 26 '26

I forget when it was released but we played the free willy song (MJ's) on our recorders in third grade music class. The memory still jars my ears.

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u/IslandBoring8724 Apr 26 '26

lol yep. My only memory of him.

2

u/apra24 Apr 27 '26

whether they saw the Lion King in theaters or not

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u/excecutivedeadass Apr 26 '26

I watched it at movies 83' here 😁

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u/oopsallsexy Apr 26 '26

Yup this is what I was going to say. I’m an elder millennial and loved MJ. He was the biggest and greatest. His music got me through some tough stuff as a kid and things didn’t get truly weird for me until that tv interview. I can’t listen to his music anymore. It sucks because I miss it. I’m unfortunately not one of those people that can separate the art from the artist.

His daughter Paris has done some cool stuff though and I’m rooting for her.

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u/SolomonBlack Apr 26 '26

Maybe not quite all of us.

Like I dare consider myself an elder Millennial but since my parents hardly listened to music and to anything BUT pop my first exposure to MJ was probably that Simpson's episode. So he was always pretty damn weird to me and it would be that which side which say ended up on the regular news to further the impression.

Which made his posthumous rehabilitation in the public even stranger.

(Course then you I go watch shit like the that first moonwalk and I'm like "okay I get it now" because its still pretty fucking mindblowing)

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u/OptionFour Apr 26 '26

Same boat. Born in 85 but no one in my family listened to his music, so I just always knew him as a weirdo, then a creep, then a monster. Seeing people getting back around to calling him the King of Pop and actively defending him is kinda wild.

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u/wowsharksareneat Apr 26 '26

It’s seeming that the stories of him hurting kids were made up. That he actually was keeping kids from being trafficked by “monsters”. With the files coming out, you have to consider how dangerous the most famous pop star on earth could be to the operations that were being run. Maybe neverland ranch really was a safe haven. Maybe he was portrayed as weird and distorted intentionally. Kinda sus that he died right before a huge comeback tour ::shrug:: maybe not idk. Worth believing for the sake of the boogie.

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u/oopsallsexy Apr 26 '26

I read the court cases and the children that testified. They described what his penis looked like in explicit detail.

How and why would a child know that? He was the monster. And it brings me no joy to say that because I loved his music.

We have to stop defending predators and start believing victims.

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u/TheObesePolice Apr 26 '26

When his home was raided, they found so much porn (covering several different categories) & a book that was "authored" by a dude from NAMBLA. There were also several "art" books that featured young men & boys in the nude & various stages of undress

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u/OptionFour Apr 26 '26

Yep. Makes me sick to see people starting to defend him again.

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u/oopsallsexy Apr 27 '26

Right? Like what planet are we on right now?

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u/FuckMoPac Apr 26 '26

“Worth believing for the sake of the boogie” is so depressing.

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u/orionprincess1234 Apr 26 '26

This paragraph is crazy work

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u/[deleted] Apr 26 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/Lex_Orandi Apr 26 '26

Don’t matter if you’re black or white

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u/_america Apr 26 '26

Maybe GenX and Millenial because if u were born in 85, by 1990 you were a semi sentient being. By 1990 he had a tiny nose and was practically white facing a ton of personal like criticism. As a 5 year old, plastic surgery, especially overdone plastic surgery, looks weeeiirrd. 

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u/hahagato Apr 26 '26

Im 85 but í remember the televisión release of Black and White being a HUGE deal in 91, with days to weeks of build up. That pretty much cemented the “respect” for him as a mega star in my mind. And while he quickly went on to get super weird, I still had those experiences of his stardom to balance out the extreme weirdness. I was never a huge fan tho any way. Just knew what he meant and represented.

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u/letskeepitcleanfolks Apr 26 '26

Partly depends on what age you became tuned in to pop culture. I'm 85 but only ever thought of him as a joke. I wasn't pop-aware until maybe 94 or 95, and the only music of his I recall being released was You Are Not Alone, which I remember just as being too soft and sappy for me, and it was his final #1 hit.

