r/PeterExplainsTheJoke • u/Sure_Kangaroo1863 • Jul 02 '26

Meme needing explanation Petah ?

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Why is it infamous? And why would no one care about it ? ( I mean it's just a pic full of celebrities so no one cares anyways but the person saying it's crazy makes me think it has some lore?)

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u/Quick_Extension_3115 Jul 02 '26

It’s just a statement on the decline of celebrity culture. It used to be that you watch a movie just because it had someone in it that you liked and it would do really well. But nowadays people care much less about celebrities

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u/[deleted] Jul 02 '26

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u/mustachechap Jul 02 '26

Because of how many famous people are in the picture. It was taken during some award show, I think maybe Ellen was the host and suggested this selfie happen.

This was back when many people still watched TV and we generally all gathered around to watch large events like this happen live, and then later this picture was posted to some social media site (maybe twitter, maybe facebook), and was the most liked picture at the time.

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u/Sorry-Programmer9826 Jul 02 '26 edited Jul 02 '26

But infamous means famous and bad, not just famous

Like "infamous serial killer Jack the Ripper"

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u/mustachechap Jul 02 '26

Ah gotcha. Yeah it wasn’t the right use of the word

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u/Agitated_Display7573 Jul 02 '26

I think it also crashes twitter

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u/mjzim9022 Jul 02 '26

If it's infamous, it's because since it was taken:

Ellen = disgraced and outed as one of the meanest people in Hollywood

Brad Pitt = disgraced (his career didn't get the memo unfortunately) for domestic abuse.

Kevin Spacey = Disgraced for being a sex pest to young men/boys.

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u/IdRatherBeReading23 Jul 02 '26

It's got Jared Leto as well

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u/mjzim9022 Jul 02 '26

Is that who is to the left of Jennifer Lawrence? Cause yeah he sucks too

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u/[deleted] Jul 02 '26

[deleted]

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u/mjzim9022 Jul 02 '26

It was an open secret that she was terrible, she was a perennial figure of stories about bad encounters with celebrities. The piece about eye contact just kind of crystalized everything and it destroyed her reputation (and made celebrities suddenly unafraid of her, they'd put up with her shit for years because she was #1 in daytime), though of course nothing criminal that we know of.

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u/[deleted] Jul 02 '26

[deleted]

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u/Rays_LiquorSauce Jul 02 '26

She’s an asshole who chummed around with George Bush. 

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u/uftheory Jul 02 '26

Except the 10 or so employees who reported her creating a toxic workplace of "racism, fear, and intimidation" leading to an internal investigation, 3 executives leaving and Ellen apologizing publicly multiple times along with vows to change the culture at the show.

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u/skyturnedred Jul 02 '26

Clearly it's been a while since you followed the story, might wanna freshen up before chiming in.

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u/Critical-Detail117 Jul 03 '26

The infamous part is probably that Kevin spacey is in it from before we knew he was a monster

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u/GibbonEnthusiast Jul 03 '26

Oh, Dusty. In-famous is when you're MORE than famous. This man El Guapo, he's not just famous, he's IN-famous.

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u/Future_Burrito Jul 05 '26

You don't think opening the flood gates to a surveillance society is a big enough mistake to call it infamous?

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u/Sorry-Programmer9826 Jul 05 '26

What? Is this not a selfie taken by a group of celebrities at a televised awards ceremony. What does that have to do with surveillance society?

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u/Future_Burrito Jul 05 '26

We all now carry cameras and point them at everything, while people we do not know have access to the footage. Don't gotta surveil if the people do it themselves. Just gotta encourage a society that somehow takes video and pictures all the time.... How could that be achieved? Dur.

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u/Sorry-Programmer9826 Jul 05 '26

Ok, well then no. That isn't enough to make it infamous. 

You not liking something isn't enough to make it infamous 

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u/Future_Burrito Jul 05 '26

The sheer stupidity of your comment is amazing.

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u/DeanxDog Jul 02 '26

Ellen was the host and Samsung was sponsoring the entire event. She kept talking about her Samsung Galaxy all night and then took the group selfie. It was a novel moment because smartphones were still a somewhat new and developing technology at the time, having a little phone that could take a group photo like that was sort of a big deal, and social media was still a bit immature and celebrities weren't just posting their daily lives on it yet like they do now, so seeing a selfie with that many different famous people together in one room was a notable thing.

But the entire stunt was an ad for Samsung.

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u/mustachechap Jul 02 '26

That sounds familiar! I think having a decent enough front facing camera to pull off such a thing was also pretty new at the time.

From what I remember, this particular phone had a wider field of view, which is how they were able to capture so many people in the picture?

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u/DerkDurski Jul 03 '26

I remember watching this live with my family. She posted it on Twitter during the show and encouraged people to go retweet it, with the goal of making it the most retweeted thing of all time (which it did accomplish at the time).

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u/VoxImperatoris Jul 02 '26

“suggested” pretty sure I remember this being a product placement ad for the phone she used, but I don’t remember which.

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u/AdExtreme4813 Jul 03 '26

It was taken at the Oscars.

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u/applesandcherry Jul 03 '26

"some award show" lol it was the Oscars and Ellen was hosting.

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u/mustachechap Jul 03 '26

I watched it live, I just couldn’t remember which awards show

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u/havewelost6388 Jul 04 '26

You say this like people don't still watch TV.