Entertainment Is Broken: WE ASK: Do Celebrities ACTUALLY Die Anymore?
This week on Entertainment Is Broken, Richard Crouse and Sarah Hanlon ask a question that feels both philosophical and deeply unhinged:
Do celebrities even die anymore… or do they just get converted into downloadable content?
The conversation starts with Kevin Hart selling his name, likeness, and future ghost-self to Authentic Brands Group. Not “authentic” in the “human soul” sense. More in the “intellectual property with a shareholder agreement” sense.
The pitch is simple: Kevin Hart, but forever. His face. His voice. His jokes. His brand. Long after he’s gone, the Kevin Hart Experience™ can continue… presumably in hologram form, performing stand-up to an audience of confused grandkids and emotionally detached VR goggles.
Richard isn’t having it.
There’s a big difference, he argues, between protecting your likeness from AI nonsense (looking at you, Scarlett Johansson soundalike chatbots) and turning yourself into a walking, talking, eternally monetized Kleenex box.
Because once you become a “brand,” you stop being a person. You become a logo with a punchline.
Sarah takes it further: comedy, music, art… these things only work because they’re human. They come from lived experience. From awkward pauses. From bad nights. From sweaty clubs where the singer misses the high note but somehow still makes you feel something.
So the episode turns into a series of beautifully nerdy, existential “Would You Rathers.”
Would you rather see:
• A flawless hologram of Queen at Live Aid…
or
• A slightly off-key tribute band in a sweaty bar?
Would you watch:
• A perfect AI-written George Carlin special…
or
• A struggling human comic bombing their way to authenticity?
Would you pay $500 for:
• A digitally de-aged pop star who never gets tired…
or
• A real, aging artist sitting on a stool, singing with a voice shaped by life?
The answer, every time, is the same.
Give us the humans.
Give us the flaws.
Give us the weird.
Give us the missed notes, the sticky stage floors, the uncomfortable emotions, and the moments that can’t be optimized by an algorithm.
Because art without risk isn’t art.
It’s content.
And content doesn’t need a pulse.
Listen HERE! Watch it on YouTube HERE!