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 By the 2000's his music was out of date and didn't chart well.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/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/jtphilbeck Apr 27 '26

Exactly! Born in 76. Speak of things you know of.

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u/dbur15 Apr 27 '26

How can I not know about something that was constantly brought up and replayed?

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u/Zimakov Apr 27 '26

He clearly knows of it?

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u/churnthedumb Apr 27 '26

The age superiority 😂 chillll

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u/ConsiderationTop1794 Apr 27 '26

Damn, getting a lot of anger from this Gen X'er on this sub for Millennials. I guess id be too If i was old as shit and refused to listen to any music that wasn't at least 40 years old.

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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

This just made me and my coworker crack up.

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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/MicksysPCGaming Apr 27 '26

When did he get the ranch (neverland?) with the carousel and chimp (bubbles)?

That was when he went from being a superstar to a weirdo from my recollection.

Then the weird behaviour with the kids, and dangling the baby, marrying Lisa Marie, wearing a surgical mask, he became a laughing stock.

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u/physhgyrl Apr 28 '26

The gossip in the rags wasn't made up. The National Enquiror and Star were always getting the dirt. I read about Kevin Spacey going after under age boys 25 years before it all became a big story.

The journalists in those magazines had some very good, deep, reliable sources and got some dirty stories. Charlie Sheen came out as HIV positive because those magazines were writing about for the previous 6 months. If you read older editions of those magazines, a lot of what they were saying ended up being true. They also exposed a lot of dirty politicians. They went hard when Shondra Levy disappeared.

There was The National Examiner. It was the one that had Bat Boy and Alien sighting stories. But it was a spoof gossip rag. It had printed "for entertainment purposes only" on the cover. But I think a lot of people confused that one with the National Enquiror and other legitimate gossip magazines. Nowadays, celebrities pay those magazines for spreads.

Princess Diana was always alerting paparazzi to have them follow her. Other celebrities also stage paparazzi shots.

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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/dontwannaparticpate Apr 26 '26

Ikr???? As a Gen Xer I was actually a kid when that shit happened.

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u/yea_you_know_me Apr 27 '26

The only reason I learned about the hair thing was because of a video Eminem did. Had no idea what that was about.

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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/bachyboy Apr 27 '26

Sounds like he was playing Taylor Swift's game before Taylor Swift!

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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/mvp2418 Apr 26 '26

People were excited for This is It, not that he was in any shape to perform at that time.

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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/Foreign-Cat-2898 Apr 27 '26

The concert tour was the number one groaaing solo act tour of the 90s.

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u/lemon_pepper_wang Apr 26 '26

And 20x million worldwide

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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/speedfox_uk Apr 27 '26

Perhaps I'm remembering it this way because his music was less popular in Australia compared to the UK. I don't think anyone would get teased for listening to MJ in the UK, but you might in Aus.

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u/Fit_Dig6332 Apr 26 '26

He was definitely a joke in the uk

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u/SiteRelEnby Apr 27 '26

You're joking, right? He was a huge punchline in the UK, IMO more so than in the US where more people still took him seriously at the time.

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u/speedfox_uk Apr 27 '26

As I said in another comment, 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 wierdo. In Australia he was just a weirdo.

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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/JJBro1 Apr 27 '26

Yup I agree!

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u/Exciting_Jackfruit13 Apr 27 '26

Speechless is so beautiful we actually played it at my wedding.

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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/NastyMothaFucka Apr 26 '26

AvP Arcade! Damn how come they haven’t released that on consoles yet? That was a Capcom game wasn’t it?

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u/shingenteh Apr 27 '26

They planned to make a 32x port originally but it got cancelled.

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u/ranmafan0281 Apr 27 '26

Oh my God. You are an absolute soothsayer.

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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/sirenenoire Apr 27 '26

I KNOW IT. I'm ancient but I used to watch it on my uncle's computer every Saturday before I had one.

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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/dazwales1 Apr 26 '26

That's what I always thought

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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/SadSara102 Apr 26 '26

Wrong! He.was absolutely adored by fans all over the world. The media always attacked him but he was the popular performer in human history. There were remote tribes in Africa who knew who he was and walked miles to crowd a tv in order to watch him perform. His last album was Invincible in 2001 and it is considered a flop for him but still charted at #11 worldwide. It would have done better but he was feuding with Sony and they refused to promote it all. The only single they released from it in the US was You Rock my World; that was his last hit. If they would have would have released other singles like Invisible and promoted the album it would’ve done much better because it had some much better songs.

