The strange history of Michael Jackson's face.

August 15, 2002 12:34 PM

The strange history of Michael Jackson's face. Kind of like the Anna Nicole show -- unbelievably frightening, yet you can't look away. Anyone catch the VH1 special the other day where they electronically blurred his cheeks? wonder why... (Link courtesy of Slate.com's "In Other Websites" featue.)
posted by Vidiot (32 comments total)

uh, make that "feature."
posted by Vidiot at 12:34 PM on August 15, 2002

Same reason they blur out people's t-shirts -- he probably had corporate logos on them.
posted by toothgnip at 12:35 PM on August 15, 2002

No, I wasn't watching the VH-1 Michael Jackson special. I was doing something cool.
posted by Fabulon7 at 12:47 PM on August 15, 2002

Relax--it's a joke. I don't even get VH-1.
posted by Fabulon7 at 12:47 PM on August 15, 2002

Michael Jackson's not cool anymore? I can't keep up you with you crazy kids.
posted by timeistight at 12:55 PM on August 15, 2002

Michael Jackson is so uncool that he's gone all the way around back to being cool again.
posted by Xkot at 1:07 PM on August 15, 2002

Incredible. Morbidly fixating.
posted by bullitt 5 at 1:07 PM on August 15, 2002

I just love sites like this. You know, when I was about nine, I had a big crush on Michael Jackson. Personally, I don't think Michael is still with us -- I think an alien being has taken his place, and that the person we know as Michael has trouble keeping his "human suit" on.

But, you know, it's only a theory...
posted by greengrl at 1:07 PM on August 15, 2002

Argh. This link is depressing.
posted by nixon at 1:08 PM on August 15, 2002

By the way, Michael is still very cool.

Play his HIStory CD and they will come.
posted by Mark at 1:08 PM on August 15, 2002

Kind of like the Anna Nicole show -- unbelievably frightening, yet you can't look away.

Really? I can look away; does that make me superhuman?  

Why the f*** do people watch this crap?
posted by Ayn Marx at 1:09 PM on August 15, 2002

It's sad that, for whatever reason, Michael felt he had to do this.
I'd also like to say that he was much, much, much better looking BEFORE any surgery at all. Although things do seem to be improving a tiny bit. That 2001 picture is truly frightening.
posted by bonheur at 1:18 PM on August 15, 2002

Somewhere on the web is an animated version of the the MJ Face Experience that's even more, how do the suits say, impactful.

Also handsome before the plastic surgery: Stallone.
posted by blueshammer at 1:57 PM on August 15, 2002

Why the f*** do people watch this crap?

Why do people bitch about other people watching it?
posted by eyeballkid at 2:00 PM on August 15, 2002

Only in America can a black man turn into a white woman.
posted by Keyser Soze at 2:03 PM on August 15, 2002

The movie.
posted by interrobang at 2:28 PM on August 15, 2002

Wow. He's going to look really, really strange when he gets on the high side of sixty.
posted by alumshubby at 2:32 PM on August 15, 2002

Embaressing, but true: until a few years ago, I never realized Michael Jackson had been black, or had ever looked any different than he does currently.

I will forever be puzzled as to why he went through all those surgeries. Little Michael in the Jackson 5 looked so much better.
posted by puffin at 2:39 PM on August 15, 2002

It looks to me that during all that surgery, someone forgot to tell Michael that he had to eventually grow old in it.
posted by crunchland at 2:40 PM on August 15, 2002

In a way, it gives the song, "Don't Stop Till You Get Enough" a whole new meaning. He should've stopped long ago.
posted by fredosan at 2:58 PM on August 15, 2002

Ow... It's impossible not to feel sorry for him. One can only imagine the torture he must be going through internally in order to repeatedly have surgery on his face, as depicted in these photographs. What must you feel like in order to mutilate your face like that? Does he feel as bad inside as he looks? That is the impression I get, of a twisted, screwed up character. I suppose that the exposure of being so famous from such an early age inflicted this twisted psychological character on him. He might be rich but I don't think it was worth it.
posted by mokey at 3:01 PM on August 15, 2002

My aunt has a theory about Michael Jackson which I will share for the sake of entertainment. Ok, so we all know that Michael and his brothers were often abused by their father Joe, who was very focused on the Jackson 5's success. My aunt theorizes that sometime in the early '70s, Joe realized that Michael's voice would change and potentially jeopardize the Jackson 5 franchise, and then had Michael castrated.

If you follow with my aunt, this explains Michael's high voice, bizarre behavior, mysterious sexuality, and even his insistent crotch grabbing.

The theory is pretty out there, but no more out-there than some of the crap that's part of the original link. (Public/facial hair transplants? Riiiiight.)
posted by arielmeadow at 3:19 PM on August 15, 2002

I see a obsessive/compulsive here. This man is unable to leave his face alone. I imagine him, late at night (after he's tucked in Mr. Elephant Man Bones), staring in the bathroom mirror. He analyzes every crease and bump devising stratagems to attain his ultimate goal - to be Diana Ross. I do feel sorry for him. If there was anyone in his life that truly loved him, and wasn't some sycophantic trained chimp, he would have been stopped a long time ago.
posted by pejamo at 3:43 PM on August 15, 2002

I think the guy suffers from body dismorphia, or body dismorphic disorder. A quick trip to google found this interview with J Kevin Thompson.

As for the rest of his (alleged and not so alleged) bizarre behaviour traits, I can only guess.
posted by crustygeek at 3:53 PM on August 15, 2002

had Michael castrated

Hm? According to this, Michael Jackson has a son named Prince Michael Jackson Jr. and a daughter named Paris Michael Katherine Jackson (note to self: never give your future daughter the name "Michael").

And that's straight from E!'s mouth!
posted by soundofsuburbia at 4:52 PM on August 15, 2002

Michael Jackson has a son named Prince Michael Jackson Jr. and a daughter named Paris Michael Katherine Jackson

Have you seen his kids? Unless Lamarck was right about everything, they're probably not really his...
posted by interrobang at 4:59 PM on August 15, 2002

oops, didn't realize I was linking to a nutjob anti-science site. Sorry. *shame*
posted by interrobang at 5:04 PM on August 15, 2002

Haven't had a chance to log back in for a while. But let me point out that I wasn't the one that had the TV at work tuned to VH1 the other day. (Lest I lose any more cool points than I have already.) But I admit, I was curious about Anna Nicole's show after the Entertainment Weekly review calling it an "obscene trainwreck."
posted by Vidiot at 6:47 PM on August 15, 2002

I can't remember who said it on Politically Incorrect (Ellison?), but in discussing the child molestation case, one panelist reminded us that "that is what money is for."

If you get obscenely rich enough, you can pretty much do whatever you want. This, I imagine, includes paying plastic surgeons enough to break their Hippocratic oath.
posted by Joey Michaels at 9:51 PM on August 15, 2002

Have you seen his kids?

You mean to tell me that this picture of absolute family bliss is a fake? ;)
posted by soundofsuburbia at 1:49 AM on August 16, 2002

I found this GQ article to be a pretty good refutation, or at least doubt-raiser, about the child molestation thing:

Who would have known that it revolved around the screenwriter to Robin Hood: Men in Tights?

No, seriously.
posted by blueshammer at 8:19 AM on August 16, 2002

And yes, I've seen photos of him with "his" kids. They are white. Unless he started the plastic surgery early with them, I don't think they are biologically his.
posted by arielmeadow at 4:15 PM on August 16, 2002