I was wondering, recently, what I should do to acquire the 15 minutes of fame that are my birthright. Supposedly, we’re all supposed to get that quarter-hour in the sun eventually, and I haven’t had mine, so I’m thinking it’s about time to get cracking on this. Only, I don’t really know what I would do to become a momentary celebrity.
So, Dopers, how would you do it? Would you engage in a scandalous love affair with high-ranking public figure? Perform some incredible act of altruism? Star in a reality show? All of the above?
“Nooo officer, I was taking my pet bottle of petrol for a walk to the house of ill-repute when… oh you mean those placards with “Burn She-devil!” on them. Funny story, but…”
I have no desire to be famous whatsoever. The thought terrifies me. If, for some reason, I do end up with 15 minutes of fame, it’ll be because I fell ass-backwards into it.
If I had to wager a guess, I’d say I would have an affair with a woman who turns out to be the illegitimate daughter of the pope.
I’d simplify English spelling by having schools all over the world that would teach it that way as a second language, where it would be used for international trade.
Just as American spelling (as opposed to British) became popular throughout the world because of trade, so too could simplified spelling grow that way. No one in other countries would insist that “through” was preferable to “thru”.
Well… if you are happy to settle for 15 commercial TV minutes of fame (or approximately 5 minutes without the ads)…
… then all you need to do, as I discovered, is get injured on a Jetski, and have to be air-lifted to hospital on the same day that a camera crew are making a documentary on helicopter pilots.
Hah! In a moment of supreme geekiness, myself and a co-worker devised an equation to calculate the allotment of fame attainable based on a country/population x age/years divided by the number of regional television channels - something like that.
Scarily enough, the first answer was something like 15.1 - but it was a miscalculation.
New Zealanders are entitled to about 40 minutes of fame within their country, we figured.
My inner geek would love to take the simple equation and tighten it up - *please, I’m not serious! * But it is a funny thought!