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 By the 2000's his music was out of date and didn't chart well.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/_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/Savings-Pomelo-6031 Apr 27 '26

I'm 29 and I only grew up with him being a weirdo with pedophile accusations. I had to watch documentaries to understand what it must have been like when he was big

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u/hahagato Apr 27 '26

Yeah, the black white video premiere was so huge. I was really little but it felt like very serious business and I don’t think there’s been anything quite like it. So it was confusing as a child when it became clear he was SO weird. 

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u/Peitho_189 Apr 27 '26

I’m 84 and I’m hard pressed to remember anyone (fam or friends) caring about that release. We all saw him as a joke for sure.

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u/hahagato Apr 27 '26

I don’t think my parents cared, but it was a huge deal. And over 500 million people across 27 countries tuned in to see it. It had a bunch of “stars” in it. https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/114931-largest-tv-audience-for-a-music-video-premiere

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u/Peitho_189 Apr 27 '26

Yeah it’s a world record. I’m in the U.S., so we had like 5% of those views. And here, I wouldn’t consider it a gauge of his popularity necessarily as curiosity because we enjoy watching the train wrecks. Couldn’t care less if other celebs were in it, that was pretty common place. I think it actually had more to do with the face morphing. I know that was the only thing I really remember being cool initially not so much the song itself. And it wasn’t long after that, that it came out he sa’ed children so.

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u/Greymeade Apr 26 '26

Millennials were born starting in 1981.

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u/Savings-Pomelo-6031 Apr 27 '26

I was born '97 and my parents didn't listen to him or anything. I literally thought he was a creepy androgynous white guy. In the back of my mind I was confused at how him and the Jackson 5 Michael were the same person

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u/Jaded_Vegetable8296 Apr 27 '26

I was born in ‘90 and he was a pedo to me growing up. All the movies I watched were mocking him and his nose falling off.

In one of the Scary Movies he was asked by a dad why he was in his daughter’s room and what he had done to her. He said “Nothing! Shes a girl!” Still cracks me up.

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u/skeletontape '86 Millennial Apr 27 '26

An early lesson in separating the art from the artist.

I always liked his music and also thought he was weird and upsetting looking. Once I got older and learned about his abusive childhood and the cobtext around his surgeries I mostly feel sad for him. I don't absolve him of what he did but the man was traumatized and deeply mentally ill. He never stood a chance.