Someone at work was listening to the radio today. I could barely hear it but an ad mentioned that they had an “authentic impersonator” of Michael Jackson.
Ah, Baudrillard, you should have been there.
What would be the difference, one wonders, between an authentic impersonator and an inauthentic one? And what then if the inauthentic one were closer in manner and affect to the real person but the public image as with Elvis had skewed so much that the mimic who was a veritable doppelgänger came to be perceived as inferior and bearing no likeness? (Yes, I know the story about Hemingway entering the Hemingway lookalike contest and losing.)
Anyway, I don’t know how to tell an inauthentic impersonator from an authentic one, that’s certain.
In touristy parts of Turkey it’s not rare to see signs like “genuine fake” in stores selling watches or brand name clothing, purses and the like.
https://clhawley.files.wordpress.com/2010/08/genuine-fake-watches-needs-no-comment.jpg
Once a friend was looking at name brand colognes that were marked down to ridiculously cheap prices, he picked up one bottle from another pile and the seller said that wasn’t part of the sale.
“Why not?”
“That’s good.”
I once saw in Egypt shoes called “Neeboks” that were hybrids of Nikes and Reeboks — including the logo.
Afterwards, I wished I’d bought them.
Opportunity missed!