Wednesday, January 14, 2009

People I Want to Kill: Jett Travolta


The title of this post has two inaccuracies:

1. I don't actually want to kill Jett Travolta.
2. I'm a little late in the game.

Seems a little callous, yes? It is. I was going for shock value with the headline. And I'm in a rather surly mood today.

I have no problems with Jett, or John Travolta or anyone else connected to this tragedy for that matter. This is a very sad, unfortunate event that has caused much pain and suffering. Nothing funny about that.

Who I do want to kill with a nine-iron is the media which has paid this story an unnecessary amount of attention. During the week of the 16-year-old's death, this story was all over the papers, tabloids and talk shows. And it was treated as a major story.

And why would anyone think otherwise? This is probably the biggest story in the history of the world. It's not like the struggling economy, fighting in the Middle East and the transition of a new president is important news. Fuck that. The son of a celebrity died! The world has officially stopped!

How many 16-year-olds die a year? Maybe 5,000? Disease, car accidents, etc. Awful. Really fucking awful. But did you hear about the kid who was killed by a drunk driver in Omaha? How about the kid with terminal cancer in Atlanta? The victim of gang violence in Baltimore? NOT A FUCKING MENTION!

Maybe it was the cause of death and Jett's lengthy medical history that garnered the media attention.

Travolta, a notorious Scientologist, might have refused to believe that Jett was autistic, yet believed that aliens were building a Disneyland on Neptune. Celebrities at the funeral included Garth Brooks, Kirstie Alley, E.T., Alf and Spock.

Of course there was a slew of media and paparazzi trying to get photos and news about the funeral. Makes sense. I'm pretty sure it was the only funeral taking place that day.

But when John Travolta's kid dies prematurely, it's like we need a national day of mourning. Well, go fuck yourself for caring. And fuck the media for making you care. If you really want to feel sad, go visit a Children's Hospital or read some police reports. But stay the fuck away from TMZ and People.

9 comments:

rstiles said...

I agree...the media coverage is way bad on this

Anonymous said...

I don't follow trash media, but my GF was similarly pissed over the excessive attention to this tragic but relatively insignificant event. Perhaps she won't mind my almost obsessive interest in "Would you do . . .?" as much now that you guys are sympatico on this latest media indecency. So, thank you very much!

Bokolis said...

Hey, I get all my news from TBP, so I'm just finding out about this.

A "morning headlines" for this wouldn't have been too tasteless, no?

Anonymous said...

Wait, what happened? Does any one have a link to a story that can tell me what happened?


Best Headline you have ever written!

Anonymous said...

Who are the Travoltas?

GMoney said...

I almost shit my pants laughing at that headline. I wish that you would have explored that avenue a bit further. Maybe add some necrophilia in there???

Anonymous said...

next we're gonna be hearing about how Kate Hudson's guinea pig died

The Big Picture said...

oh shit, bokolis, that would've been amazing! (but yes, maybe too tasteless...even for us)

Anonymous said...

What going on with you guys lately? First Latifah, now this.
WTF?

Makes me long for the "Which would you do..." contests where half the guys claim they wouldn't do Jill Arrington unless they had 3 LIs first.

Geez!