Other celebrities who have gone bananas

[Steven88]

So did Danny Dyer.

+ Tom DeLonge.

[Shit Good Nose]

And Shaun Ryder.  Except in his case it's probably brought him down to earth a bit (no pun intended).

[FredNurke]

He's also of the opinion that the fans at Hillsborough brought it on themselves. He's a great bunch of lads.

#JFT97

That's just horrible. The really funny bit of idiocy was when he argued against the laws of physics.

[Video Game Fan 2000]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z2FxMLCM51E

[The Ombudsman]

Joe Rogan was always a bit of a wrongun but seems to be heading more detached from reality. In my opinion.

Right Said Fred man.

[mothman]

Re: Scott Adams, I remember about 20 years ago I'd signed up for his email newsletter (I don't think I'd ever registered for one before, it was something I was trying out). All normal wacky Dilbert humour, a mild diversion every week or fortnight or whatever. And then one day it came in and it was all about positive thinking and if you really thought about wanting something you could make it happen just by thinking about it. I know crazy when I see it, I was like, oh-kayyy, "Unsubscribe."

[Video Game Fan 2000]

Had a Dilbert book twenty years ago and "imagine if Noel Edmonds was into Ayn Rand" is the best way to describe it. I remember lots of painful thermodynamics analogies to explain how intelligence is an energy that can flow between people. A lot of stuff that seemed like very strange attempts at humour in hindsight was totally sincere. I don't remember the Dilbert strip being anything other than Works Sucks + Misogyny at the time and Adams just seemed like a left leaning libertarian, but his worldview seems to always have been crackers.

[Phoenix Lazarus]

Billy Joel did a stint in a mental hospital before hitting the big time.

[monkfromhavana]

I don't especially want to drag scientology/scientologist celebs into this but I always thought it was a big shame when I discovered Jason Lee was high up on some panel in there that was tasked with producing disinformation about psychiatry. I couldn't really see him the same after that, although I think he's out of that world entirely now.

To be fair, If you had had David Baddiel racially abusing you for a number of years, you might lose the plot a bit as well.

[Retinend]

[Paul Merton] had a complete nervous breakdown before he was famous. Started hearing voices and ended up getting sectioned for a bit. I don't think he talks about it that much, but I remember him on some mental health documentary going through his experiences.

There is (was?) a plaque on the wall of Central Market Lancaster the central market in Lancaster with a picture of Merton and words explaining what happened. I never understood why it was there, I mean, in Lancaster. Does anyone here live in Lancaster and know what I'm on about?

edit: not "Central Market Lancaster", but just the indoor market

[The Mollusk]

Cheers lads. If I ever go completely hatstand I think I'll just hoy a few spoons into the nearest body of water and not a domestic appliance. Don't want to put my back out.

A kettle or a toaster are domestic appliances and they weigh fuck all. Just wanna help you keep your options open. Nutri-Bullet?

[The Mollusk]

I heard that if you called Joe Bananas "Joe Bananas" he'd fuckin go    bananas.

[gilbertharding]

I was a kid and first getting into old comedy, I'd get really excited seeing the name of anyone connected with old classics in the tv listings.  One time I remember tuning into some late night ITV programme that had an episode billed as something like "the odd world of Michael Bentine" so I was expecting some Goonery and instead when I turned it on he was on a hillside intoning "is there anyone theereeeeee" to the spirits or aliens or something, then he was talking about astral projection and ectoplasm, then finally he stood on a leyline and looked thrilled.

Three of his five children were dead by the time they were 40. I heard them speak ages ago, and there's a family joke where the kids greet their mother "Ahah! The Bentine widow!" and she replies "Ahah! The surviving children!"

[buttgammon]

The American dancer Michael Flatley is a big Trump nut, and also a fan of the unhinged racist conspiracy weirdo Gemma O'Doherty.

Another one is the one-time feminist writer Naomi Wolf, who has gone bananas over the last few years and was last seen getting kicked off Twitter for spewing a load of antivax covid-denial shite.

[Retinend]

Another one is the one-time feminist writer Naomi Wolf, who has gone bananas over the last few years and was last seen getting kicked off Twitter for spewing a load of antivax covid-denial shite.

