Who is the most overrated Pop culture icon of all time?

[battleknight24]

Include anyone... an actor, actress, singer, musician, politician, fictional character, cartoon character, writer, etc, etc...

My vote...

Ronald Reagan

[TriadLeftist]

1. No doubt ...

Madonna

[CBGLuthier]

4. Would agree but

Jennifer Lopez is giving her a run for her money.

Lame singer, so-so actress. And the entire world goes ape-shit because she dates some guy.

BFD.

[Lady Freedom]

13. NO! NO ! NO!...

Not my hero!:evilfrown: ( How many could have guessed that Madonna was my hero? :evilgrin: )

[Jawja]

42. Madonna

is not overrated! A true superstar, AND an intelligent woman to boot!

[Coventina]

46. FLAME!!!!

Madonna is awesome!

Michael Jackson is the most overrated pop culture icon.

:P

[bif]

2. Babe Ruth

n/t

[wyldwolf]

3. Either Curt Cobain or Jim Morrison...

[BigMcLargehuge]

7. We agree on so many things!!!!

Both of them do little if nothing for me.

I don't understand devotion to The Doors... Their music doesn't move me at all... And Morrison's poetry was" William Shatner Sings-iffic".

I liked Nirvana when the released Smells like Teen Spirit but I was a DJ and ended up overexposed to them I guess... I still find Cobain's lyrics to be trite and overly obtuse.

Give me Nash Kato anyday

on edit: added and S

[wyldwolf]

10. I find (found) them both to be marginally talented...

..and only looked upon favorably now because they died. We seem to have some fascination with people who die young - often elevating them to a status they didn't achieve in life.

[Gigi]

5. Pop icon

Andy Warhol!

[mitchum]

6. and I think Warhol would agree with you

[disgruntella]

8. jim morrison, definitely

"ride the snake" ... give me a break. substance abuse <=> creativity

I wouldn't say Kurt Cobain thought, at lease he didn't seem so blatantly full of himself.

[roughsatori]

20. Jim Morrison's "poetry" reads like a parody now

I have been almost pulverized by Morrison fans who thought that his poetry (not his song lyrics) was the equal of a Villon, or Rimbaud. They read to me like someone doing the poetic equivelant of George Carlin's hippy-diddy weather-man.

[SoCalDem]

9. ELVIS

:)

[ima_sinnic]

17. yes, Elvis is right up there

he was okay but not worthy of the cult around him

the other day i saw an old movie with:
FABIAN
--any 50+ women remember him? ha ha!! he was cute but boy he could NOT sing!! I never even realized that, but when he sang his one token song in this movie (wish I could remember the title but it was one of hundreds of moldy oldies I've been borrowing from the library) it sounded FLAT and OUT OF KEY!!

(on edit: the movie was A. Christie/Hitchcock's "Ten Little Indians")

[Friar]

11. Yeah it's gotta be Reagan

But britney's a close second. God's gift to men but totally talentless.

[BlueJazz]

12. Madonna

Homogenized, Pasteurized, Corporatized and sold like a new box of new-improved wonder soap-powder.

[patrice]

14. The whole "Rat Pack" phenomenon

With, perhaps, the exception of Sammy Davis Jr., why should we idolize a bunch of guys who simply chose careers for the main purpose of avoiding the kind of work that they looked down upon others for doing?

The "Great Generation" had a habit of doing this: John Wayne, Ronald Reagan, others, and we are STILL living with the hangover.

[roughsatori]

21. worse yet, the "Brat Pack" LOL NT

[Friar]

15. Eddie Wilson!

oh, wait. He rules!

[tjdee]

16. Ed Mcmahon...WHAT does he do again? Monica Lewinsky....

I know he used to say "you are right sir" to Johnny Carson...but did he EVER have a career of his own? Does he do anything?

Honorable 'Whaaa?' props go to Monica Lewinsky, Jennifer Lopez, and Jim Morrison.

[dragonquest8]

18. barbie.....

[bif]

19. Ernest Hemingway & Liz Taylor

Both way overrated. Go ahead, flame me. Never could understand the fascination with either of those two.

[patrice]

22. How much Hemingway have you read?

Honestly.

[Friar]

24. I've read most of his work

and I agree. Overrated. But I think Moby Dick is overrated too so what do I know?

[bif]

26. Most of his stuff. Honestly.

The "Up in Michigan" stories are okay. but overall, I think his work is way overrated. Same with Fitzgerald.

[mitchum]

39. Certainly agree with you about Fitzgerald...

He's the "great American could have been" And my reply is always, "Yeah, but he didn't" And his best novel is really nothing more than a potboiler.

[roughsatori]

29. I am not that much of a Hemingway fan

I just don't appreciate his stories, or novels. But his sentence structure was stunning in the way it changed the writng of English, and American literature--he wiped away the Victorian embellishment of prose, for better and worse. I prefer the Virginia Woolf sentence and paragraph structure, more poetic in its sinuousness.