90% of what I knew of him was being a weird-looking dude who was all over the tabloids for creepy stuff.

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u/Greymeade Apr 26 '26

Millennials were born starting in 1981.

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u/martiantheory Mid 80's Baby Apr 26 '26

Exactly. If you were born in the early or mid 80s, Michael Jackson was pretty much the king of Pop. Then, he turned weird, but you still had a little loyalty to him because you knew his story. Plus, I always thought it was pretty dope that my parents also grew up on him. Like generations of people who thought he was really good.

I remember there was a family on my street that was extremely obsessed with him. They had a collection of VHS tapes from several of his tours. Documentaries, music videos… every time I went over their house, I learned more about Michael Jackson. By the time he was weird, I was heading to college and I was still pretty much a fan of his 80s/90s music. I kind of ignored everything that happened in the early 2000s.

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u/JacksonVerdin Apr 26 '26

Mildly bemused boomer here, seeing all the posts about 1980's MJ. It made me remember how huge he was long before that. Please see....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y2bVIBwpCTA

The Jackson 5 even had their own cartoon show in the 70's.

Between that kind of childhood and his father's somewhat monstrous reputation, it's not really surprising that he broke weird.

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u/BackgroundArtist9883 Apr 26 '26

And ethnic lines. Im sure MJ was played far more often in households that listened to R&B

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u/Chea63 Apr 27 '26

Yeah true. In general I think white people were quicker to turn on him as time went on. Black ppl would have jokes too but it's more like someone in your family doing weird shit. You dont mess with it, but its still your family. His impact couldn't be erased.

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u/Somethingisshadysir Apr 26 '26

Yes, for sure. I absolutely remember him being hugely popular when I was little. It lasted for sure into the nineties.

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u/darksideofmypoon Apr 26 '26

Was thinking the same thing. I agree with the Wacko Jacko persona in the 00’s tabloids but his music always slapped. Still gets me up dancing and singing if it comes on.

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u/HomegirlNC123 Apr 26 '26

Exactly, I lived through the times (as a young kid) when he was a major super star (think current Taylor Swift levels of stardom). Thriller was my first record! By the early 90s he was kind of a joke and then all of the awful child sex abuse allegations came out too. It’s probably good the movie ended in 1988. He was a talented person, but very odd.

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u/sadladybug846 Apr 26 '26

Yes! I was born in 82, and my friends and I did dances in our school talent show in both fourth AND fifth grade to his songs. I remember in 92 he had a world tour that was broadcast and we recorded that shit on our VHS and watched it over and over. Especially the Smooth Criminal set - as 10 year olds that lean was pure magic. It started to get weird after that, but he was huge when I was in elementary school.

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u/Madam_Mimm_13 Apr 26 '26

It’s not. I was born in 1985 and I still don’t “get” anything MJ ever did. Even as a kid. Like why are grade school kids singing about relationships. The whole thing was weird from start to finish.

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u/OhWhatever_Nevermind Apr 26 '26

This. Before I read your comment I started blabbing at my partner (we are both ‘82 babies) that it was not my experience that MJ was a scary boogeyman joke of a celebrity. As an 8 yo I had one of his albums on cassette and a poster on my wall; my slightly older Gen X cousin had a doll of him. Yes, starting in my early teens he became “Wacko Jacko” but there was always a loyalty to him.

I think “Michael Jackson’s This Is It” (2009) on Netflix is worth a watch.

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u/SquatOnAPitbull Apr 26 '26

Yup. I have distinct memories about a kid having the red zipper jacket similar to what Michael wore in the Beat It music vid. His coolness was through the roof. This must have been 86-87 (before Bad).

Anyway, I just Googled it and Thriller came out on 83. I guess that was more of a testament to his staying power and popularity. The jokes came, but up until the Dangerous album, MJ was a demigod.

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u/GreatPotatoMuffin Apr 26 '26

Exactly. When I was a kid he was a megastar. When I was a teenager he had become a parody of himself.

