Wacko Jacko
Rumors, gossip and tabloids
In 1986 the National Enquirer published a series of photographs of Jackson lying in a
hyperbaric oxygen chamber, claiming that he slept in the chamber to slow the aging
process.
When Jackson bought Bubbles (his pet chimpanzee), it was reported as an ex-
ample of increasing detachment from reality. In 2003, MJ claimed that Bubbles had
been trained to use the toilet and to clean his own bedroom. Later, it was reported
that Jackson had offered $1 million for the bones of Joseph Merrick, the "Elephant
Man." Jackson would not directly address these reports until 1993, but they became
embedded in public consciousness, inspiring the pejorative nickname "Wacko Jacko."
Despite Jackson's insistence that the reports were completely invented, a biographer
would claim in 2004 that Jackson's publicists had leaked the rumors to the press
for promotional reasons. When discussing the rumors with that biographer, Jackson
remarked:
“Why not just tell people I'm an alien from Mars. Tell them I eat live chickens and do a
voodoo dance at midnight. They'll believe anything you say, because you're a reporter.
But if I, Michael Jackson, were to say, "I'm an alien from Mars and I eat live chick-
ens and do a voodoo dance at midnight," people would say, "Oh, man, that Michael
Jackson is nuts. He's cracked up. You can't believe a damn word that comes out of his
mouth.”
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