But then again, I was thinking of listing Jesus or Shakespeare as the most over-rated icon. But then thought that they are both the most over-rated and under-rated Icons, so did not.

[smirkymonkey]

30. I have read a lot of Hemingway as well and agree...

Totally overrated. Also, isn't there some question as to whether Shakespere was really Shakespere?? Some think his plays were actually the work of Christopher Marlowe or some other well traveled Elizabethan??

[roughsatori]

36. some claim Francis Bacon was the "real" author

Your post is echoing, but I'm sure you've noticed that by now. I hate when that happens to me.

Marlowe had a very interesting life, and his use of meter and end-ryme appeal to me more than his actual works. But every so often I try to re-read and see if I have changed.

[mitchum]

40. I find Marlowe's work to be far more subversive than Shakespeare's

...and that has nothing to do with the "allegations" about Marlowe's sexual life. People have misinterpreted the Marlowe comment. It was really a low, schoolyard insult directed at Raleigh (delivered by a genius)

[roughsatori]

44. Here's a link to story "Marlowe's Comback" from 2 years ago

It was in the NYT: It refreshed my memory about his life and the theories regarding CM.

http://www.angelfire.com/ny/gaybooks/marlowecomeback.html

[smirkymonkey]

I have read a lot of Hemingway as well and agree...

Totally overrated. Also, isn't there some question as to whether Shakespere was really Shakespere?? Some think his plays were actually the work of Christopher Marlowe or some other well traveled Elizabethan??

[smirkymonkey]

32. I have read a lot of Hemingway as well and agree...

Totally overrated. Also, isn't there some question as to whether Shakespere was really Shakespere?? Some think his plays were actually the work of Christopher Marlowe or some other well traveled Elizabethan??

[Friar]

35. He did do that

But I don't think it was a good thing. Cormac McCarthy has brought back this richness in the English language that was so lacking after Hemingway.

[catpower2000]

23. Michael Jackson...

Yeah, yeah, he's an incredibly talented pop songwriter, amazing dancer, blah blah talentedcakes. But you know what? All that is overshadowed by the fact that

HE'S A FUCKING PEDOPHILE!!!! GET IT PEOPLE?? HE LIKES TO SLEEP WITH LITTLE BOYS!! STOP WORSHIPPING SOMEONE WHO SHOULD BE LOCKED UP IN PROSIN FOR THE REST OF HIS LIFE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Cat

edit: wow, I was so angry, I had a typo in my own name. :)

[Uzybone]

33. Him being a pedophile has nothing to do with it

the fact he is a Pop culture icon wasnt based on the fact that he is probably a child abuser. No one admires him for that (maybe NAMBLA freaks might) so it has nothing to do with him being over or under rated.

[smirkymonkey]

25. James Dean, Britney Spears....

Does the Grateful Dead count as "pop culture?" (sorry Dead fans, I've attended many concerts, but I just didn't get the whole Jerry worship thing.)

[wyldwolf]

28. Yes, Grateful Dead....

I don't get it either.

[anti_shrub]

27. So many to mention

Kurt Cobain, just because Nirvana was the first grunge act to go mainstream doesn't mean they were any good.

John Travolta, had 2 movies that didn't suck in Grease and Pulp Fiction, and a whole lotta shite.

The all time winner has to be Saint Ronnie: bad actor, bad governor, bad President.

[battleknight24]

31. Ronald Reagan...

... I started this post, but my pick was Ronald Reagan because of his presidency...

... I'm a young man, but I saw a couple of old movies with him, and I had to say that his acting stunk...

[battleknight24]

34. Ronald Reagan...

... I started this post, but my pick was Ronald Reagan because of his presidency...

... I'm a young man, but I saw a couple of old movies with him, and I had to say that his acting stunk...

[ScreamingMeemie]

37. Winnie the Pooh

I am tired of seeing the little bugger on everything.

[Benevolent_Rabbit]

45. HEYEYEYEYEY!

read "The Tao Of Pooh" and you will be enlightened!

don't like Pooh? oh my. Right now I feel like such a little Piglet in this big ole world.

edit: I should have been an editor

http://www.just-pooh.com/tao.html

[southpaw]

38. Elvis...

was a hero to most,
But he never meant shit to me.
Dude was a racist
Straight up and plain

Yeeeaaahhh mutha-fuck him and John Wayne.

[MarianJack]

41. How About...

David Cassidy?:puke:

[Jonte_1979]

43. Is Shakespeare "pop culture"?

If he is then he gets my vote.

[Devil Dog Dem]

47. Curt Cobaine.

If we are talking pop culture.

[bloom]

48. Mickey Mouse

he never did that much for me

[stlsaxman]

49. God.

[orangecoloredapple]

50. which one?

.