You'd have to include Whitley Strieber in the mix. I think he still has a place in pop culture, if only for the jokes about probing.
It would have served Whitley well to just fade off after Communion came out. Go out on a high note.
But no - he had to keep writing about it book after book appearing on talk show after talk show from radio to TV for many years. Dude turned himself into a well deserved brunt for all to mock, ridicule, and laugh at.