Much has been said about the similarities between Michael Jackson and Elvis Presley, both in life and in apparent death, and more recently, in their hoax deaths as well. But not much has been said about what the similarities indicate nor what they mean. This sentiment was posed to the group on MJHDI today as the question:
i don’t get the connection between Michael and Elvis, except he married Lisa.
If Elvis faked his death, by the way how old is he not meaning to be rude, how does that imply Michael’s hoax too?
It’s a good question. So what if Elvis did fake it. What does this have to do with Michael Jackson’s hoax death? The following is my response cut and pasted from the forum:
Hi!
Bear with me because it gets complicated and it’s best if I talk it out.
Elvis having faked his death (the notion of) has become a curiosity of sorts in American culture. It’s cliche if you will, like a joke. It’s a light-hearted and funny fantasy, though the vast majority thinks it’s just that, a joke or fantasy, the concept of Elvis still being alive is something that everyone can laugh about. It’s a subject guaranteed to evoke a snicker or chuckle in a fun way. Haha Elvis is alive and rides the bus to bingo every Sunday…
In the late 70′s there were a rash of Elvis “sightings” just like that, Elvis doing routine, mundane, every day people things and it became material for urban legends. Example: I saw Elvis at the Quick Pik buying eggs and milk. I saw Elvis driving an El Camino with steer horns on the grill. I saw Elvis hanging out at the bowling alley on fish fry night.
And then we have the Elvis impersonators.
Turned into a joke of course. As conspiracy theories go, it’s unique in a way as the Elvis hoax death is one conspiracy everyone can smile about. How fun if it was true but how utterly ridiculous an idea…
So along comes MJ’s death. And from day one multiple sources, media, family, friends, have all been drawing parallels between MJ’s death and Elvis’s death, and this is an example of a rabbit hole. A rabbit hole is a lead that draws players into an Interactive Web Based Alternate Reality Game. Elvis and MJ. Elvis and MJ. MJ died just like Elvis died. It’s just like Elvis. Just like Elvis….
So then you take a closer look. How much is it just like Elvis? Well we have this and this and this…. and this…and this… and omg this this this this this… you get the idea.
Many of these things are things that MJ chose to do/wear/say/arrange and there are so many of them it leads one to wonder, why the F is MJ emulating Elvis so much?
And if MJ spends much of his life emulating Elvis, how crazy is it that his death seemed SO similar to Elvis’s… the circumstances, the timing, the players involved…
So then as we investigate we find it is clear that MJ purposely emulated Elvis in multiple facets of his life, his art, his music, his clothes, his associations, his interests… even emulating his death? It’s not a stretch of imagination, it seems the only logical conclusion. The mountains of similarities are overwhelming evidence. It’s like if you fill your home with Beenie Babies, wear Beenie Baby themed clothes, spend time on Beenie Baby websites, have Beenie Babies on your desk at work, write poems about Beenie Babies, and then request that you be buried with Beenie Babies…. I can safely deduce that you like Beenie Babies and no one would accuse me of just jumping to that conclusion.
So why did MJ spend so much time emulating Elvis’s last 6 months of life in his own last 6 months of life? From the press conference at the O2 to the doctors to the concert posters to the home he rented to the dates to the title of the productions to the way he walked/talked/moved on stage all of a sudden… coincidence then that he then up and ended up dying just like him?
Then after the death… the numerology… same for both men… same connections from life to death in the numbers, the Mayan calendar, Lisa Marie and the things she has said, now the court case and Jesse and maybe he isn’t dead after all?
Elvis could actually be dead and it wouldn’t matter. All that matters is the context in which American culture and the American populous regards Elvis and his hoax death idea.
I say the mountains of similarities between Elvis and MJ, live and dead, are not coincidental. I say the parallels were loaded up so that people would start to catch on to the joke. It’s necessary for MJs death hoax to become just as much a joke as Elvis’s death hoax. It’s the biggest early hint in this whole thing. MJ is dead just like Elvis… who’s memory has gone on to be forever linked in everyone’s mind with DEATH HOAX. The connection starts everything off on the right foot and it’s been paraded in front of us from Day One. In my opinion, the purpose is this: MJ intends to do what MJ always does and does best… he’s going to one-up Elvis.
Because as we all know, a come back is sensitive. It must be done properly. The PR campaign is crucial. And it will be done right, have no doubt. Comparing MJs hoax death to Elvis’s hoax death sets off the right tone. It’s fun and light hearted and silly. Not shady and fraudulent and deceitful. It’s all for love and all for fun.
He’s going to do what Elvis did except he’s going to do it better. Like Prince doing 20 O2 concerts? MJ is gonna do 50 (remember that report?). Elvis does a hoax death and stays dead. Big deal. Anyone can pull that off. MJ gonna do a hoax death and come back. Now THAT is a big deal.