Public grief, memorial, and fondness to a person (usually a celebrity) for their good past memories, immediately after hearing recent news about the person's death—despite the same group of people having forgotten, hated, or otherwise disregarded the person immediately during the last period when he/she was still alive.
Billy: *Sad* Joe! Chester Bennington (singer of Linkin Park) and the Dad from Home Alone (John Heard) died just today. They were my childhood!
Joe: *Squinting with a smirk* Yeah, well, you never talked about John Heard before. I bet you never even knew his name until you saw that social media link. And just two days ago you said you hate Linkin Park's newest albums, and that the band sucks!
Billy: *Denying it* I never said that! What I really meant was...
Joe: Nevermind. It's the Chester Bennington Effect . Two days ago, everyone except for LP fans stopped talking about him or instead hated him. Only after he died was when people grieved about the loss of the singer of their previously-unspoken-about childhoods.
Joe: *Squinting with a smirk* Yeah, well, you never talked about John Heard before. I bet you never even knew his name until you saw that social media link. And just two days ago you said you hate Linkin Park's newest albums, and that the band sucks!
Billy: *Denying it* I never said that! What I really meant was...
Joe: Nevermind. It's the Chester Bennington Effect . Two days ago, everyone except for LP fans stopped talking about him or instead hated him. Only after he died was when people grieved about the loss of the singer of their previously-unspoken-about childhoods.
by Paul Stompbox December 30, 2019