In 2007, actor/comedian - and I use both terms very loosely - Jamie Kennedy hosted one of the most disastrous press conferences in the history of the Electronic Entertainment Expo. Kennedy's gig as the emcee for Activision's press conference has become the subject of mocking in the four years since, and apparently the thin-skinned, self-obsessed actor has had enough of it.
Butting into a conversation about the worst E3 gig of all-time between former PC Gamer editor Gary Whitta and Michael Pachter, best known for his financial prognostications involving the game industry, Kennedy fired off the following tweet: "wow u dorks can't let that go, You have no idea what really happened, because ur not in the biz, ur a spectator." Please note that the period in that sentence was added by me.
That opened the floodgates for gamers on Twitter, who began taking Kennedy to task, resulting in some hilarious exchanges and an insight into his delusions - namely that he is a huge star and we should all be impressed by him.
Said one tweeter, "dude if you want to talk about 'in the biz' I actually had to Google you to find out who the fuck you are. #bList," to which Kennedy replied, "I still don't know I, gay list." Please note, the period was added by me again. It's obvious that Kennedy meant to hit "U" and not "I," but that doesn't make his toothless, gradeschool-caliber comeback any less hilarious - though probably not in the way he intended. Instead, it makes him look like a barely-literate homophobe with a serious superiority complex.
When another user responded, "You're such a fucking moron. Thanks for making me laugh this morning. @garywhitta owns you," Kennedy's response was simply, "I'll kill you." Once again, I added the period. With such witty retorts as these, it's no wonder Jamie Kennedy has skyrocketed past Kathy Griffin on his climb to the C-list!
The irony is that Kennedy's insistence that he's super-famous is by far the funniest thing he has ever said or done. He's pointed out that we dorks have no articles written about us, but considering that some of those articles include UGO's '20 Worst Actors of All-Time,' where Kennedy sits at #19, that's probably not something I'd brag about.
What the star of Kickin' It Old Skool doesn't realize is that he's probably most famous for his role as Randy, the horror movie nerd in Scream. Either that or being mistaken for Seth Green, which I'm sure irritates nobody more than Seth Green, who is actually funny, talented, and has never starred in Son of the Mask. Flaunting your acting career isn't that impressive when Malibu's Most Wanted is on your resumé.
His desperate attempts to pass himself off as an A-list celebrity make Kennedy seem insecure. More than anything, he seems to be trying to convince himself that he's somebody, but the end result is that he appears self-obsessed - the type of lunatic who has a shrine to himself in his home, complete with newspaper clippings and press photos taped to every square inch of available wallspace so he can bask in his own perceived awesomeness.
His inability to ignore the insults by faceless Twitter users and trying to prove his fame by way of examples seem to validate my theory. Seeing as how he cannot handle criticism or heckling, it's a miracle he continues to pursue an acting career given the steady stream of critical and commercial disasters that bear his name. The smart thing to do would be to poke fun at yourself, stripping the insults of their impact, but instead he struts around Twitter - with less followers than the gaming website Kotaku and considerably less than Epic game designer Cliff Bleszinski, both of whom he'd call "dorks" - as if he's the world's greatest artist and that simply opens him up to further mockery.
It's both funny and sad to see how famous Jamie Kennedy thinks he is, but the reality is that he should be thankful for his negligible celebrity status. As singer Chris Brown has found out numerous times, chucking homophobic slurs around when you're in the public eye typically doesn't go over so well. Luckily for Kennedy, nobody from the press follows him so his "gay list" tweet will go unnoticed.
In Jamie Kennedy's bubble, he's winning the battle against the dorks. In the real world where the rest of us reside, he's a blip on the Hollywood radar. To say his estimation of his self-worth and success is an exaggeration is an understatement when he can't even get as many Twitter followers as a game developer, despite his heightened visibility by way of his choice of careers. To put it as clearly as possible: There are more of us dorks than there are Jamie Kennedy fans, and none of us are impressed by you. Welcome back to Earth; enjoy your stay.