Michael Jackson/Trivia

• Ascended Fanon: Jackson would often confirm the more ludicrous (and false) rumors about him. In fact, he started the rumors about him buying the Elephant Man's bones and sleeping in a hyperbaric oxygen chamber. He would later stop this when he realized just how damaging it was to his image, although it was too late to reverse the damage; also, he would never admit to starting/confirming the stories, choosing to blame it all on the media instead.
  • He also approved Weird Al's parodies and Alien Ant Farm's cover of "Smooth Criminal", among other things, because he did have a healthy sense of humor about his work. Yankovic and Jackson got along rather well -- not only did he allow Yankovic to parody his songs, but also to use the set for the "Bad" video for "Fat". To return the favor, Yankovic made a cameo in Jackson's "Liberian Girl" music video. This troper read an interview with Weird Al in the early nineties where Al said that Jackson liked his work and tried to get him to tour with him once (which Al didn't do because he was filming a movie).
    • MJ only denied an Al parody once -- "Snack All Night" for "Black Or White" -- and it wasn't a full refusal, he just asked Al not to put it on an album (he was fine with Al singing it at live shows instead.) as Jackson thought the message of the original song was too important to be parodied.
• Author Existence Failure: Just as he was about to put on This Is It, a massively hyped series of London concert tours and his first significant concert event in 10 years.
• Breakthrough Hit: The album Off the Wall, which codified what made him famous in The Eighties.
• Creator Breakdown: The album HIStory includes the songs "D.S.", "Scream" and "They Don't Care About Us", all very angry diatribes about injustice against himself and others. and, in the case of "D.S.", a bludgeoning attack against District Attorney Tom Sneddon.
• Executive Meddling: Among others, this was the reason:
  • HIStory and Blood On The Dance Floor were released with other songs from older albums (a much criticized move), against Jackson's wishes.
  • Sony cut the Invincible promotional effort short, although they claimed to have spent $20 million on it by then anyway. Jackson had informed Sony he would quit doing business with them as they meddled too much with his works....just before his album was about to hit the racks. Also, he refused to do an U.S. concert tour to support it, took a long time to record it, and the costs of production totaled about $30 million. He probably assumed that two Madison Square Garden concerts/tributes to himself and a subsequent TV special edited together from them were enough, and they might have been if they hadn't been held on Sep. 7 and 10, 2001 -- just before much bigger news for all media to cover broke.
• Executive Veto:
  • When releasing the Bad album, Michael Jackson wanted it to feature the "Streetwalker" song instead of "Another Part Of Me", the latter which is considered by his fans to be much superior. "Streetwalker" was added to a 2003 re-release of Bad.
    • This actually came down to a tie breaker vote when putting together the album. Jackson wanted "Streetwalker" while producer Quincy Jones preferred "Another Part of Me". They eventually brought the choice before Jackson's manager Frank DiLeo who, and as Quincy tells the story, shook his butt more vigorously to "Another Part of Me", hence it made the album cut. If you like, which song is preferable can be left as an exercise to the reader.
  • When shooting the music video for "Cry", the director intended for Michael to not be in it because it was supposed to be focused on the American people and if he appeared, the camera would have to focus on him and it would break the flow. Michael thought otherwise at first, but he ended up accepting the decision.
• Fan Nickname: Positive ones are "MJ" and "Bambi"... but the most infamous one is "Wacko Jacko", due to Michael's increasingly bizarre and erratic antics and appearance. Rumors say he created the name back when he was intentionally pulling odd stunts to get publicity, and gave it to the tabloids to use, but once he was getting in trouble for stuff he hadn't planned, he came to hate it.
• Forced Meme: "The King of Pop", which Jackson's handlers created for him at the turn of The Nineties. It was introduced to the public via an awards show speech Elizabeth Taylor gave (the full phrase was "The King of Pop, Rock, and Soul", but was subsequently shortened -- Elvis Presley has long held the "King of Rock and Roll" title and James Brown "The Godfather of Soul"), and they made it a condition of airing the "Black or White" video that Fox and MTV refer to him as such in promos for it. The 2012 oral history I Want My MTV confirms the stories that his handlers carefully monitored how often the VJs referred to him as "King of Pop". As the insistent use it in Jackson promotional materials piled up as his career declined, it became common for the media to refer to him as the "self-proclaimed King of Pop". Even Jermaine Jackson's announcement of Michael's death to the press included the meme: "My brother, legendary King of Pop Michael Jackson..." That said, there are fans who insist that Taylor came up with the nickname herself and that it isn't a forced meme.
• He Also Did: Played the Scarecrow in the 1970s urban The Wonderful Wizard of Oz update The Wiz starring alongside Diana Ross, Nipsey Russell, Lena Horne and Richard Pryor.
• Name's the Same: MJ shares the same as a writer of another song he did, "Blame it on the Boogie;" a rapper whose stage name was Oh No and various sports players.
  • So basically, a lot of people have the name Michael Jackson!
  • One of the writers of the Jackson 5 song shared the name with the actor for Barney.
• One of Us: His arcade machine collection is a sight to behold.
  • Not to mention the music video for "Scream". There is, in order of appearance: Cool Starship, Anime clips, him and his sister Janet playing Pong...on a spaceship.
• So My Kids Can Watch: The stalling of his musical career led to what Akon said was a reason for This Is It: Michael's kids had never seen his father performing.
• The Tyson Zone: The biggest example of the trope aside from its namer.
• Troubled Production: Invincible, as noted above in Executive Meddling.
• What Could Have Been: This is It in spades; some of the more elaborate things that would have been in the final show are only talked about. In particular, a scene is shown of Michael's outfit for Billie Jean being designed is shown, and the designers promise that it will be the most epic rendition of the outfit the world has ever seen. The final outfit isn't shown or worn by Michael at all. As well as the entire show.
  • In addition, J. K. Rowling turned down his offer to make a musical based off of Harry Potter.