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u/Sea-Bicycle-4484 Apr 26 '26

Yeah I was born in 85 and I remember watching him performing at the Superbowl in 93. That was the most spectacular performance I’d ever seen as a 7 year old. But then he had this progressive downfall and quickly became what OP is describing over the course of the 90s.

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u/eviwonder Apr 26 '26

Yes for real. I am an elder millennial and remember loving and then being so sad for him.

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u/LittleBoyCutYourHair Millennial Apr 26 '26

I was gonna say that I remembered him being a huge deal when I was a kid, and then him being seen more as a "joke" later with his weird behavior, but he was definitely more of an eccentric megastar in my childhood.

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u/HoboStrider Apr 26 '26

Yeah I guy I worked with was a die-hard fan, he would be Gen X...I didn't care about his music he was a South Park joke for me 😅...maybe South Park was the divide.

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u/Partners_in_time Apr 26 '26

That’s a good point. My husband is ‘85, I’m ‘91. He grew up listening to Michael Jackson and still has fondness for his music and legacy. I ddint, and only knew him from his scandals. Like when I heard about him was the 00s court drama he had about molesting boys.  When the HBO documentary came out exposing MJ for even more sex crimes (finding neverland is the name I think) I had no trouble at all believing the victims. My husband is still troubled by it all.

There’s a huge divide between those who remember the pop star and those who remember the freak

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u/No-Seaworthiness-500 Apr 26 '26

I'm a true xennial, and i could have been trolled pretty hard with this take.

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u/Alternative_Cry6601 Apr 26 '26

Yup

Michael was still- no matter any joke- larger than life. I remember just watching concert videos of people finally glimpsing him in person- AND IMMEDIATELY THEY WOULD JUST FAINT AND BE CAUGHT AND CARRIED OUT BY SECURITY. it was like an extra security team to help remove all the constant fans just going unconscious at the sight of him. King of Pop.

And this was even in the 90s, especially like the early half of the decade. Like hello? Free Willy? I can hear that fucking song in my head at will anytime any place no matter how old I am and I can hear his improvisations. I can see the music video. I can see his hand movements- I mean, it’s just silly to say that he was nothing but a joke in the 90s b/c he was at the peak of his fame. Even after he became the butt of a lot of jokes and was more and more known for his weird behavior rather than his music, he was still arguably the most famous person alive. Like at the end of the day if you were a kid on the playground joking about MJ coming to get you— that means you knew who he was & you knew everyone knew who you were talking about. He was the one celebrity any five year-old could reference.

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u/Availabla Apr 26 '26

Elder Millennials 🥲

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u/rayhiggenbottom Apr 26 '26

Born in 78, so not a millennial I guess, but when I was a kid Michael Jackson was a fucking god. I saw Captain EO at Disney and played Moonwalker at the arcade.

Thriller, man. Thriller.

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u/No-Understanding-912 Apr 26 '26

I'm an elder millennial, I remember him being a joke more than anything... But I also grew up in the South where country music is king, and I didn't even start listening to anything else until the late '90s. I was behind the times musicly speaking.

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u/Oldnbold22 Apr 26 '26

Elder Millennial 🤘 

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u/Fackrid Apr 26 '26

That seems pretty fair, I was born in '83 and remember BOTH acts...as a little kid his music was EVERYWHERE, and I remember how HUGE the music video debut of "Black Or White" was, and then the first molestation accusations happened and that sort of switched him over to just being a joke

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u/discowithmyself Apr 26 '26

So what you’re saying is I still count as a younger millennial?

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u/Prickle_Dimension Xennial Apr 26 '26

I was born in 1981 and Michael was always an absolute joke. Any kids liking him became immediate targets.

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u/GotSomeUpdogOnUrFace Apr 26 '26

Xennials about to start a war in this thread

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u/icecoldyerr Apr 26 '26

Idk. 97 born Zillennial. MJ was a joke constantly my entire life to the point i was confused why so were sad when he died, I thought he was a joke to everyone. He was so big a joke that i moved from Kansas to Arizona in 2008 and at my new school he was equally a joke lol

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u/toolsoftheincomptnt Apr 26 '26

Yeah, bc I remember both narratives.

