Now that you-know-who is out of the running, who is now the strangest person in America (or North America, if you want to expand it)?
He set the standard for strangeness, and perhaps the new SPiA won’t be that odd. This is America, though, and I’m sure that some successor will be stranger yet.
The other people who get way too much plastic surgery are pretty weird looking. Joyce Wildenstein and the lizard guy and the one who wants to be a tiger. I’m not sure how strange they act, though.
Well to be truly and efectively strange, you have to slowly slide into, along a long public career.
stage 0 “He seems like a nice guy”
1 “hmm interesting”
2 “Well he must be under a lot of stress”
3 “No I’m sure you heard that wrong”
4. “What the hell was that about?”
5. “He’s totally lost it” ----> point at which oddity is main factor for being known
6. “Holy shit, what a nut”
7. “Is that…Ethyl, get the kids in the van now!”
8. “Cut off his nuts and waited for the Martians you say”
Tom Cruise is at least at 6. Gary Busey is a solid 7 right now, but I think Tom has more potential to go for the Gold.
Britney Spears has shown some promise.
What’s weird about Gary Busey? I know he’s meant to be odd, and he seems strange–I’m just curious about what he does that’s weird. I don’t know much about him.
Joaquin Phoenix might be gunning for it.
Other contenders:
Marilyn Manson, Crispin Glover, Ozzie Osbourne, Joaquin Phoenix, Joseph Jackson(!), Mike Tyson… I would throw Angelina Jolie in there, too.
EDIT: Denis Rodman.
I think Mike Tyson is probably closest.
I suspect M. Manson is playing a role and is fairly normal.
C. Glover isn’t famous enough to have a lifestyle that supports full-on weirdness.
J. Phoenix - again, playing a role.
J. Jackson - not strange, just a jerk.
T. Cruise - definitely strange but knows enough to keep it under wraps, or at least has learned that lesson.
Tyson has money, or at least fame or a notoriety that allows him to be strange. He has been accused of crimes, and convicted of at least one, and spent time in prison. He went to reform school and clearly has mental problems. He even has the facial tattoo as well!
Add in one formerly famous wife (Robin Givens), and a politically connected one (his second wife is the GOP chairman Michael Steele’s sister), the ear-biting incident, blowing $300 million in earnings… I think he’s your guy.
Let me put it this way: if I was in a public place with Mike Tyson, I’d be careful not to piss him off, because I have no idea what he would do.
Dennis Rodman, IMO, is a not-too-bright, chronically shy guy who had a moment. But again, he doesn’t have the notoriety nor means to support his strangeness.
I do think you have to have a little money to be “strange” because if you don’t, you simply look for the nearest drug dealer and get high til you die.
Marilyn Manson seems relatively normal and well-adjusted when he’s interviewed. He seems to be the opposite of Michael Jackson in that he knows when he’s playing a role and when he’s just him. And how to milk that role for publicity without letting it get out of hand or letting it consume him.
I have the impression that Dennis Rodman is mellowing out. He’s the guy who hyped his upcoming wedding, then showed up as the bride. Dated Madonna, but she wasn’t kinky enough. For a while, he was a close runner-up to One-Glove. Lately, though, he’s not seeking the weird-magnet element of the press. Maybe he’s bored with all that.
Can someone explain Crispin Glover’s alleged weirdness to me? All wikipedia has to say is a recap of a Letterman appearance that was apparently all an act.
Glenn Beck. I mean just - Glenn Beck. And he’s got a following.
First runner up: Tom Cruise Can only pass for normal when he keeps his mouth closed. And it’s so alarming that he’s trying so hard to seem normal too. And he can’t do it.
Runner up is Joaquin Phoenix at least until a final diagnosis comes in. Drugs? Mental illness? Fake? I’m just so curious.
He’s in prison now, so I’m not sure if he still counts, but then again, he’s still in the US. What about Phil Spector? Though he’s been deprived of the guns and odd hairpieces he so loved.
Maybe not in the same leauge as some of the others mentioned, but from what I have read (mostly on this board) Andy Dick is in the running for class A jackass—not exactly in the same wierdo “outward physical appearance” ways as Rodman or Manson are known for, but as far as criminal, anti-social behavior (actually bragging about getting high with two people who suicided shortly after partying with him) Dick is quite a piece of work…
Oh yeah…you’re right it’s Phil Spector.
Considering that Bill Simmons was able to write an entire column on “The Tyson Zone” (i.e., the area a celebrity gets to when you can say anything about them and people will believe it), I think you’ve got it.
Lindsay Lohan continues to run amok in her own quiet way. A delusional appearance on Ellen here, a flashing of her warty labia there, peddling fake tan and leggings with built in kneepads, vacationing in Dubai, getting paid by Las Vegas $70,000 just to show up at her own birthday party…I guess since she isn’t tweeting and driving or whatever, she’s keeping her skanky face out of the news. But even though she’s old news, we can always hope.
Lohan is tweeting up a crazystorm, the girl is nuts. That’s the only celebrity twitter I watch. It’s just that no one cares about her.
Yeah, but doesn’t this like, single-handedly redeem her? No? Okay…
Fred Phelps is pretty fuckin’ weird. He’s famous for picketing the funerals of veterans. Fred Phelps - Wikipedia
He runs not only the semi-well-known “godhatesfags” website, but also “godhatessweden” and “godhatesireland.”
He believes “Homosexuals and Jews dominated Nazi Germany… just as they now dominate this doomed U.S.A.”
From Wikipedia:
*That day, a photo of John Paul II also appeared on Westboro Baptist Church’s godhatesfags.com website. It was altered to depict the pope with horns emanating from his forehead. A caption read:
“Deal with it, you idolatrous morons! The pope is in Hell. Westboro Baptist Church members are competent expert witnesses, having picketed hundreds of Catholic churches in all fifty states over the past fourteen years. We will bear witness on Judgment Day: Catholics are the meanest, most violent people on Earth, and their churches are filled with filthy fag priests.
*
And…
In 2003 … Phelps wrote Hussein a letter praising his regime for being, in his opinion, “the only Muslim state that allows the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ to be freely and openly preached on the streets.”[68] Furthermore, he stated that he would like to send a delegation to Baghdad to “preach the Gospel” for one week. Hussein granted permission, and a group of WBC congregants traveled to Iraq to protest against the U.S. The WBC members stood on the streets of Baghdad holding signs condemning both Bill and Hillary Clinton, as well as anal sex.