After striking their 15th death, which is their new 30 year long record, Deathlist is causing controversy in the mainstream media – being summarised as sadistic and immoral.
Deathlist is a website started in the UK and it predicts when celebrities are going to die, with a large range of forums dedicated to each celebrity that may be considered close to death. At the top of the list this year is Kirk Douglas, who was a big hollywood actor in the 20th century and father to Michael Douglas, who will be 101 years old by late December. Other notable worldwide figures include Queen Elizabeth, Prince Phillip, Stan Lee, Ex-Presidents Jimmy Carter and George H.W. Bush, King Michael of Romania, David Rockefella, Pope Benedict XVI, Robert Mugabe and many more
Each year 50 candidates are selected by their likeliness to perish within that year. The rules for Deathlist are: quoted from their website – There are a few rules to DeathList summarised as follows: Candidates must be famous enough such that their death is expected to be reported by the UK media; Candidates cannot be famous solely for the fact they are likely to die in the near future and only 25 candidates can reappear from the previous year’s list. Deathlist’s popularity soured in 2016 when there was a massive wave of celebrity deaths.
Whilst being what some will call sinister and some would call interesting, the website has a sense of humour rather than acting like a dodgy black market website – which is what many assume it to be. There is no actual feature that allows patrons to bet on the celebrity candidates like a game of dead-pool although it may still happen through the patrons setting the deals up externally. The website also has a page where you can purchase amusing merchandise along with coffee mugs and various other items.
The mainstream media has called out Deathlist.net for being ‘vile’. This is debatable as Deathlist is considered by the patrons who debate in the forums that Deathlist is a game and just a game and many are very sympathetic to the celebrities involved, depending on the ethics of the celebrity, it is all fun and games until someone gets hurt. The Sun has expressed outrage over the forum early this year with the headline – Vile death list ‘game’ featuring stricken Rangers hero Fernando Ricksen is one of sickest things ever published on web. The politically correct BBC has called Deathlist ‘morbid‘ – this is up to the viewer to decide based on raw material, not the BBC.
Love them or hate them, Deathlist does have the right to remain a website. One member (who will remain anonymous) argued his side: This is Deathlist. If you want happy clappy go and find Mumsnet or something.
Is deathlist a sadistic and sick site which exploits celebrities or is it just an interesting worldwide game that has been a tradition in some places for centuries? You can be the judge.
Goldfire Media 