Bad fans

[Jockice]

fucking hell, once outside the Philarmonic me and two mates were waiting for someone inside before we could go and get food and pints and REGRET and all the other good stuff, and Jimmy Carr gets out of this cab that pulls up suddenly out of nowhere. We all clearly recognise him and he looks me right in the eyes like a shark and he knows we know him but none of us say a word and just offer this untold knowing as from behind a crowd of men with photos and pens all start going JIM JIM JIM JIM JIM JIM JIM JIM JIM

Twice in my life I've seen people with a certain level of fame wanting attention and not getting it. It's beautiful. One was when King (the band) were pretty big and were playing a concert in town. They were staying in a hotel not far from where I lived with a bar attached, which I happened to be in with some friends that afternoon. We'd seen other members of the band mooching around but then suddenly the door swung open like one in a saloon bar and we looked round to see Paul King standing there, obviously waiting for everyone to go: "Wow! You're Paul King." But nobody did. He ended up going to the bar himself. We sniggered quietly.

The other was even better. It was a local 'model' who had been all over the tabloids for having an affair with a prominent businessman and selling her story. One evening I was in a particularly posy bar in Sheffield city centre and she was seen outside getting out of a taxi.  Everybody saw her but it was if there was a subconscious 'just ignore her' from everyone in there. Which everyone did. Like Paul King (who at least she had some talent) she stood at the door obviously waiting to be rushed by adoring fans, She wasn't. And her 'modelling' career failed to take off to an extent that I can't even remember her name. 

New page fandango.

[Thursday]

Why not? Is the argument beneath your contempt? That's the best way to have a discussion and learn and impart. Just decide everyone's a troll and not bother your hole.

Yes, because it's such a fraught topic, I didn't want to get into it.

[SpiderChrist]

Ignore

[Phoenix Lazarus]

Babylon?

It looks like that's means the police.  I can't say I've heard that term for them.  Perhaps it was a predictive text error that was uncaught.

[Lisa Jesusandmarychain]

Ignore

Well, I thought it was an amusing anecdote .# this is the day...I get the fuck out of the record shop#

[Lisa Jesusandmarychain]

It looks like that's means the police.  I can't say I've heard that term for them.  Perhaps it was a predictive text error that was uncaught.

I suppose you just refer to them as " the peelers", or " The fuzz" , grandad.

[bgmnts]

Why not? Is the argument beneath your contempt? That's the best way to have a discussion and learn and impart. Just decide everyone's a troll and not bother your hole.

How many female fans have killed the object of their obsession?

[SpiderChrist]

Well, I thought it was an amusing anecdote .# this is the day...I get the fuck out of the record shop#

Yeah but, whatever you might think of his music, Johnson is hardly Charlie Chuckles, is he?

[Attila]

How many female fans have killed the object of their obsession?

She didn't kill him, but there was a fan who relentless stalked David Letterman for years.

Harlan Ellison published an essay years back about some of the worse of the worst amongst science fiction fans.

[beanheadmcginty]

It looks like that's means the police.  I can't say I've heard that term for them.  Perhaps it was a predictive text error that was uncaught.

I remember my rastafarian next door neighbour back in 1994 being absolutely fucking furious when he switched on Babylon 5 for the first time and there was no sign of Shaw Taylor.

[drummersaredeaf]

Babylon is the police yeah.

What's more shocking about the streamer story is that the guy has been seriously obsessed and threatening (sleeping in her garden, moving to her town, being picked up on her street with a knife), but the nature of her work means he can continue to interact with her publicly while she's working.

Thinking about it, I saw Limmy mention that he's had a stalker following his Twitch career too.

There's quite a few examples of streamers being stalked. Personal nature of the performance - like stand up - I suppose.

[checkoutgirl]

How many female fans have killed the object of their obsession?

I don't know. I hope observations can be made without the necessity to give multiple examples of murder. There are plenty of cases of disturbing behaviour by men and women that don't result in murder. The original post case hasn't resulted in murder. Yet.

It's more about obsessive behaviour and I think it's interesting how we react to different types of people doing very similar things. For example if a conventionally attractive woman wanted to lick the plate compared to a conventionally less attractive woman. Would the reaction be different?

[The Mollusk]

Why not? Is the argument beneath your contempt? That's the best way to have a discussion and learn and impart. Just decide everyone's a troll and not bother your hole.

Your original post seemed like trolling because it had a vague, murky combination of naivety, provocation and derailing that almost felt intentionally imprecise and slightly edgy. That's certainly how it came across to me, anyway, so I can empathise with others who felt the same.

[Claude the Racecar Driving Rockstar Super Sleuth]

I assume the panelists were grotted off by the plate-licker, but didn't want to say anything too harsh with her standing right there.

[Colin Sanction]

It looks like that's means the police.  I can't say I've heard that term for them.  Perhaps it was a predictive text error that was uncaught.

Thanks.

