# 15 Minutes of Fame **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 30, 2003, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/15-minutes-of-fame/185256 "2003-06-30T01:05:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![MizQuirk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/94ad74/32.png) [@MizQuirk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MizQuirk)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2003, 1:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/15-minutes-of-fame/185256/1 "2003-06-30T01:05:14Z")
I believe someone famous said everyone gets 15 minutes of fame. It would be fun to hear about yours! 🙂 MizQuirk ---
**Author:** ![Eilsel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/c68b51/32.png) [@Eilsel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eilsel)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2003, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/15-minutes-of-fame/185256/2 "2003-06-30T01:08:41Z")
Still waiting… ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_of\_Sandwhich](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/91b2a8/32.png) [@Earl\_of\_Sandwhich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_of_Sandwhich)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2003, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/15-minutes-of-fame/185256/3 "2003-06-30T01:18:08Z")
Mine would have to involve challenging Chief Justice Rehnquist to a unicycle race. I’d hate to hijack the thread this early, but what exactly is the context of this quote? It is referred to all the time, I know, but what was the famous person’s orignal intent in saying it? ---
**Author:** ![Eilsel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/c68b51/32.png) [@Eilsel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eilsel)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2003, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/15-minutes-of-fame/185256/4 "2003-06-30T01:20:40Z")
Wasn’t it Andy Warhol who quoted it? And if so…do you really think there was any semblance of meaning? LOL ---
**Author:** ![Lamar\_Mundane](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/85f322/32.png) [@Lamar\_Mundane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamar_Mundane)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2003, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/15-minutes-of-fame/185256/5 "2003-06-30T03:13:15Z")
As a young teen, I stood beside the US Ambassador to Australia while he met the Australian Prime Minister Gough Whitlam as Mr. Carter won the election over Mr. Ford. I was on every newscast in the country that night. More like 30 seconds, though… ---
**Author:** ![Old\_Shellhead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/e56c9b/32.png) [@Old\_Shellhead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Old_Shellhead)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2003, 6:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/15-minutes-of-fame/185256/6 "2003-06-30T06:44:44Z")
I believe it was the tagline of Interview magazine. ---
**Author:** ![Lodrain](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c4cdca/32.png) [@Lodrain](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lodrain)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2003, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/15-minutes-of-fame/185256/7 "2003-06-30T13:52:29Z")
Umm… Hmm… Well, I was interviewed at least twice for school newspapers. It’s fame enough for me. 'Least until I become Ultimate Fascist Commie Bastard Dictator of the Solar System… ---
**Author:** ![Ferret\_Herder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e47774/32.png) [@Ferret\_Herder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferret_Herder)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2003, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/15-minutes-of-fame/185256/8 "2003-06-30T13:57:54Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Eilsel \* > Wasn’t it Andy Warhol who quoted it? And if so…do you really think there was any semblance of meaning? LOL It was Warhol, yes. If I remember the context correctly, he was discussing the increasingly fleeting nature of fame, and how eventually as a result “everyone” would be famous for 15 minutes. ---
**Author:** ![Eilsel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/c68b51/32.png) [@Eilsel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eilsel)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2003, 2:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/15-minutes-of-fame/185256/9 "2003-06-30T14:01:11Z")
YAY I win!! (do I get cake?) ---
**Author:** ![dwc1970](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a183cd/32.png) [@dwc1970](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dwc1970)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2003, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/15-minutes-of-fame/185256/10 "2003-06-30T15:02:01Z")
I’ve been interviewed on the news a couple times and once I was interviewed for the newspaper and had my name printed in it. I’d say that’s probably about 5 minutes worth of fame, tops. I still have at least 10 minutes left. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Moto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9de0a6/32.png) [@Mr.Moto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Moto)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2003, 3:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/15-minutes-of-fame/185256/11 "2003-06-30T15:18:24Z")
Game show contestant, which gave me a whole half-hour. ---
**Author:** ![Isabelle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/b5a626/32.png) [@Isabelle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Isabelle)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2003, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/15-minutes-of-fame/185256/12 "2003-06-30T16:40:33Z")
I wrote a celebrity cookbook and it went over so well with the public that the local tv station gave me my own segment of the noon news to demonstrate some of the food. I was given 2 min each week for like 6 weeks. It was great! ---
