Funny

Humans are, perhaps above all things, storytellers. And one thing that makes an interesting story is shared context. All things being equal, a story about Thor or Horus or Coyote or Jupiter is more interesting than a story about this guy you don't know named Roger.

If you're a skilled storyteller you can make a story about Roger interesting, but a story about someone people know will always be more interesting, because it connects to something they've already got with them. In a sense, they're part of the story, because they have a kind of relationship with the subject, even if it is parasocial. And the more people I know know this subject, the more broadly applicable I know this story to be, and that gives it power in a sense.

So celebrities are just that. If I tell you I met this guy Dave that's boring. If I tell you I met this guy Dave from your work, that's more interesting because you know Dave. If I tell you I met the mayor of your town Dave that's prominent, and might be interesting to many people in your town, but not super interesting outside that. If I tell you I met this guy named Dave who used to host a late night TV show watched by tens of millions of people, that's more interesting because he's known by lots of people. The story isn't different, but more people have context on it, they know the guy, and that gives it a different kind of value.

Note I'm not saying it's more interesting to more people because more people know him. I'm saying it's more interesting to each person I tell it to, because they know this guy is known by more people. It's the prominence that gives it currency. And probably in no small part because now they can tell a guy at work they have a buddy who met Dave the late night guy, and that guy will know who that is too. It's now their semi-interesting story.

Of course this doesn't apply to all people and I'm sure you're immune. And sometimes people hate the subjects of the story enough to not care about them. And some people don't care about movie stars at all, but care about comic book authors because that's what has currency in their communities, etc.

Same, it's so weird. I was once at a small and new comic con. It was around season 5 of GOT back then and they had the Hodor guy there. I wouldn't have gotten out of my way to see some guy or get an autograph, but we just walked past and there was no queue, but quite a lot of people. Me and my friend walked into the queue and it said something like: photo 10 bucks, autograph 5. We laughed and walked back out. That's what the other people did there too. I was at least somewhat pleased that it's mainly an American thing to kiss the feet of celebrities