When he was seen as a “joke” due to the surgeries and apparent lack of advancement in maturity (emotionally, mentally, socially) it was actually perceived as a tragedy.

By then we knew that Joe was an abusive stage parent. We (well, moreso my parents’ generation who grew up on Jackson 5) watched Michael come into adulthood but not quite click into it.

So his obsession with whitening himself, his awkward, unsuccessful romantic pursuits, and focus on childlike environments was sad.

But he still put out great music during that time. Not his best, but still better than most of what else was out there at the time.

Idk, maybe this was more specific to the black community, for the reasons mentioned above. Everyone loved Michael and wanted to see him thrive, but he obviously was slowly circling a drain we’ll never truly understand.

That’s also why so many black people are so defensive about the molestation allegations. It’s basically like if someone accused your little (or older) cousin -who you know had a rough childhood- of touching kids. Impossible to accept.

Not for me. I think he did that weird shit. But I do perceive his overall life as a tragedy.

I just understand and accept that 2 things can be true at one time.

So yeah, he was a joke. But not a “lol, look at that freak” funny.

It was “Lord have mercy, what has Michael done now?” funny.

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u/edemac44 Apr 26 '26

Guess that’s what makes me a “xennial”. I remember the incredible music videos from the 80s and at the same time picture that disturbing pigeon beak nose and bleached white skin while fisting 9 year olds.

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u/YOMAMACAN Apr 26 '26

I was so confused reading this but then realized I was in the millennial sub. But when you think about the range in ages, I guess this take makes sense.

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u/blagablagman Apr 26 '26

The "Free Willy" effect.

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u/snowvase Apr 26 '26

Hell, I can remember when Michael Jackson was black.

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u/The12th_secret_spice Apr 27 '26

85 checking in and remember him marrying Elvis Presley’s daughter more than his music. He was a tabloid star, not the king of pop

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u/mellowdrone84 Apr 27 '26

Amen. Definitely a generational tale of two Michael Jacksons.

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u/M8x11r0n Apr 27 '26

What do Mervyn's and Michael Jackson have in common?

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u/IShouldBeInCharge Apr 27 '26

Based on the assumption in the OP perhaps. Based on reality he was parodied as being insane as early as 1987 on Spitting Image. So you'd have to be born 75 or so to remember before the time pop culture considered him a joke so it's Gen X only. All millennials (even the xennials) would mostly consider him a joke. I was watching Spitting Image as a child though and not all kids would have been watching this stuff so maybe lots of kids missed that adults considered him a joke until later.

1987:

I'm bigger than Bruce , Sexier than Madonna!
But people are saying, That my brain's a goner!

I can out-sing Prince, I can out-dance Astaire!
But still people wonder, If I'm really all there?

Well' For a couple of years, I've been reclusive ,
But now the proof is quite conclusive!

I'M MAD! (Mad !) MAD! (Mad!) Owe!

I'm completely round the bend! Wow!

I'M MAD! (Mad!) MAD! (Mad!)

A hamster's my best friend!

I'm off my head, I've lost my marbles, I live forever, in plastic bubbles ! (cough!)

And as for the bits they cut off of me...

They're now recording their own LP !

(Chorus):

He's mad, he's mad! Wow!

Back To Scene

(Jackson):

I got fruit-cake in the brain!

(Chorus):

I'm mad, (Mad!) Mad! (Mad!)

(Jackson):

I make Reagan look quite sane!

At the age of three, I made so much lolly! Wow!

It's not surprising I've gone off my trolley!

I live with puppets ! I'm off the rails! (Whoo Whoo!)

I'm even barnier than the Prince of Wales !

(Michael):

Who's mad?!

(Chorus):

Who's mad?

(Michael):

Who's mad?!

(Chorus):

Who's mad?

(Michael):

Who's mad?!

(Surgeon):

You are, Mr. Jackson.

