Yo…
The power of literal life and death was at your fingertips. Only you can decide…
Does he live?
Or does he die?
A Death in the Family is a 1988 Batman storyline. Written by Jim Starlin and penciled by Jim Aparo (with outstanding cover art by Mike Mignola.).
Published by DC Comics it was serialized in Batman #426–429 from August to November 1988. It’s notable for many reasons, mostly because it empowered fans with the potency to decide if Robin, Batman’s trusty sidekick, lives or dies.
Jason Todd, the second character to assume the Robin mantle, was introduced in 1983 to replace Dick Grayson. (Dick was the Robin in Batman ‘66. This was a different punk Robin.)
Jason became increasingly unpopular with Batman readers. Including me. So, DC Comics set up a 900 number voting system to allow fans to determine Jason’s final fate.
Two 1-900 numbers were issued:
(1-(900) 720–2660) to vote: let Robin live and;
(1-(900) 720–2666) to vote for his death.
From page 148 of The Caped Crusade: Batman and the Rise of Nerd Culture: “Two numbers were given, which would be open for only thirty-six hours―eight a.m. Eastern Time on Friday, September 16, to eight p.m. Eastern Time on Saturday, September 17. Two versions of Batman #428 had been prepared, but when the 10, 614 calls were tallied, the readers had voted to kill Robin. The margin was narrow―just 72 votes separated the Kill Robin faction from the Save Robin faction.”
I didn’t participate (no way was I gonna make 1-900 calls and hafta explain that to immigrant parents) but I rooted for death.
For the first time, fans…even haters had skin in the game. When Superman died in Superman #75 in 1992 fans were not given a choice. They were told a story.
Bucky, Captain America’s sidekick Bucky died in Avengers #4 in 1963. (Okay he didn’t die…die…there’s that whole Winter Soldier thing. But you get what I am getting at.)
Characters perish all the time in comic books. Deaths are dictatorships, editorial decisions readers must accept.
Gwen Stacy’s death aged Spider-Man and marked him for life. It was horrific. In The Death of Captain Marvel…a 1982 graphic novel after reflecting on his battles with Thanos…Mar-Vell dies of cancer. Seriously? Cancer? Norm MacDonald died of cancer. That’s…so ordinary.
If you read comics you accept it’ll be a steady diet of death. But it’s a passive death.; accept the fate you’ve been given.
Except this one time DC Comics asked readers…does Robin live or die?
It was a stunning pop culture democracy.
And given the choice readers voted for…death.
The public have spoken: thumbs down for Robin. So he died. And I fist pumped.
DC Comics published Batman #428: Robin Lives! on December 12, 2023, 35 years after his brutal demise.
And on July 10, 2024 DC began publishing From the DC Vault: Death in the Family – Robin Lives! a four issue limited series that explores the alternate timeline where Jason Todd lived.
I will not be visiting that alternative timeline. I enjoy our current timeline where Jason Todd perished. I appreciate the savvy service of the death-voters.
Was it rigged? Did DC fudge the results? I don’t think so but even if they did…what does it matter? I value the outcome.
In the great and grand scheme of the universe even if DC Comics did rig the Robin death votes…it truly doesn’t matter.
It’s just a dumb thing that happened in 1988.
11 years later after the Joker savagely beat Robin to death; pop culture democracy happened again.
“In 1999, a chain letter started to pop up on online message boards...”
There’s a sentence you don’t read anymore.
The popular chain letter (I guess it went viral in 1999? Could anything go viral online in 1999? The Facebook was founded in 2004, YouTube in 2005 and Twitter in 2006.) urged readers to “Get New Kids On The Block’s 1989 music video Hangin’ Tough on Total Request Live.”
Just like Robin…does Robin live or die…do the New Kids On The Block live or die…on TRL.
By 1999 the New Kids On The Block did not live up to their name. They were not Hangin’ Tough anymore.
Their debut album came out on April 1, 1986. The ironically entitled Never Let You Go single came out on March 14, 1994 and failed to chart. This was the end: indeed their next single release wouldn’t be until 2008 with Summertime.
The boy band effectively disbanded in the mid-90s.
So in 1999 it really was…hey remember New Kids On The Block?
Music we were listening to in 1999 included ...Baby One More Time (Britney), Genie in a Bottle (Christina), I Want It That Way (Backstreet Boys), I Do (Cherish You) (98 Degrees), (God Must Have Spent) A Little More Time on You (NSYNC)…are you seeing a pattern, here?
(Well, I wasn’t listening to any of that. That music was always around, sure. But I was peacefully enjoying Scar Tissue (Red Hot Chili Peppers), Ex-Factor (Lauryn Hill) and if nobody was around…Sugar Ray’s Every Morning as a guilty pleasure.)
So…it was absurd to expect TRL to play New Kids On The Block.
Right?
I mean the show is called…Total Request Live. Request clearly means…a democracy. By popular demand.
For Canadian readers: Total Request Live ran on MTV from September 14, 1998 to November 16, 2008.
MTV VJs (mostly Carson Daly and David Holmes) would count down the top ten music videos of the day with a studio audience.
Celebrities ranging from Tom Cruise to NSYNC would drop by to promote movies or perform.
A Costco sample of TRL:
Baby Jesus take the wheel…look at that fashion. Is the white guy in the dreads rocking…ski googles? How was that ever considered cool?!
And why does Justin Timberlake look like his girlfriend dumped a bowl of slightly cooked ramen noodles on his head?!
Good Gravy…the things we’ve seen. And the things we can’t unsee.
Anyways, just like those 1-900 numbers to kill Robin, TRL gave authority to the fans. TRL would played the ten most requested music videos of the day, as voted on by viewers via phone or online.