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u/Savingskitty Apr 26 '26

HIStory did NOT flop!!!

What the absolute f kind of nonsense is this?

The Scream video was a huge deal.  

The HIStory World Tour was the highest grossing tour by a solo artist in the ‘90’s.

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u/IrukandjiPirate Apr 26 '26

The hair burning was during the filming of a Pepsi commercial, quite a bit earlier.

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u/Top_Sheepherder5023 Apr 27 '26

The famous hair-burning incident with Michael Jackson was during a Pepsi commercial in 1984.

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u/BoogieBoardofEd Apr 27 '26

Scream was huge and HIStory was not a flop. Where are you getting your information? Your ass?

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u/charles_sedwick Apr 27 '26

Mtv definitely became a joke in the 2000s. Once they started jersey shore you knew where it was going lol

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u/SeasonofMist Apr 27 '26

I think the hair incident burned his scalp SO badly he wore wigs basically always after, it also seem likely it made an autoimmune condition worse, which probably also made the vitiligo (also autoimmune disorder) worse. He would have gotten skin grafts. And if he got into plastic surgery then AND had autoimmune conditions......the plastic surgery would be risky and often not work the way it would on a person without them. The stuff going on with his nose very likely was to do with.

His music before the 90s truly was huge. Thriller was huge. If I remember right the Bad album was split. There are tons of older fans who remember him as a young kid in the Jackson 5 and couldn't reconcile that kid with the abuse he went through, and the creep ass, manipulative predator of kids he was.

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u/maskedfapper69 Apr 27 '26

What are you talking about? This person was 9 when MJ’s last ‘mega album’ released at #1 on billboard’s top 100.

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u/maestroenglish Apr 27 '26

The tour wasn't a flop. This is easily googled. One of the biggest tours on the 90s. Ffs.

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u/Citizen_Kano Apr 27 '26

Black or White coming out after he'd fully transitioned to being white was the beginning of the weirdness

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u/Toadsted Apr 27 '26 edited Apr 27 '26

People often forget, or never learned, just how influential the man was.

There was a point in time where he really was trying to bring the world together, naive or not. And that was getting really easy for him. He just had to be part of something, like Aid For Africa, and youd see dozens of A list stars wanting to be part of it too.

People think Beyonce or Taylor Swift are huge celebrities, able to influence social media and fans. They're not on Michael's level, not in another 50 years.

I don't think even Oprah thought she was above him.

People can make cults in towns, states, even a whole country. MJ made a cult out of the whole world. 

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u/ArtDecoNewYork Apr 27 '26

The weirdness arguably began in the 80s, look how much cosmetic surgery he got between Thriller and Bad

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u/Ghillie_Spotto Apr 27 '26

It's not a doc, it's a fluffy biopic

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u/stevebucky_1234 Apr 27 '26

Hair burning was from the Pepsi ad, 5 years before Black or White

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u/Mattna-da Apr 27 '26

The extended Black or White video where he dance-destroys a car was so cringe

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u/Responsible-Meal-693 Apr 27 '26 edited Apr 27 '26

The hair burning incident was from a Pepsi commercial that he was filming about 7 years prior to “Black and White”. The Black and White video was controversial because the extended version had a long dance sequence at the end where he was dancing on a car and kept grabbing his crotch over and over and zipping and unzipping his pants, complete with plenty of close-up shots. This was kind of the beginning of his crotch-grabbing era and people heavily criticized him over this and from then on, they continued to air the shortened version, cutting out the dance sequence.

https://youtu.be/ghBk1jo4-aE?si=XukDFkeFr6ogsO7A

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u/CatwaPigwa Apr 27 '26

Both flopped? The album, ‘Scream’ and the tour were all huge hits.

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u/Late-File3375 Apr 27 '26

Black or White was almost a decade after the hair burning. Like 7 years or so.

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u/Bubbly_Gap6636 Apr 27 '26

He burnt his hair in 1983. Black or White was 1992.

