200 Greatest Popular Culture Icons

A couple days ago, Mike emailed and asked my opinion about VH1's Greatest Pop Culture Icons list. Here's what I think.

I'm assuming the 200 are ordered by status as a pop culture icon. According to VH1, each icon must pass one or more of the following criteria:

Do they pass the one-name test?
Can you dress up as them for Halloween?
Did they blaze a trail in pop culture?
Did they create a signature character in pop culture?
Can you quote them, or their character, in 10 seconds or less?
Did society imitate their sense of fashion? Hairstyle?
Did “SNL” create a sketch satirizing them?
Did someone write a song about them?
Was or is there merchandising or paraphernalia that bears their image?
Can they be connected to Kevin Bacon?

With that in mind, I have a few thoughts.

My first observation is that the list is overloaded with recent pop culture icons. Can we really say that the likes of Justin Timberlake, James Gandolfini (as Tony Soprano), Helle Barry, Reese Witherspoon, Ben Affleck (::gags::), Martha Stewart, The Osbournes (as amusing as I find their show), Brad Pitt, George Clooney, and Eminem (how do they justify ranking him higher than Johnny Carson?!) have achieved the status of icons? That being said, the producers of the show are not stupid. I'm sure they sprinkled recent stars throughout the list in order to keep the attention of younger viewers. Am I supposed to believe that Tom Cruise is a greater icon than The Beatles? Please.

A few names on the last that I find absolutely baffling:

The Rock--Where's Hulk Hogan?
Cartman--Give me a break. Cartman's character is definitely rude and obnoxious. Is that one of the criteria?
Macaulay Culkin--WTF?! I think I'd put him up there with Leif Garrett.
Dr. Phil--the guy has been around for five years or so. How can he be one of the top 200 icons of all time?!
Venus/Serena Williams--Great tennis players but most people won't know who they are.
P. Diddy--another person most U.S. Americans won't recognize.
Pamela Anderson--Aarrrgghhhhh!
Friend's Cast @ 11--you have to be kidding.

Here are a few that I think should be included (apologies if I missed them on the list):

James Bond
Charlie Chaplin
Jack Benny
Errol Flynn
Bettie Paige
Richard Nixon
Larry Bird
Little Richard
The Carpenters
David Letterman
Ed Sullivan
The Sesame Street gang (particularly Big Bird, Cookie Monster, Oscar, Bert & Ernie)
Jim Henson
Captain Kangaroo

I'm sure there are others but these are the first to sping to mind. Here's a challenge: name 10 women who should have been included on the list.