# Incidents which caused celebrities to lose all credibility and become jokes **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 13, 2006, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incidents-which-caused-celebrities-to-lose-all-credibility-and-become-jokes/376329 "2006-10-13T17:20:21Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2006, 3:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incidents-which-caused-celebrities-to-lose-all-credibility-and-become-jokes/376329/81 "2006-10-18T15:32:45Z")
Yet the Friday’s incident was brilliant, if one had a taste for the bizarre and lasted until the “punch” line. Who knew Jack Burns could do weird, non-comic, performance art? ---
**Author:** ![drm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a88e57/32.png) [@drm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drm)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2006, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incidents-which-caused-celebrities-to-lose-all-credibility-and-become-jokes/376329/82 "2006-10-18T15:58:32Z")
[QUOTE=Apos] Corey Haim first killed his career, and then he pretty much killed any hope at a comeback with this: [http://www.poetv.com/video.php?vid=4127](http://www.poetv.com/video.php?vid=4127) I don’t think I could make myself that screwed up on drugs or alcohol or whatever it is even if I tried. [/QUOTE] That’s really quite sad. Mike Tyson has probably been listed somewhere in this thread but him Biting the ear was the beginning for the end for him. Last night on Pardon the Interuption it was revealed that he wants to box woman. ---
**Author:** ![Charlie\_Tan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/charlie_tan/32/12582_2.png) [@Charlie\_Tan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Charlie_Tan)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2006, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incidents-which-caused-celebrities-to-lose-all-credibility-and-become-jokes/376329/83 "2006-10-18T16:26:02Z")
I don’t know if Farrah Fawcett had any cred to lose when she went on Letterman 9 years ago, but watch and enjoy the classic. It’s worth your time. [Clip 1](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhnjtIKnhjA) [Clip 2](http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mhY1_N-efRA) ---
**Author:** ![lieu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c2a13f/32.png) [@lieu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lieu)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2006, 5:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incidents-which-caused-celebrities-to-lose-all-credibility-and-become-jokes/376329/84 "2006-10-18T17:29:58Z")
Was it Wilt Chamberlain that claimed to have had sex with something like 19,000 women or so? Whatever the number, it worked out to some ridiculous day rate that was widely seen as a laughable lie. Charlie Sheen and the Heidi Fleis ordeal. Not that he ever had a lot of cred but his behaviour is deserving of jokes and gentle derision. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2006, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incidents-which-caused-celebrities-to-lose-all-credibility-and-become-jokes/376329/85 "2006-10-18T20:08:18Z")
[QUOTE=Autumn Almanac] Ashlee Simpson’s lip synching revealed on Saturday Night Live. Not that she had a lot of rock credibility anyway, but that gaffe eliminated whatever chance she had of ever being taken seriously as a singer/musician. The nosejob cemented her image as “just another blonde party girl.” [/QUOTE] I wish. Somehow she got a job leading a London production of Chicago. 😕 I also wish Ted Danson had bit the dust after appearing in blackface but he continues to get TV shows. 😕 ---
**Author:** ![Push\_You\_Down](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/push_you_down/32/9095_2.png) [@Push\_You\_Down](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Push_You_Down)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2006, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incidents-which-caused-celebrities-to-lose-all-credibility-and-become-jokes/376329/86 "2006-10-18T21:07:01Z")
[QUOTE=gigi] I also wish Ted Danson had bit the dust after appearing in blackface but he continues to get TV shows. 😕 [/QUOTE] Please. :rolleyes: He appeared in black face at the roast for Whoopi Goldberg.. WHO HE WAS DATING AT THE TIME. And Whoopi thought it was hilarious. ---
**Author:** ![Rilchiam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/2bfe46/32.png) [@Rilchiam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rilchiam)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2006, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incidents-which-caused-celebrities-to-lose-all-credibility-and-become-jokes/376329/87 "2006-10-18T22:36:52Z")
[QUOTE=Mangetout] Does OJ Simpson qualify for nomination? [/QUOTE] I think he does. He was a celebrity based on his accomplishments in the NFL, then he moved on to hosting MNF, and appeared in several movies which, if not blockbusters or classics\*, at least did not suffer from his inclusion. Then, out of seemingly nowhere, his wife and an innocent bystander\*\* are brutally murdered, he’s a suspect, and then people are coming out of the woodwork talking about his jerkish behavior over the years. Rarely has a facade crumbled so abruptly and completely. \*Some say, sorry no cite and they could be talking out their @55 anyway, that the NYE incident during which OJ smashed Nicole’s windshield and the police were called was touched off by Nicole saying, “Well, I dunno…a movie called **The Naked Gun**?” \*\*And that’s all he was. It’s galling, in retrospect, to think how eager people were to jump to the conclusion that Ron Goldman was Nicole’s boy toy. His fate is as sad to me, in its own way, as Nicole’s story. She certainly did not deserve her death either, but he didn’t do a damned thing except be there and be a guy: he had no idea what Odge was capable of. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2006, 1:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incidents-which-caused-celebrities-to-lose-all-credibility-and-become-jokes/376329/88 "2006-10-19T13:40:14Z")