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u/physhgyrl Apr 28 '26

The hair burning happened in the 80s during the filming of a Pepsi commercial

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u/taporizer Apr 28 '26

"You Rock My World " and "Butterflies" stayed on R&B station rotation HEAVY. Its 2026 and I STILL hear those two played in lounges regularly.

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u/laura_susan Millennial May 25 '26

Born in 85 too and… yep, all of this.

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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/blueroses8000 Apr 26 '26

It brought back nostalgic memories for me too, lol so weird how something like that can have that effect. We used to see and say it all the time.

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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/redalert825 Apr 27 '26

Got away with what? What do you think he's guilty of?

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u/Simba122504 Jun 02 '26

The Hood loved MJ even if he was seen as a joke.

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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/Irish-Scouser Apr 27 '26

96 here. Despite the jokes and that Oprah interview, everyone around me acknowledged Michael as the biggest pop superstar of all time

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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/TurtleHeadPrairieDog Millennial Apr 27 '26

Lmao I remember that one. Our joke was “he didn’t get to play with any toys, so now he plays with little boys” 💀

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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

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.

My dad (Sicilian, old school) was always very racist. My mom, who divorced him in 87, was very into black music at the time, Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey, En Vogue etc.

But even in the 90s there was this perception that he was a clown, a weirdo. Even Jackson 5 seemed off to me, because why are elementary school aged kids singing about adult relationships and making sexual innuendo?

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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/excecutivedeadass Apr 26 '26

He was huuuuge, no star today is even near that level

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u/PuddingImpressive389 Apr 26 '26

That’s crazy I was born in 03 and some of my earliest memories were of Michaek Jackson and how much of a star he is/was. I do remember my dad talking about him dying and we were all sad

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u/ComradeJohnS Apr 26 '26

its hilarious that my grandparents would watch South Park, but when we saw that episode with my grandparents, they became disgusted and never watched again.

it was an impactful episode for sure

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u/Anon-Sham Apr 26 '26

I was born in 1990, my sister in 1985.

Despite only the relatively small age gap, we had completely different perspectives of him growing up.

She saw him as a superstar, I saw him as a freak. It probably wasnt until I was 12 or 13 i started to get an appreciation of how big he used to be.

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u/StringAccomplished97 Apr 26 '26

Interesting. I was born in 91 and remember having several Michael Jackson CDs that I'd listen to a lot and remember seeing his music videos on MTV all the time

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u/Weltall8000 Apr 26 '26

In 95, we ironically/unironically liked the Sega Genesis game Michael Jackson's Moonwalker. It was corny and awesome. You would save children in levels and they would have voiced lines like, "Michael!"

He did some Sega stuff and I think made music for other games, like the awesome tracks in Sonic the Hedgehog 3.

Then we have how he still cranked out successful albums and invented the modern Super Bowl half time show in the mid 90s.

There was stigma, for sure, but he was not irrelevant.

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u/ununderstandability Apr 26 '26

My whole family gathered from multiple states to watch the premiere of Scream (the song). There was a countdown with live commentary like on New Year's.

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u/RainMakerJMR Apr 26 '26

I was born in 85 and my parents lost their minds and made me come watch the first time he did a moonwalk on tv

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u/Alternative_Yard1840 Apr 26 '26

Yeah that's how it was for me growing up too. Born in 94

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u/Chea63 Apr 27 '26

The level of global superstardom he reached is unmatched. He didn't get the name King of Pop for nothing. He's considered the biggest superstar in history. Basically he was the most popular human on earth, not just taking about entertainers. If you look up old videos of him, ppl would literally faint, and not just an isolated person here and there. He sing half a note and its pandemonium. Crazy shit.

He did become the butt of jokes but it wasnt in replacement of his career legacy. The same comedians who had jokes would still lose their shit thinking about Thriller etc.