This was bigger than killing off Robin. This was the command to make careers. Like He-Man yelling out: “I have the power!”
If you were/are a Backstreet Boy fan this was your moment to shine. Once you secured Dad’s permission to make a 1-900 phone call.
And here your chance to shine is what the viral chain letter was urging you to do, only to pressure TRL to broadcast NKOTB’s Hangin’ Tough.
“After weeks of would-be trolls stuffing the online ballot box, the folks at TRL were left with a decision: Succumb to the mob’s mischief or risk delegitimizing the democracy of their countdown?”
This was a thriving pop culture democracy in real time. And voters in 1999 wanted Hangin’ Tough first released on August 12, 1988.
Your move, MTV.
Do they disregard the will of the people? That’s…not how a democracy works.
These days troll has negative connotations but this was trolling as in silly mischief. This was a goof, they weren’t trying to get Trump elected or to get investors to buy Bitcoin.
Harmless fun that yes…threatened the fragile illusion of the MTV democracy.
I’ve been writing about this experience from a fan perspective. The sudden popular rise of TRL meant the MTV show became a viable marketing tool for lots of labels and the music industry as a whole.
TRL pushed the boy bands, the record labels fashioned, success ensured and everybody was getting paid.
Requesting Hangin’ Tough was forcing a GPS recalculate. Suddenly what was a smooth corporate path to mad profits; took an odd turn.
I’m Tired Of This Ship…
In March 2016 the United Kingdom’s Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) hosted a #NameOurShip online poll for their polar scientific research ship. Another pop culture democracy.
BBC Radio presenter James Hand coined the humorous suggestion Boaty McBoatface for the poll and…we’re off.
Boaty McBoatface gained momentum. You created a #NameOurShip online poll…what did you think was going to happen?
That rational people were going to respect science and research, freely welcome the chance to learn more about our oceans and come up with witty ship names playing off Nautilus or Jacques Cousteau?!
Nope. The people have spoken…they wanted Boaty McBoatface: “As the polls finally closed for the naming of its new polar research ship, the NERC confirmed that the votes were overwhelmingly in favour of RRS Boaty McBoatface.”
And that same Guardian article I took that quote from opens with this chilling line: “NERC chief has final say and faces dilemma between credibility of the organisation and burden of public opinion.”
Yeah. Democracy is great, you let the people speak and give them a voice…and agency in a vital process.
Participation is fantastic. I don’t take it for granted.
However, equally true…voters are dumb people. Or silly. Boaty McBoatface is…harmless, isn’t it?
Final Verdict: The ship would be named Sir David Attenborough, after the eminent English zoologist and broadcaster, who came fourth in the poll.
The will of people be damned.
Robin died…that’s what the people wanted and that’s what they got.
Boaty McBoatface…that’s what the people wanted and yet that’s not what they got.
So what would MTV do with NKOTB and Hangin’ Tough and this viral chain letter urging people to call and vote for a pop music classic?
Give the people what they want…even though what they want is not what everybody else wants?
This is subject of a documentary by Yourgo Artsitas: TR(ol)L: New Kids on the Block, Total Request Live and the Chain Letter that Changed the Internet.
The “Chain Letter that Changed the Internet” pushed readers to vote for New Kids on the Block on March 10th, 1999. (The first (and only good) Matrix movie would open on March 31, 1999.)
As the final results would air the next day on March 11th’s TRL episode.
And attached is my conversation with the director Yourgo Artsitas unpacking all of these themes.
Just what exactly is a pop culture democracy?
NBA games are great fun; I’ve been to many. Yet the NBA requires TV partners to consistently deliver the product to the people. What happens when people watch the NBA games? They buy team gear, they consume sports shows…more ratings, sometimes they even buy the products the super stars are selling that are not NBA directly related: Coke and McDonalds and Kia cars. It’s a massive connected web of marketing.
I wear Jordans because I saw Michael Jordan play in NBA games broadcast on TV featuring numerous Nike commercials.
This isn’t a conspiracy, nor is it all that nefarious. It’s all public record…there’s an active social contract in place. As much as there’s collusion…say between TV networks and the NBA and Nike and more. Collusion is mostly bad but in this case…not really all that bad. Right? Yet…is it kind of manipulative? Sure, maybe a bit.
But I don’t hafta buy Jordans or McDonalds. Or even watch the NBA. I freely participated; I’m an active cog in this marketing system.
This is how we live. With these accepted shallow conspiracies (not the correct word) humming in the background. Every so often you’re phone will check in with you…these apps are running the background and they suck up juice. Do you want to keep em?
This is the takeaway from Yourgo’s fun MTV-NKOTB documentary. We used to have fun.
Pressuring MTV to play New Kids On The Block is fun.
Boaty McBoatface is fun.
Another one? Pitbull played a gig in Alaska after a Facebook vote.
(Sometimes, we still have fun.)
This free flowing My Summer Lair conversation covers MTV, TRL, #FreeBritney, physical media, teen culture, NBA playoffs, HBO’s Music Box documentary: Woodstock 99: Peace, Love, and Rage and more. (I wrote about that strange Woodstock documentary here back in March 2022.)
And…as for you?
The next time there’s an online opportunity…will you troll the poll?
Will you use all that breathtaking freedom that comes with a pop culture democracy and vote for New Kids On The Block and Boaty McBoatface?
Robin died so you can have this freedom. Use it wisely.
Roll With The Troll…
Sammy Younan
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Sammy Younan is the affable host of My Summer Lair podcast: think NPR’s Fresh Air meets Kevin Smith: interviews & impressions on Pop Culture.
Robin Died So We Can Live…To Mock MTV