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President Biden's Teleprompter Blunder, And More Of This Week's 'One Main Character'

Darcy Jimenez
Darcy Jimenez
President Biden's Teleprompter Blunder, And More Of This Week's 'One Main Character'
A whole bunch of main characters were born on Wednesday this week.
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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 X from this past week and held them accountable for their actions.



This week, we've got an unfortunate UK-US translation, a horribly unfunny joke about Taylor Swift fans, a bad take from a Columbia professor and president Biden fluffing his lines.


Wednesday

Anne Hathaway

The character: Anne Hathaway, famed actor, "secret gooner"

The plot: The Guardian recently wrote an article about how Anne Hathaway likes the Arsenal football club — it's the kind of normal celebrity fluff that most large outlets find themselves writing to hopefully gin up some clicks from a fanbase. Unfortunately, Arsenal fans are stuck with a nickname that has aged like fine milk, and the Guardian decided to use that name in a post on X. Poor Anne Hathaway just wanted to watch some soccer, and now the internet thinks she spends an inordinate amount of time engaging with some, let's say, titillating material.


The repercussion: While many Brits are familiar with the context of that post, Americans were not. We can't help but imagine that this awkward turn of phrase will end up in a bio or trivia page at some point down the line for one of America's finest soccer fans.


Grant Brunner



Wednesday

@basic_chanel

The character: Aimme, hot take haver, post-deleter

The plot: What is a joke anymore. What is satire? Is sarcasm dead? Does someone deserve to be roasted for going so over the line in their attempts to be funny that they themselves become the Main Character?


The repercussion: I don't have the answers to those questions. I'm just so tired, If Swifties want to joke about being persecuted like Jews during the Holocaust, or actually think that, I cannot help them when people go after them in the replies.

No one has the time to investigate the level of trolling going on in social media posts anymore — but as a general tip, maybe don't compare Taylor Swift fandom to anything that happened in World War II. Or, do what you want, I guess. "Rage bait" is so far beyond my comprehension that I cannot even begin to process real people (or robots) engaging in flame wars for clicks.


Jared Russo


Wednesday

John McWhorter

The character:** John McWhorter, professor, linguist, columnist

The plot: Earlier this week, NYT columnist and Columbia University associate professor John McWhorter wrote a column about how he decided not to play John Cage's iconic "4'33" in class during a lesson on the late composer. His reason? That the noise of students protesting the war in Gaza on campus could've offended some of the students in his class.


The repercussion: McWhorter's writing has been heavily critiqued on social media in the days since it was published. While Hell Gate's Adlan Jackson had a neat response — "How fragile does McWhorter think his students are?" — people online had more fun simply making fun of the teacher.


Adwait Patil


Wednesday

President Biden

The character: Joe Biden, US president, bad at reading teleprompters

The plot: In a recent speech before North America's Building Trades Union, president Joe Biden told the crowd, "Imagine what we can do next. Four more years." Then, seemingly reading a direction from the teleprompter out loud, he added, "Pause."

The moment went viral overnight, and only added to existing concerns about 81-year-old Biden's ability to serve another term in the White House.


The repercussion: Unsurprisingly, a lot of people responded to the clip by making jokes at Biden's expense — but some were genuinely, and understandably, troubled by the fact that this very old man is running the most powerful country in the world.


Darcy Jimenez



Read the previous edition of our One Main Character column, which featured Brian Cox lashing out at Joaquin Phoenix, a creepy comment from a sports journalist and a debate over whether children belong in pubs or not.


[Image credit: YouTube]

Comments

  1. Lee Harrington 1 week ago

    With all due respect, but I must take umbrage. The Guardian article on Anne Hathaway was an incredibly serious piece of investigative journalism that probed deeply into the important issue of whether the said Anne is really a soccer fan or just doing it for an image overhaul. I have been unable to think of little else since reading it.

  2. Travis E. Marshall 1 week ago

    For real? He read ONE SINGLE WORD of instruction at the end of a sentence and people clutch their pearls in horror? Have they ever given a speech from a teleprompter? Sit down and STFU.

  3. First Last 2 weeks ago

    LOL. Who cares that he made a mistake during a speech! I would think he's got a lot on his mind from everything going around the world. But okay. Hey Digg, Trump is in court for using the National Enquire (all admitted in court so far) as a way to better his election runs by planting fake news articles about the people he was running against....What would that be called...oh, ELECTION INTERFERENCE. Stop beating up the more honest person, and start reporting on the wrong doings of Trump, the Monster.

  4. John Doe 2 weeks ago

    Better a public speech than testimony as a defendant in one of many criminal cases...

  5. John Doe 2 weeks ago

    If you think Biden is bad, watch the speeches from the other guy.

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