[Icehaven]

Not comedy and game/chat streaming instead, but I came across this from a Twitch streamer that is current and absolutely insane.

https://www.insider.com/twitch-streamer-says-she-has-stalker-threatening-to-kill-her-2020-7

I've known someone be harassed at a relatively low level and a quick chat from the Babylon did the job. Where the stalker is unwilling to heed the warning it seems they're not willing or able to do much more. I know the law has changed in the last five years or so that they don't have to wait for something bad to happen, so it's insane action hasn't been taken in the story above.

If he was caught by police with a knife on him why wasn't he charged with having an offensive weapon in public? You nearly always get prison for that and it can be up to four years when it's a knife.

[drummersaredeaf]

This is why this is so outrageous - they gave him a restraining order that he's continually flouted, and suspended sentence of 2 years. He posted on her stream later that that knife was nothing compared to the next one and that he was coming to kill her.

[JaDanketies]

Pretty sure threats to kill are also against the law and writing them down is surely a prosecution on easy mode. lazy negligent po po

I bet if it was Jacob Rees Mogg who was the victim they would've done something about it long ago

[Thosworth]

For the sake of completeness, now the discussion's moved on from purely comedy, it's probably OK to post this documentary. In the pre-internet 90s there were a number of interesting characters who became word-of-mouth celebrities due to documentary appearances, such as Chris Needham, Paul Sykes, and from this documentary on stalkers, Blue Tulip Rose Read, who is clearly very mentally ill. (There is still a comedy connection though, as some of her quotes appeared as newspaper headlines in Series One of LOG):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=of1-vkIS5sQ

[kngen]

How many female fans have killed the object of their obsession?

I think it's rare enough that it's easy to remember them individually, even when they haven't managed to kill the objects of their ire/affection. Valerie Solanas, Joyce McKinney to name the most memorable ones.

[JaDanketies]

I think it's rare enough that it's easy to remember them individually, even when they haven't managed to kill the objects of their ire/affection. Valerie Solanas, Joyne McKinney to name the most memorable ones.

Both of whom pretty much got off scot free

[Salty_fries]

The comedian Richard Gadd had an excellent show about his female stalker called Baby Reindeer, and in that he talks about how it was hard to get the police to take it seriously because the harrassment was coming from a woman. I think it's scarier when it's a man coming after a woman because of the obvious power imbalance, but when the genders are switched the victim is faced with a whole new set of problems.

[Famous Mortimer]

Nonchalantly accusing someone of being a troll could be viewed as a "troll-style". Mission accomplished  because you've annoyed me.

My point was if a man went on national TV saying he snuck into a building to lick a plate of someone he was obsessed with people would say call the police. That's linked to the subject of weird fans. Really sorry for not staying exactly within your expectations for the thread.

Is this your first day on the internet? How many "this thing happened" threads have been derailed by "well, women are bad too" as if no-one were aware of the fact?

[Keebleman]

The other was even better. It was a local 'model' who had been all over the tabloids for having an affair with a prominent businessman and selling her story. One evening I was in a particularly posy bar in Sheffield city centre and she was seen outside getting out of a taxi.  Everybody saw her but it was if there was a subconscious 'just ignore her' from everyone in there. Which everyone did. Like Paul King (who at least she had some talent) she stood at the door obviously waiting to be rushed by adoring fans, She wasn't. And her 'modelling' career failed to take off to an extent that I can't even remember her name. 

Fiona Wright?

[Jockice]

Fiona Wright?

That name does ring a bell. How on earth did you remember that? My next question is who was she shagging? I can't remember that either.

[Keebleman]

That name does ring a bell. How on earth did you remember that? My next question is who was she shagging? I can't remember that either.

She was shagging Ralph Halpern, which I remember cos I am Ralph Halpern he was known as 'Five Times a Night' Ralph, so I just Googled that.  I thought it was Ralph Lauren, but turns out to be this far less well-known example of the breed.  I remember Ms Wright as being genuinely pretty but with no other claim to fame at all outside of shagging ol' Ralphie.  According to Wikipedia she was a Page 3 girl but I don't remember her as having even that status.

[JaDanketies]

Yeah I read an article about her from 97 and she came across like a right shithead. I believe she also got her boobs out and wrote articles for the Sunday Sport (RIP). I can also see her bemoaning potential legislation against those weird sex phone lines (no judgement) in 93.

Wonder what she's up to now, many decades later? If she's still in the media, it might be this woman? Actually I've checked and it isn't.

Damn, she also appears in the Free Thesaurus as a usage example for the word 'floosie'. Most people could only dream of being immortalised as such.

getting a little bit doxy now, I'll stop

[Lisa Jesusandmarychain]

I remember her. She'll be in her 50s, by now. One can only hope she found her natural calling, and makes a decent living therefrom nowadays.

[Jockice]

I can't remember the name of the bar I was in, which is REALLY annoying me. It wasn't one of my regular haunts (too townieish and too full of poseurs, if that's not a contradiction in terms) but for some reason I was there that night. Come on, you know the place. Near the back of Cole Brothers and opposite the Wapentake. Near Bobby's pizza place where my mate Graeme got stood up.

[C_Larence]

https://youtu.be/nkls2tKfYbo

This is an interesting documentary about two people who are obsessed with the singer Tiffany.