[QUOTE=Push You Down] Please. :rolleyes: He appeared in black face at the roast for Whoopi Goldberg.. WHO HE WAS DATING AT THE TIME. And Whoopi thought it was hilarious. [/QUOTE] Yeah, there’s no accounting for taste. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2006, 1:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incidents-which-caused-celebrities-to-lose-all-credibility-and-become-jokes/376329/89 "2006-10-19T13:42:55Z")
[QUOTE=dropzone] Yet the Friday’s incident was brilliant, if one had a taste for the bizarre and lasted until the “punch” line. Who knew Jack Burns could do weird, non-comic, performance art? [/QUOTE] Agree with you – Kaufman’s genius was in pushing the joke so far that people started thinking he wasn’t joking. At the time, though, it pissed off a lot of people. ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2006, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incidents-which-caused-celebrities-to-lose-all-credibility-and-become-jokes/376329/90 "2006-10-19T13:58:04Z")
This has to be the least effectively answered thread of all time. The majority of answers are people whose careers improved after the “credibility losing incident” and the majority of the remainder had no credibility to begin with. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2006, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incidents-which-caused-celebrities-to-lose-all-credibility-and-become-jokes/376329/91 "2006-10-19T15:11:30Z")
[QUOTE=Ethilrist] Jimmy Carter–“I have sinned in my heart.” [/QUOTE] This made him _lose all credibility_? Funny, I seem to recall that right after _Playboy_ published that artile, Carter was elected president. ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2006, 3:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incidents-which-caused-celebrities-to-lose-all-credibility-and-become-jokes/376329/92 "2006-10-19T15:21:41Z")
[QUOTE=RealityChuck] At the time, though, it pissed off a lot of people. [/QUOTE] Thus succeeding beautifully. Andy wasn’t a comedian; he was a performance artist whose works were, like those of many performance artists, often funny. ---
**Author:** ![kingpengvin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9dc877/32.png) [@kingpengvin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kingpengvin)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2006, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incidents-which-caused-celebrities-to-lose-all-credibility-and-become-jokes/376329/93 "2006-10-19T16:40:01Z")
[QUOTE=kaylasdad99] When Elvis died, there was some sort of candle light vigil outside Graceland, or some such place. Geraldo Rivera was covering the story as a reporter. He spent an embarrassing amount of time reminiscing on some of his own personal defining “Elvis moments”. He took a lot of heat for that interjection of himself into the news story, and lost a lot of professional credibility as a television newsman. It wasn’t too long after that that he made the transition to full time television tabloid trash personality. Probably not what the OP was thinking of, on account of the perversions of American pop culture making a wealthy man out of him in his new career. [/QUOTE] Yeah I think he was just being an omen of things to come where some US reporters now try to make the stories about them (Idiots standing in the middle of a hurricane or going on about their embedded experiences trading impartiality for the “feelings” of a news story) Geraldo also lucked out after the fiasco of “Al Cappone’s Vault” ---
**Author:** ![dalej42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2006, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incidents-which-caused-celebrities-to-lose-all-credibility-and-become-jokes/376329/94 "2006-10-19T16:56:55Z")
Jimmy Swaggert and the rest of the televangelists during the scandals of the 1980s. ---
**Author:** ![Sternvogel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bc79bd/32.png) [@Sternvogel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sternvogel)\ **Post date:** [October 19, 2006, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incidents-which-caused-celebrities-to-lose-all-credibility-and-become-jokes/376329/95 "2006-10-19T19:40:18Z")
[Jimmy the Greek](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jimmy_the_Greek#Controversial_statements) and Dodgers general manager [Al Campanis](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Al_Campanis) lost their jobs after making racially charged statements. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/incidents-which-caused-celebrities-to-lose-all-credibility-and-become-jokes/376329.md?page=4)