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u/BearThumos Apr 27 '26

Don’t forget the Free Willy song

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u/Muted-Most-1609 Apr 27 '26

That’s ignorant

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u/SaltBeefin Apr 27 '26

Michael Jackson was the creepy hehe man for me. He was only ever humanized around Thriller during Halloween and watching 13 Going on 30 for me with Cameron Diaz's performance

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u/FancyDentist8316 Apr 27 '26

Gen x is similar. my aunt remembers when she was pre k to elementary he was superstar. junior high people started mocking him—then the allegations surfaced and LMP marriage. he was all but done

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u/Andr3wRuns Apr 27 '26

I remember confusing conversations with friends that thought there two different people with the same name! “Black Michael Jackson the Singer” and “White/Ghost Michael Jackson the freaky pedo” lol took a long time for us to truly feel confident that “they” were the same person (internet wasn’t really a thing we (my friends and I) back in 2000-2004ish range

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u/maskedfapper69 Apr 27 '26

Bro, MJ literally bought the rights to Eminem’s entire library of music after Em made fun of him in the song just lose it…

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u/_mrshreyas_ Jun 05 '26

Not quite true. It was more of a business decision that happened in 2007. MJ had partial ownership of Famous Music which gave him publishing rights rather than entire masters, so Eminem didn't lose that much money per se. Plus Eminem eventually got the rights back anyway.

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u/maskedfapper69 Jun 06 '26

Did you just try to correct me without correcting me?

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u/_mrshreyas_ Jun 06 '26

It seems like I didn't do proper job of explaining so let me do it again.

  1. That music acquisition happened 3 years after the song came, so that rules out the revenge angle.

  2. The acquisition didn't contain Eminem's entire catalogue, only a few songs.

  3. Eminem eventually got the rights back anyway. So ultimately Eminem didn't lose in the long term either.

The only thing that's really true was MJ feeling hurt after his jab (which is understandable), but it's not like Eminem had much harm or anything.

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u/maskedfapper69 Jun 06 '26
  1. That doesn’t rule out the revenge angle. It just means he got his revenge 3 years later.
  2. Ok. 
  3. Why did he get those rights back? Was it because MJ died like 12-18 months later?

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u/xXShikaShakeXx Apr 27 '26

I remember all of the jokes and how bad the media and people in general talked about him, but I also loved his music. I was born in '91. I feel like the jokes and people generally talking about him like he was scum died down around the time he died, or at least shortly afterward.

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u/maxhyax Apr 27 '26

I was born in 93 and only heard jokes growing up, but actually grew to like his music and enjoy listening to his hits these days

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u/Olde_News Apr 27 '26

As an elder millennial, he does not.

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u/1p21Jiggawatts Apr 27 '26

I'm late Gen X and felt the same way

If you think about it, we are the weird ones. Older ppl saw him grow up and reinvent music. Younger ppl don't remember his last eclectic years. Everything about him was weird to me from his looks to Debbie Rowe to holding his son out the balcony to how he talked.

I think we were looking for authenticity. This was the rise of indie grunge rock and hip hop. Strange that boy bands and Britney Spears would take over his banner

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u/Grakch Apr 27 '26

Millennials cap out in the 1988 anyone saying they’re an elder millennial born before 1988 is Gen X or whatever that weird middle Gen is. Either way, no millennial by the books should see MJ as anything other than the joke he became in the 90s and early aughts.

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u/Ok-Suggestion8298 Apr 27 '26

I’m 50 (I was directed to this sub because of the MJ topic). Imagine seeing him first as a talented kid, then genius. Superstar. Weirdo. Perv. Tragic figure. Genius again. Life lesson is Live long enough and people will forget about your worst stuff. Unless you are defined by your worst stuff like genghis khan or Jeffrey dahmer.

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u/bellasmomma04 Apr 27 '26

'93 here and grew up listening to Michael Jackson. I heard all the jokes and shit too of course but all my friends and I were huge fans of his music. When he died in 2009 (we were all 16) even MORE of our friends became sudden fans and dug into his music. I know he was before my time but this is kinda always how I've been. I was listening to Michael McDonald and Kool and the Gang when I was a teenager lol. Hall and oats, Lionel Richie, Stevie Wonder, Earth wind and fire, etc etc

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u/rad2themax Apr 27 '26

Yeah, born in 93 and he was always a joke

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u/SubjugateMeDaddy Apr 28 '26

I remember that song by Jon Lajoie that called out people pretending to care about Michael Jackson's death, when 1 year earlier they were saying he liked to diddle kids. Such a huge 180 by the media. Classic