Yeah. It started - as you probably already know - with her most recent book's reputation being destroyed after it came out that a central piece of evidence she used, relating to the punishment of sexual crimes, was entirely misinterpreted. I think she was badly hurt by that, and the way that she was confronted with this failing of the book (live, on BBC radio 4, by an expert on the history she got wrong). Not only that, but the book was the fruit of years spent writing a PhD thesis for Trinity College, and that PhD thesis was finally revoked by the college after a campaign of outrage that Oxford university could have originally accredited it in the first place. That was insult to injury.

I think she is the victim of social media love bombing, a bit like JK Rowling, and this love-bombing vis-a-vis anti-vax nonsense happened at a point when she was emotionally vulnerable and feeling entirely cast out of the mainstream anyway.

[C_Larence]

The American dancer Michael Flatley.

One for the fuck my hat thread.

Jen Kirkman went completely off the deep end regarding "Russian Trolls" and "Bernie Bros"

[phantom_power]

I still find it hard to reconcile the fantastic and sensitive acting portrayed by Jon Voigt and the batshit arsehole he now seems to be

[JaDanketies]

There is (was?) a plaque on the wall of Central Market Lancaster with a picture of Merton and words explaining what happened. I never understood why it was there, I mean, in Lancaster. Does anyone here live in Lancaster and know what I'm on about?

Went to Lancaster Uni 15 years ago but went there for a day recently and the whole indoor market is a Primark

[buttgammon]

Yeah. It started - as you probably already know - with her most recent book's reputation being destroyed after it came out that a central piece of evidence she used, relating to the punishment of sexual crimes, was entirely misinterpreted. I think she was badly hurt by that, and the way that she was confronted with this failing of the book (live, on BBC radio 4, by an expert on the history she got wrong). Not only that, but the book was the fruit of years spent writing a PhD thesis for Trinity College, and that PhD thesis was finally revoked by the college after a campaign of outrage that Oxford university could have originally accredited it in the first place. That was insult to injury.

I think she is the victim of social media love bombing, a bit like JK Rowling, and this love-bombing vis-a-vis anti-vax nonsense happened at a point when she was emotionally vulnerable and feeling entirely cast out of the mainstream anyway.

Something I only learned today is that she started going bananas before the controversy around her book (apologies for quoting Wiki rather than something proper).

In a series of Facebook postings in October 2014, Wolf questioned the authenticity of videos purporting to show beheadings of two American journalists and two Britons by the Islamic State, implying that they had been staged by the US government and that the victims and their parents were actors.[10][74] Wolf also charged that the US was dispatching military troops not to assist in treating the Ebola virus epidemic in West Africa, but to carry the disease back home to justify a military takeover of America.[10][140] She further said that the 2014 Scottish independence referendum, in which Scotland voted to remain in the United Kingdom, was faked.[10] Speaking about this at a demonstration in Glasgow on October 12, Wolf said, "I truly believe it was rigged."[141]

It was after that point that she seemed to devote her entire public presence to conspiracy theories though, so I think it was the straw that broke the camel's back at the very least.

One for the fuck my hat thread.

Even Flatley himself seems to forget he's American, which is presumably why he's so keen to defend the Irish far-right when they slag off immigrants. It's often a source of embarrassment for people over here when Irish-Americans come out with total bollocks, so I always like to play up their Americanness.

[Retinend]

Went to Lancaster Uni 15 years ago but went there for a day recently and the whole indoor market is a Primark

That's grim. That market was one of my favourite places.

Something I only learned today is that she started going bananas before the controversy around her book (apologies for quoting Wiki rather than something proper).

It was after that point that she seemed to devote her entire public presence to conspiracy theories though, so I think it was the straw that broke the camel's back at the very least.

Ah, interesting. I guess she was primed to go that way, then. She was always the least academically credible of the famous 3rd wave feminists, so I think being so publically humiliated vis-a-vis her academic credibility after going back to Oxford to sure up exactly those credentials was definitely cataclysmic for her.

