Learning key lessons from our everyday superstars
We all do it.
Checking out celebrities (of all sorts) in the media. In pinup magazines, TV and on the net (mostly) these days. We are funny, we humans.
Why is that? Any psychologist will find it easy to explain.
I tend to follow an Australian female comedian, Celeste Barber, whose videos leaves us “in stitches” as the English slang baptises uncontrollable laughter. In her late 30s, Celeste Barber, an actress, has over 8 million eager Instagram followers as her job is poking fun at younger celebrities posting brief “outlandish” images online.
Celeste ridicules narcissism. In this era of social media and selfies, narcissism (self-adulation) is as natural as how drinkers love pubs and their booze.
Best thing is one. Celeste does not mind appearing stupid. If a star is thin and well shaped, Celeste would exaggerate her own fat in the middle, motherly look and play with the contrast.
The whole point is to remind us to get real. The other reason we, her fans, adore Celeste Barber? She is up-to-date.
Internet sources estimate her wealth to be around $450 million. She started out in 2015 as a challenge “to see what it will look like for an average person to photograph herself doing rich people’s things”.
Her list of “ comic victims” includes David Beckham’s wife, Victoria, Lady Gaga, Beyonce and Justin Bieber.
The themes have no limits.
Beginning of August 2021, Celeste responded to a post about female breasts after a young star posted a picture of herself. Celeste had no qualms, stating that as a woman ages the breasts sags. Reality. Her fans, who encompass rich and successful females, loved it. Drewbarrymore, for instance (14 million followers), commented “ha ha ha....”
In another masterpiece, about motor racing, there was a reaction from Selma Blair, a fan with over two million followers: “Oh Celeste!”... tied up three red hearts (adoration). Posted in July 2021, the clip of five million views showed a young female dressed in a green bikini, riding a motorbike while performing gymnastics. What did Celeste do in contrast? She just rode a normal small motorbike. No acrobatics. And the caption? “When you lie on your resume.”
I questioned that.
Was she implying that the young biker was a fake? Asking about the genuineness of the act?
Such is the art and work of comics and satirists.
We follow stars to get entertained, enjoy, understand, analyse, question and appreciate life.
Meantime.
What do the well-known do besides enchanting us?
I have seen and met Kenyan writer Prof Ngugi wa Thiong’o a few times. On the last occasion in 2007, as we took pictures, I could feel his calmness. Being sensitive thinkers, writers have to be calm to produce great stories and books. In some circles, the latest discussion has been why the 2021 Nobel Prize for Literature went to Tanzania’s Abdulrazak Gurnah instead of Ngugi wa Thiong’o, who has written for a much longer time.
But the Nobel Prize has its tenets.
In Gurnah, I must say, we have an exceptional writer. Paradise, which I am re-reading, strolls back to East African colonial times and sifts through the Swahili-Indo-Arabic culture. The constant throw-in of Swahili words in the brilliantly narrated tale of a youngster called Yusuf is terrific. Yes. Celebrities are a mirror of our past and present.
London’s Metro picks out a star each day in a column called Sixty Seconds.
Two Mondays ago, musician and actor Peter Andre, 48, was the subject. The artist, who might not be a household name in Africa, however, is worth discussing here. Some of the issues asked by journalist Sue Crawford brought in his children and mental health issues. He exemplified the chronic use of phones, a very worrying trend for today’s parents.
Peter Andre: “I try and do old fashioned games – Monopoly, Scrabble and Mastermind...”
Then mental illness. The biggest issue, psychologically, in the developed world.
“When I was 27, I went through a horrific breakdown. It came out of the blue and I ended up with therapists and on medication. I think being bullied at school triggered it. Then as a singer I was massive in Australia but guys hated me because I was on the cover of all the magazines so I suffered a different kind of bullying. I had a knife pulled on my throat in a club.”
Envy.
Hatred.
Jealousy.
We have all been through bullying at some point in our lives and hearing it through international stars makes it more poignant and real. Being bullied as a child is among common roots of trauma for successful people. A lesson learned from those who surpass it is that they become positive role models and life’s achievers and winners.
