In the last year or so I started noticing small square white stickers on cards with a line sketch in black of what looks to me like Bill Murray with a thin moustache.
What’s up with that?
Is that image a promotion of some specific project of Murray’s? Or are people just all of a sudden feeling the need to show the world how much they like Bill Murray?
Or is it not Bill Murray at all? Am I mistaking someone else’s image for Bill Murray?
Fill me in. What’s going on here with these stickers?
Yes it’s Bill Murray. It’s thanks to a web site called theChive, which has grown increasingly obsessed with Bill and now sells those stickers, with Bill’s blessings.
I don’t see a general explanatory article about it. Just kind of Google it I guess.
Oh. Somehow that seems like a bit of a letdown. Is the Chive something I should know about?
Nah, it’s just an online “lad mag”. Viral videos and pictures of pretty girls. Empty internet calories.
Taking this to a new level.
No doubt inspired by Shepard Fairey’s (of Obama “Hope” poster fame) early 90’s Andre the Giant “Obey” sticker campaign. Imitation is highest form of flattery.
It’s probably not worth quibbling about, but the Murray image doesn’t look to me like it was inspired by either of those. It’s simply a black and white line sketch.
Anyway, having taken a quick look at the front my page of the Chive ant not having seen anything that calls out as a must-read, I’m now disappointed that Murray had given so much support in terms of his image to something not all that impressive.
The Chive’s readership numbers are impressive. I have no doubt Bill Murray was well compensated.
There’s also a quid pro quo thing going on. The Chive is probably one of the bigger pillars propping up his fame and recognizability at this point. I wonder how many twenty-somethings would know who he was otherwise? Murray’s heyday was in the 80s, and I’m not seeing a lot of young people wearing Chevy Chase or Rick Moranis tshirts.
Bill Murray’s job now seems to be just being a really cool guy. If he can monetize it, more power to him.
In many ways, Murray is more popular than ever.
A couple of years ago, the New York Times had a good article on Murray’s rise as a kind of secular saint. https://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/04/fashion/mens-style/the-peculiar-ascent-of-bill-murray-to-secular-saint.html?_r=0
He’s one of the things (for whatever reason) that the hipsters have gravitated towards.
So I blame them.
Even Groundhog Day was in the 1990s. And you must have missed Lost in Translation and Moonrise Kingdom among several others.
He also had a short-lived cameo in *Zombieland *(2009), and has earned Golden Globe nominations for Rushmore (1998), Hyde Park on Hudson (2012), and *St. Vincent *(2014), and won an Emmy for the HBO miniseries Olive Kittredge (2014). He is still very much in the public eye, both on-screen and in real life (the latter of which, as the NYT article linked upthread states, provides most of his hipster cred).
Also the instant classic Very Murray Christmas on Netflix. He works when he wants to and plays the rest of the time. He’s like a slacker god.
https://www.thechivery.com/products/bill-fucking-murray
From the Chive.
Personally, I will not ride in a vehicle that doesn’t have Bill Murray’s likeness affixed somewhere prominent.
Oh, wow – I completely forgot about this. Murray’s Christmas special strikes just the right note for the season.
I know, right? It’s something everyone can watch at Xmas and actually be entertained.
I tried watching Very Murray Christmas but gave up five minutes in. Maybe I should give it another chance.
I really don’t think Murray needs this Chive connection for his fame or his reputation, but whatever, I guess.
I like him enough that maybe I would have gotten a Bill Murray sticker just for himself (not for my car though), but definitely not now that I know it’s a Chive thing, something that I have no interest in.
He has been in a solid number of movies in the last few decades. I don’t think he’s been coasting on his '80s fame.
I love Broken Flowers, Rushmore, Lost in Translation, Hyde Park on the Hudson, Life Aquatic, Royal Tenenbaums, and Groundhog Day and I love Murray in them. His cameo in Olive Kitteridge was solid.
I liked Grand Budapest Hotel, Darjeeling Limited, Coffee and Cigarettes, Ed Wood, and Monuments Men but had forgotten that Murray was in them.
I hated Mad Dog and Glory and What About Bob.
Stripes and Ghostbusters were a huge part of my childhood, but I can do without them as an adult.
I never liked Caddyshack nor did I like Murray’s performance in it. It’s all just dumb.
Free money, I guess. Gotta pay for those Cubs tickets.