[C_Larence]

[Mr Trumpet]

Had a Dilbert book twenty years ago and "imagine if Noel Edmonds was into Ayn Rand" is the best way to describe it. I remember lots of painful thermodynamics analogies to explain how intelligence is an energy that can flow between people. A lot of stuff that seemed like very strange attempts at humour in hindsight was totally sincere. I don't remember the Dilbert strip being anything other than Works Sucks + Misogyny at the time and Adams just seemed like a left leaning libertarian, but his worldview seems to always have been crackers.

Yes, in one of the books I had he claimed that the theory of gravitation would be disproved in his lifetime, because he'd come up with a better idea (everything in the universe - except the air, presumably - is doubling in size every second creating the illusion of gravity). I took it as a joke or thought experiment at the time, but now he really does seem to believe he's the new Einstein and Socrates rolled into one.

[paruses]

The American dancer Michael Flatley is a big Trump nut, and also a fan of the unhinged racist conspiracy weirdo Gemma O'Doherty.

Made me think of Steven Segal and also Gerard Depardieu[nb]-dieu, -dew, -dieu. eet's so important" - FYI I always mentally add this bit from KMKYWAP when he's mentioned[/nb]. I think their jump to Russia counts as going a bit bananas. I thought there were a raft of celebs who had done this but now can't think of any. Mark Almond? That might just be because of a relationship though.

[Ornlu]

Joe Rogan was always a bit of a wrongun but seems to be heading more detached from reality.

Wrongun? You think he's a bad person?

[phantom_power]

Yes, in one of the books I had he claimed that the theory of gravitation would be disproved in his lifetime, because he'd come up with a better idea (everything in the universe - except the air, presumably - is doubling in size every second creating the illusion of gravity). I took it as a joke or thought experiment at the time, but now he really does seem to believe he's the new Einstein and Socrates rolled into one.

I suppose it is true that we don't know how gravity works, or magnetism for that matter, so there is some room in that field (ha!) for discovery. It is a bit arrogant to believe that you are the one to do it though, unless you are an actual practising physicist

[HamishMacbeth]

Perhaps not fully bananas but I did enjoy Jeremy Irons' bonkers take on the pitfalls of gay marriage a few years back

Ah yes, the man who introduced me to the completely sensible, not at all barmy "if we allow gay marriage, people will marry their own kids to dodge inheritence tax" argument.

[Retinend]

Oh and Scott Adams (the guy who writes the Dilbert comics). I'm sure he used to be fairly normal but now he seems to genuinely believe he's the cleverest man in the world, because he correctly predicted Trump would win in 2016. Has all kinds of crackpot rightwing/libertarian ideas.

I recall one of his takes was that global warming was a crock, because climate scientists admitted to "modelling"[nb]i.e., how all human prediction is done - with numbers attached to variables[/nb] climate change and that he knew from his time in the business world that predictive models are ALWAYS tweaked to give the results that the bosses want. Did it not occur to him that there's a difference between investigation for the sake of it, and "investigation" in name only, done only to pull the wool over the eyes a board of directors? I think he was one of these libertarian types who imagines that universities are full of pie-in-the-sky welfare queens, and that nothing is real until it gets road-tested on the free market.

[lipsink]

Eddie Marsan seems almost as unhinged on Twitter as some of the psychos he played.

[Mr Trumpet]

Ah yes, the man who introduced me to the completely sensible, not at all barmy "if we allow gay marriage, people will marry their own kids to dodge inheritence tax" argument.

Aha, but did you know it's technically not incest if it's between two men?!

[thenoise]

Truth teller about the Royal Lizards, David Icke?

The granddaddy of them all, failed footballer and random BBC sports presenter with a questionable taste in tracksuits, ponces off to South America and had a psychedelic drug experience, comes back a gibbering loony. Spends the rest of his life believing every mad story that anonymous sourced tell him about the establishment (some standard conspiracy stuff, some completely hatstand stuff and a bit of thinly veiled racism), and doing insane 10 hour lecture tours with no notes other than a PowerPoint presentation largely made up of conspiracy memes pulled off the Internet. And publishing loopy books in which he details in depth the rock solid proof he has for his bold claims (spoiler alert: it was all revealed to him during his drug trip in South America).