A Guy With The 'Worst Tweet Ever' About Bill Burr's Wife, And More Of This Week's 'One Main Character'
Every day somebody says or does something that earns them the scorn of the internet. Here at Digg, as part of our mission to curate what the internet is talking about right now, we rounded up the main characters on Twitter from this past week and held them accountable for their actions.
This week's characters include a conservative editor who couldn't take a joke, a guy with a terrible take about comedian Bill Burr's wife, a Hollywood trade publication with a poorly received headline and a Georgia official who said the spa shootings suspect had a "really bad day."
Friday
Sean Davis
The character: Sean Davis, co-founder of The Federalist, chief critic of New York Times reporter Taylor Lorenz.
The plot: On Friday afternoon, prankster Jean-Michel Connard posted a fake screenshot purporting to show Davis tweeting "mommy milky," joking that the conservative pundit had inadvertently sent it out.
Davis responded to the joke tweet by threatening anyone "spreading obviously hoax screenshots meant to deliberately and maliciously defame" him, which naturally made even more people retweet the fake screenshot.
The repercussion: The joke tweet at Davis's expense caused "Mommy Milky" to become a top trending topic on Twitter.
Others mocked Davis's legal threat as being over the top.
Yashar Ali pointed out that Davis had previously criticized Taylor Lorenz for being bothered by "mean things" said about her on the internet, saying she should "be an adult and just ignore it."
Legal experts weighed in that Davis's threats were just bluster and would most likely constitute a strategic lawsuit against public participation, a lawsuit discouraging public discussion on issues of public interest.
Other netizens expressed disappointment that the original "mommy milky" tweet wasn't real.
Sunday
Clayburn Griffin
The character: Clayburn Griffin, a former congressional candidate.
The plot: On Sunday, comedian Bill Burr appeared at the 63rd Annual Grammy Awards, where he made a few cracks that got under the skin of some netizens.
In response, Twitter users pointed out that Burr was married to Nia Renee Hill, a black woman.
Clayburn Griffin reacted to this observation by saying a white man having a non-white wife could be a "sign of racism."
"While I'm not suggesting Bill Burr is a racist, a white man having a non-white wife can sometimes be a sign of racism," Griffin tweeted. "So you shouldn't assume someone isn't racist just because they own a minority sex servant. They may very well have one because they're racist."
The repercussion: Griffin's tweet about Bill Burr's wife brought the entire internet together against him in a ratio of historic proportions. Rapper Zuby declared it the "worst tweet ever" and quipped that the author should delete his account now.
But the coup de grâce came from Hill herself, who bluntly put Griffin in his place.
Monday
The Hollywood Reporter
The character: The Hollywood Reporter, an entertainment trade newspaper.
The plot: On Monday, the Academy Award nominees were announced, and The Hollywood Reporter tweeted an article celebrating Asian actors finally getting their due, headlined: "Diverse Field Sees Asian Actors Shatter A Bamboo Ceiling."
The repercussion: The trade publication's headline referring to the "bamboo ceiling" drew a lot of groans across the Twitterverse.
Given the headline's poor reception, Rebecca Sun, senior editor of diversity and inclusion at THR, took responsibility for the headline and explained that it is a "real term used to describe the difficulty Asian Americans in the corporate world face in breaking through to upper management."
Sun later added a line explaining the use of the term in the article, but ultimately changed the headline at an editor's request.
Wednesday
Captain Jay Baker
The character: Captain Jay Baker, spokesperson for the Cherokee County Sheriff's Office.
The plot: Following the arrest of suspect Robert Aaron Long for the murder of eight people — including six Asian women — in the Atlanta metropolitan area, Baker told reporters that Long had had "a really bad day."
The repercussion: Baker's comment sparked outrage, as it seemed to excuse Long's alleged behavior as resulting from having a "bad day."
Following the backlash, the Cherokee County Sheriff's office expressed regret for Baker's comments, adding that "they were not intended to disrespect any of the victims, the gravity of this tragedy, or express empathy or sympathy for the suspect."
BuzzFeed News later reported that Baker had shared a photo of racist T-shirts on social media.
Baker was later removed from being a spokesperson for the case, and the sheriff's office is evaluating his future position at the department.
Read the previous edition of our One Main Character column, which includes a Republican Senator who applauded a bill he did not vote for and a man with a very poorly received question about marriage.
Did we miss a main character from this week? Please send tips to [email protected].
Header image courtesy of Gage Skidmore/Creative Commons.
