Filipino prisoners do Thriller: Michael Jackson RIP

Oh, no! It's Michael Jackson looking brown bread ...!

In memory of the King of Pop, here are 1,500 inmates of the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center in the Phillipines performing Thriller with an interesting leading lady. It's a pleasure to see these prisoners inspired by Jacko's funky groove, or a sad indictment of the way showbiz functions to keep us all in line under capitalism, depending on mood, politics and where I am in my monthly cycle.

Worth listening again if only to hear Vincent Price uttering the immortal lines, "The foulest stench is in the air, The funk of forty thousand years ..." and so on.

By the way, it's looking like Michael was taking Demerol, an elephantine pain-killer that was a favourite of William Burroughs due to its similarity to heroin.

UPDATE: Jacko's doctor, Dr Tohme Tohme [edit: we now know the doctor was Conrad Murray], who pumped him full of Demerol less than an hour before he passed out, has done a runner. The Daily Mail reports: One website quoted a hospital source as saying: 'Shortly after taking the Demerol, he started to experience slow, shallow breathing.

'His breathing gradually got slower and slower until it stopped. His staff started mouth-to-mouth and an ambulance was called. He never regained consciousness.'