**Author:** ![Nutty\_Bunny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/d07c76/32.png) [@Nutty\_Bunny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nutty_Bunny)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2003, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/15-minutes-of-fame/185256/13 "2003-06-30T17:37:47Z")
Okay, but you asked for it! Mine was in September of 1986. I was 16 and on a mountain-climbing trip in the Adirondacks with a bunch of classmates and a few teachers. I was waiting near the end for a friend that wasn’t feeling too well and a teacher had to stay at the end at all times. When she was feeling a bit better, we carried on. We got to a section of the trail where we had to make a turn and it looked like the trail marker was in the middle of two turns–one that was a trail and one that _wasn’t a trail_. The friend and the teacher said, “Let’s go this way” and I said, “No, I think it’s this way.”\*\* So after awhile, it seemed like the “trail” was slowly getting worse. We thought we were on our way down, but when we got to a steep rock slide, we panicked. We had to slide down it and our 65 year old teacher fell down it instead of sliding down. Our teacher told us that if we were going down the other side of the mountain and we were hearing traffic, then we were on the right track (if not the right _trail_). When we got to a clearing at the bottom of the mountain, we found ourselves _between two mountains_ and the sound of traffic we thought we heard was the sound of rushing water from a large stream. :eek: I thought, “Okay, I’m going to die here. I’ll be eaten by a bear and die right here.” At that point, it was getting dark and by now the group had left without us (we assumed correctly as we found out later). So we built a fire and hunkered down for the night. We had no food and were drinking out of the stream. It was late September, so as it approached 10 or 11, the temperature was already about 40 degrees. At 12:30 am, we saw some lights in the distance! It was two forest rangers coming to save us! They had been looking for us since we were reported missing. They gave us some chocolate (yay!) and walked us out–2 miles through a muddy swamp. It took us two hours to get to the ranger station in Keene. When we got there, it was 2:30 am and the superintendent of schools was there to pick us up. It was another hour and a half to get home to Brasher Falls. I’m sure he had fun cleaning the mud out of his car after that. We finally showed up at 4:00 am and my mother burst out of the house crying hysterically! It turns out that everyone thought we were dead! My 12 year old brother was the only one home when the state trooper came to the door. When he was told I was missing, he sat down and cried. Ahhhh. It was a total cryfest at our house that night–family, neighbors, and cops. To make a long story short 😉 , the next day, we were in the papers, on the radio news and our teacher was on the TV news (I was pissed that they didn’t come see me)! We were the talk of the town for quite a while! While receiving a Social Studies award in May, I was made fun of my geography knowledge. It was a while before we lived it down. Or did you not want that much detail? :o ---
**Author:** ![Nutty\_Bunny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/d07c76/32.png) [@Nutty\_Bunny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nutty_Bunny)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2003, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/15-minutes-of-fame/185256/14 "2003-06-30T17:42:48Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Nutty Bunny \* > **I was waiting near the end for a friend** That should be “waiting at the end of the group”. > [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Nutty Bunny \* > **"Let’s go this way" and I said, “No, I think it’s this way.”** \*\* \*\*That’s my story and I’m sticking to it. I had to go and muck up my 700th post! Murphy’s law bites me in the ass yet again. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![greck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/7ab992/32.png) [@greck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/greck)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2003, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/15-minutes-of-fame/185256/15 "2003-06-30T17:43:57Z")
It was Warhol, and it was crap, much like most everything he produced. People hear such a thing and they apply it to their lives, and of course “fame” can be such a relative term that it applies anywhere. people are stupid. That being said, I was once on MTV playing hacky sack during their spring break special (back in the early 90’s) ---
**Author:** ![Nutty\_Bunny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/d07c76/32.png) [@Nutty\_Bunny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nutty_Bunny)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2003, 5:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/15-minutes-of-fame/185256/16 "2003-06-30T17:52:33Z")
**Greck** , you’re no fun. ---
**Author:** ![greck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/7ab992/32.png) [@greck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/greck)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2003, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/15-minutes-of-fame/185256/17 "2003-06-30T18:07:08Z")
I felt kind of bad about that, so I did add my 15" story, it is a good thread dispite the warhol connection. Or do you just think Hacky sack is no claim to fame? ---
**Author:** ![lightingtool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/57b2e6/32.png) [@lightingtool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lightingtool)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2003, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/15-minutes-of-fame/185256/18 "2003-06-30T18:19:13Z")
“Page seventy three! Johnson, Navin R.! I’m somebody now! Millions of people look at this book every day! This is the kind of spontaneous publicity, your name in print, that makes people!” -_The Jerk_ That’s about as close as I come. Thousands of people pay lots of money to come look at the shows I work on, but they don’t see me. I like it that way. ---
**Author:** ![Nutty\_Bunny](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/d07c76/32.png) [@Nutty\_Bunny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nutty_Bunny)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2003, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/15-minutes-of-fame/185256/19 "2003-06-30T19:24:56Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by greck \* > \*\*Or do you just think Hacky sack is no claim to fame? \*\* Not unless it was dunked in gasoline, lit on fire and headed for your crotch! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![rjung](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/45deac/32.png) [@rjung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjung)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2003, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/15-minutes-of-fame/185256/20 "2003-06-30T19:39:15Z")
I’ve written reviews and articles for two national magazines, performed at a convention stage-show before audiences of 300+ people for at three or four years, have organized various fandom-wide surveys for five, and got a letter answered by Cecil Adams once. Am I over the limit already? [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/15-minutes-of-fame/185256.md?page=2)