Hollywood maybe fickle, but the internet is fickler. Charlie Sheen will learn that the hard way.
In his most recent spurt of popularity, Sheen came to prominence for getting hiatal hernia while partying.
His verbiage on cable television – not his top-rated show, but interviews on other shows – then made him the online star he is today. The interviews were so popular, this weekend the Globe interviewed a woman who interviewed Sheen.
Although he was on TV, his prose was meme-ready. All he needed was a Twitter account.
He has one, and more than two million followers (and counting) celebrate his #winning and #tigerblood hashtags, and quotes of his tweets appear verbatim all over the web.
Sheen has now taken his frustration to YouTube, in his sporadic (in more ways than one) show Sheen’s Korner. And before that, you can see his campaign to convince President Obama that 9/11 was “an inside job.”
But today’s the day to end his successful run online. Stop following him. Stop quoting him. Stop celebrating whatever it is he’s doing.
Stop Following Charlie Sheen Day is more commonly known as International Women’s Day. This is relevant for several reasons, none more important than the fact Sheen is an unrepentant womanizer and has a nasty history of violence against his spouses.
So the push to end the Sheen celebrations are not entirely coincidental. Soon enough, everyone’ll stop caring about him anyway. Why not take a stand and do it today?
#winning is admittedly hilarious (hey I’ve used it on Twitter too), and many Sheen devotees will continue to use it despite his spotted past with women.
That brings up a greater debate about the behaviour of the artists we follow. For instance, Ike Turner was one of the greatest to ever pick up a guitar. I don’t begrudge his audience, who can separate what he did on- and off-stage.
There are hundreds of other examples, from Roman Polanksi to Woody Allen. In the end, art usually triumphs over personal problems.
But not in this case.
Even if you do consider his Twitter poetry a brilliant body of art, it’s not Sheen. Most of what gets put on his account is ghost written, by this guy.
The is no shortage of funny tweeters out there, many of whom behave like human beings and write their own tweets. If you want to embrace Sheen as a comedian, rent Major League. Don’t support his opportunistic, phony web campaign.
