Bill Murray is selling the crazy stories about himself as NFTs
It's probably not what you wanted to hear, but it's happening anyways.
Bill Murray is a beloved actor whose mythic off-screen persona only adds to his charming mystique. NFTs are weird internet art you can buy that, like most things rich people love, are bemoaned but will continue to prevail anyways. So it makes both perfect sense, and no sense at all, that the two are converging. It has been announced that the cheeky actor is partnering with media provocateurs Chive Media to release a batch of NFTs. Each token in the Official Bill Murray NFT 1000 will feature a unique image of the star with an accompanying anecdote or bit of biographical information “verified by Bill, told as accurately as he can recall.”
Chive Media feels like the perfect partner in tech silliness for Murray — a known prankster who loves to interact with fans IRL in bizarre, unpredictable ways. The company emerged in 2008 and describes itself as having “evolved into a one-of-its-kind lifestyle brand with a variety of business lines including digital media, e-commerce, sports, and charity,” but their flagship site theCHIVE is what they’re most known for. theCHIVE, a beacon of bro content at its beginning, uses the slogan “humor, hotness, and humanity,” and also infamously began several internet hoaxes that ended up being reported as real news. Murray already has a line of golf wear with the company called simply William Murray.
theChive gave an example on Tuesday on what the NFTs might be like, posting a picture of Murray with his phone explaining, “It appears to be an eight-year-old Blackberry Classic. He’s nicknamed the relic, ‘Bill Urry’ Why? The ‘M’ key doesn’t work. If you’ve received a text from Bill in the last five years, the M’s are omitted. Considering Bill prefers texting to talking, that’s a lot of missing M’s.”
In the announcement, Chive Media co-founder John Resig also recalled a dinner before the NFT space was invented when Murray had wished for a way to elaborate on the ridiculous stories that float around about his behavior (I’m not saying Bill Murray manifested NFTs, but I also might be saying Bill Murray manifested NFTs). When asked about the tall tales, Murray quipped, “I like them just fine, I was even present for a few.” He then added adding mischievously, “But there are more stories out there, better stories.” He lamented the reason he’s never addressed his real and rumored antics: “The timing has never been right, nor has the storytelling vehicle. I don’t want to film a documentary or write an autobiography. Social media is for the birds. Still, I wish most people would understand how much I like fresh eggs, laid daily.”
It seems the splashy but bite-sized NFT space was just what Murray was looking for. He will be joining a growing crop of celebrities that are somewhat nauseatingly drunk on the shiny new tech sector. Paris Hilton, Dolly Parton, Snoop Dogg, Grimes, and Shawn Mendes, just to name a few, have all jumped gleefully on the bandwagon. Reese Witherspoon, one of the most vocal supporters of the new tech frontier, is even turning NFTs into film and television via her company Hello Sunshine. You can sign up to see the hero image by David Grizzle, be the first to find out where to purchase Bill Murray’s NFTs, and be entered to win one here. According to Resig, proceeds from the first sale will all go to charity — a welcome gesture in a space that feels like a lavish place for monied folks to throw around their wealth. Happy to hear that if Bill Murray will be making NFTs, he’s going to do it a little more Bill Murray-ly.
