Asklemmy

Johnny Gaudreau. Hockey player. Johnny Hockey was one of my favorites that wasn't on my favorite team. He was a small guy, who proved everyone wrong. He was a good dude from all the clips and interviews I've seen over the years.

I saw the comment that broke it on reddit, some random guy in the Phillies GDT. Said "Johnny Gaudreau is dead". Spent the night following the rumors until it was confirmed by a retired league ref.

He and his brother, Matt, were in town for their sisters wedding, staying at their dad's house. They were cycling and a drunk driver killed them both, only stopped because the bikes were still under the truck. His wife was pregnant at the time too.

I cycle, I've got brothers and it just hit me so hard. I was fucked up about it for a week at least.

Grant Imahara from mythbusters.

Yes. At the memorial for Steve Jobs on Apple's campus. People were speaking in moving ways about their relationships with him. It made it more personal. I can't imagine crying over someone I didn't know without context like that.

bowie didn’t hit me when it happened, but years later blackstar made me weep

Charles Bradley. He lived on the streets for most of his life. When he became famous he died very shortly after :(

I cried when they canceled The Venture Brothers.

My best friends and I watched every new episode when they aired while we were in college. After I graduated we all pretty much drifted apart, but when Publick and Hammer would actually get around to putting out another season it felt like I was back in that dorm lobby on that smelly couch, watching this show on a huge rear protection TV, with a group of people that were closer to me than anyone ever before or since.

When they canceled the show it felt like there was this unicorn at the zoo, and then one day the zookeeper just went out into the enclosure, blew its brains out, shrugged, and announced "Too expensive to feed!" I was devastated.

Omayra Sánchez. Brave in the face of a needless death.

For me it was when Steve Irwin died.

I wept a bit for Stephen Hawking. He was a rare, special human. When I read what was written on his grave, there next to Newton and Darwin: "Here lies what was mortal of Stephen Hawking 1942 - 2018" I wept a bit. Still do. Did a bit more just now writing that to be honest.

My entire high school mourned Mr Rogers' passing. 4,000 people and the hallways were almost quiet.

Nah, but a couple surprised me with how much they saddened me because I'd always thought it was kind of stupid to get genuinely upset about the deaths of celebrities you don't know. Sometimes your cognitive opinions take a backseat without your permission and you just feel actually mournful about someone who has so little direct connection and who's worldly contributions are almost always in the entertainment space. For me that was David Bowie and Trevor Moore. Both of these surprised me because it's not like I was a hardcore David Bowie fan so it didn't feel like that death should have hit me particularly hard and Trevor, I still can't figure out why that'd upset me so much. I mean I loved his sketch comedy but I'd largely forgotten about him at the time, I think it might have something to do with him being so young as well as all the laughs he'd given us.

I'd say the closest I've come was Robin Williams. Patrick Stewart would probably be even moreso.

I mourned, legitimately mourned Terry Pratchett’s death. I don’t even have a parasocial relationship with him in the sense you get with streamers and YouTubers and whatnot. He was just a man who brought wonderful ideas into the world, who focused my understanding of life and so much more, and to hear of his end hurt me bitterly.

Celebrities, no. Pets, definitely.

Lol no

Anthony Bourdain hit me pretty hard. I was a huge fan starting with Kitchen Confidential and ate up basically everything he produced. But more than just his content, which was great, his worldview and philosophy really spoke to me. It was cynical and angry, without being aimless or shallow. He seemed to be doing something different from everyone else and writing his own rules in a way which had no parallels anywhere in mainstream media.

When I was about 16 I had to make a conscious decision to not allow myself to feel as much towards the terrible things happening in the world. I would get so deep into feeling that it would wreck me for days sometimes. One day I just chose not to care, as if they were made up stories that I didn’t need to pay attention to. It worked but It changed my personality for years until I realized how to balance it, sort of. It still happens sometimes.

Did not cry exactly but... if you are like me and you like Babylon 5, do not check up on the cast.

Maybe not full-on "cry" but I have gotten teary-eyed more than a few times over the decades when a favorite (and unarguably world-class) musician dies. Eddie Van Halen, Neil Peart and Jeff Beck come to mind right off the bat

When I was about 17 was looking at several full pages of names of people who died in 9/11 when looking at a news paper and started crying

I cry sometimes when I see what is happening to the people and babies of the world

I cried when those women in Sudan were at a hospital and rebels showed up to rape and murder them then trapped them inside the clinic and burned it down

The world is a sad place with so much need for mourning

Without knowing a celebrity personally, you can still resonate deeply with what their art or identity stand for. I shed a tear when David Bowie died because his fearlessness and experimentation was like a beacon to weirdos like me that told us we would be ok if we left the shores of conformity. Plus, he was the funky funky groovy man, man.

A man only dies when he is forgotten.

Technoblade never dies.

Mac Miller for me. We were the same age and his music resonated with me a lot. I understood the drugs, depression, etc.

For a while, I had thought "I could have been successful like him, if i had applied myself". Not music, but other ways. It had felt like he was everything I could have been.

But then his he died and I realized that I had gotten out of that world (drugs and partying). And that I was the successful one. I had a house, a job I love, a wonderful wife, etc.

I'm not rich. I'm not always happy. I regularly think about my addictions. But Im clean. I'm sober. I'm intelligent. I have a good life.

If I didn't figure out how to step away from that life, Im sure I would have OD'd. Mac's death hit me hard, because I went from "that could have been me" to "that could have been me"

I was pretty fuckin sad when Judy Tenuta passed.

Adam Yauch from the Beastie Boys was one, and David Lynch very recently was another. Both hit really hard :-(

David Bowie. I still miss him a lot. I usually don't even really know the names and faces of bands I like, and I wasn't even a big knower of his music, but when I heard he died I cried non stop for a day and a night. He was really something else, this crazy force, changing the whole discourse in music and stardom multiple times in his life. What an awe inspiring character. I wonder who could ever take his place, really.

Adam Schlesinger, a likely preventable death in this selfish fucking country. He gave so many beautiful things to the world while he was here.

Chester Bennington of Linkin Park low-key destroyed me. I didn't even hear about it when it happened due to a big storm taking out my power for a week. It wasn't until 4 or 5 days after the news hit everyone else when I finally found out.

You can say whatever you want about Linkin Park, but Chester was fucking talented and its still so upsetting to me to think about it.

And then last year, they made Chester die again when they brought on a Scientologist to be the new lead singer. Now Linkin Park as a whole is dead to me.

Stephen Hawking. His books gave me a sense of wonder in high school. Those books are a huge part of what inspired my path in life. When I read he had died, I felt a peice of me leave the earth. I cried for humanity, I felt that we all got a bit dumber, as a whole.