One more thing.
<<<It's also possible that the jokes are that little voice inside us reminding us that no matter what the masses are howling, these were people no better than anybody else.>>>
Yes, that makes sense, though I suspect, intuit, that it's more schadenfreude, as Cobe suggested, than the little voice you describe.
Here's another thought of which you are free to be contemptuous if you want, though just think how much it will hurt my feelings! (That is irony, and yet....)
Here goes. God, I'm brave.
"Celebrities" are not people we know, of course.
But we do, often, know their faces, and their voices, and their manner(s), and rather a lot about them and their families. Some of it is untrue, but we may believe, feel, that we know it.
One's intuitive faculties don't get suspended when one sees "celebrities" in action or in speech on TV. The same faculties one uses when one meets a person face to face. (Again, you can be tricked by celebrities into thinking you know things you don't; but hey, you can be tricked by your co-workers into thinking that, too, can't you; though probably to a lesser extent, your co-workers not having PR firms.)
Other parts of oneself, also, that kick in when one "assesses" other people, decides whether one "likes" them or not, kick in, to a degree, when one sees "celebrities" on TV just as they do when one runs into one's neighbor from time to time, or keeps being invited to the same dinner party another guest does; you don't know a whole lot, but you still get a feeling you "know" that person. You feel, or don't feel, an "affinity" for them. You probably know whether you "like" them or not, even if you know much less about them than you do about JK Jr. You certainly know whether you are attracted to them in one way or another. You probably know whether you think they are "nice."
So I think when people grieve over the death of someone they've never met, like JK Jr., it isn't as simple as that they're "celebrity-worshipping," though that formulation makes it easy to have contempt for their grief.
I think that because of a felt long familiarity, and emotional conclusions drawn that resemble those drawn about people one knows, when a public figure dies, it would be understandable for a shock to be felt similar to the shock one would feel if an actual known person died.
Confession: It once happened to me. To my astonishment. A public figure died. It caused me something like grief, including tears. I felt, This is unbearably sad. This is unfair. When I see this person in clips, on TV, I still feel bad. She died young. I felt as though I sort of loved her. It was/is absurd. I certainly did not know I had these feelings until she died.
I'm not saying this is all that's going on with the adulation phenomenon. But I think it's there.
One has never met certain SI people, and yet there are people who post here, both "personal friends," (contacts other than by public post) and those whom I know only from their public posts whom I feel significant emotion connection to. This includes those with whom I've never exchanged a PM, or only a few. I'll give an example. Gauguin is someone with whom I've had only a few public exchanges, and a few PM's. I only know him from reading his posts on Rambi. This is not more exposure to the man than many have had to "celebrities" whom they have observed over a period of years. And yet, I feel quite deeply about Gauguin. If something happened to him, I would grieve. And I think that if you don't think that is contemptible, you should grant that a similar emotional connection can be felt for a public person after years of exposure, and of "belief," correct or not, in your perceptions of that person.
[In my edit window, I broke a long post into two, in case you noticed and were confused. I have to go do some things for a couple of hours, so won't be able to reply right away when you turn you cold eye my way.)
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