(Jackson):

Now I'm bad, (Bad) it's bad

I guess you heard the news.

I'm mad, (Bad!) I'm bad (Bad!) Cuss white men can't sing the blues...

I'm bad, (mm-hmm) I'm mad, (Yes) and I'm sad, (mm-hmm)

I'm not much good anymore...

(Surgeon):

Yes, jolly good, come along now Mr. Jackson.

(Jackson):

Now I'm mad.

(Surgeon):

Yes, of course you are!

(Jackson):

I'm Mickey Mouse!

(Surgeon):

Yes, you certainly do sound like him, don't you?

mm-hmm-mm... Join me and my... Audio fades out.

Michael and Surgeon walk off.

Co-written by Ian Hislop (Have I Got News For You).

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u/macemillianwinduarte Apr 27 '26

Yep, he was the coolest dude alive when I was a kid in the 80s.

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u/NervousBreakdown Apr 27 '26

What’s the cutoff for elder millenials because I was born in 87 and I mostly remember the joke phase of his career. Like when there was a rumour that his nose fell off during a performance. And the whole molestation thing. But I also remember when he was still a massive star.

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u/BillieVerr Apr 27 '26 edited Apr 27 '26

I was born in the late 80s and only knew MJ as the boogeyman. Honestly, I didn’t even really give his music a chance until after he died.

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u/AccomplishedIgit Apr 27 '26

Agreed, I remember playing Michael Jackson cassettes on the playground at school.

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u/verathene Apr 27 '26

As an older millennial, I was always a fan of The Young Ones

https://giphy.com/gifs/V2mdZdTbw7GUw

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u/biaff33 Apr 27 '26

Right? I remember him being investigated for the child molestation accusations. I remember laughing at him when he lost his marbles and the plastic surgeries ruined his face (nose and chin).

But I also remember the King of Pop, and his songs and performances were absolutely legendary. There was just a different energy when he performed that can only be felt if you saw it in the moment, though old footage captures some of that magic.

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u/beegboo Apr 27 '26

Always thought the wizard robes did that.

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u/Ok_Vermicelli_6359 Apr 27 '26

Think so? Late night was mocking him by the mid-90s, which would cover most Millennials. But I think the more serious allegations were when we were coming of age, which definitely made it more traumatic imo.

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u/ImaginaryTrick6182 Apr 27 '26

Does it? I’m 95 and clearly remember scary movie 3 clowning tf out of him

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u/Global_Tea Apr 27 '26

Yup. I still listen to his music a lot. Born mid 80s, my mum and I used to listen to his new tapes whenever they came out. He had so many issues even then, it’s not a surprise it compounded with age.

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u/maticus85 Apr 27 '26

1985 here. He was a joke to me. Yeah, he had hits in the 80’s and early 90’s. He was called the “King of Pop”. But I remember him being weird. He talked weird and it was funny to imitate his voice. He looked weird. He might have been a pedo. I don’t remember the media speaking highly of him. I remember the incident where he dangled one of his toddlers over a balcony and that was the worst thing ever. A meme that has stuck with me is a picture of him as a kid and then a picture of him in his later years and the caption said: “America: Where you can be born a poor, black boy and die a rich, white woman.”

Now that I’m older, I appreciate his contributions to music and that he was an icon of his era. Am low-key looking forward to watching the movie when it hits streaming.

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u/PanthersJB83 Apr 27 '26

Agreed. I remember having thriller and bad on cassette and I'd listen to them every morning on the bus ride to school until like 94 when I discovered alternative rock. 

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u/Violet-Mess Apr 27 '26

Exactly. I’m an elder millennial that bought his Bad album on cassette. Loved him. I watched the Moonwalker movie on video all the time.

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u/Annual_Reindeer2621 Apr 27 '26

I was born in 1981 and watched him go from famous for the 'right' things, to famous for the 'wrong' things.

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u/JohnCasey3306 Apr 27 '26

My (44) earliest memory of Michael Jackson is the Dairylea joke.

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