Sign up for Digg's morning newsletter The best stories of the day, in your inbox
Subscribe Now
Hide
Video Data Viz Movies and TV Real Estate Internet Culture News One Main Character Memes Relationships Gaming More Less

MIND GAMES ALL AROUND

The Gathering Of New York City's Thought Criminals, And More Of This Week's 'One Main Character'

Adwait
Adwait
The Gathering Of New York City's Thought Criminals, And More Of This Week's 'One Main Character'
Cancelled people get profiled again, Christopher Nolan better have good lunch on his set, one NYT opinion writer needs to log off more, a film critic introduces a new reviewing rubric and a guy needs to stop eating weed gummies.
· 19.7k reads ·
·
1
·

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 famous film director who doesn't like when humans think about lunch, an NYT opinion writer who's making quite the name for himself, 200 (!) canceled people chilling on a boat, a film writer who needs a new watch and an adult baby who needs to stop eating weed gummies.



Monday

Christopher Nolan

The character: Director of upcoming film "Oppenheimer," believes that scientists don't think about lunch

The plot:

Christopher Nolan is back this year with "Oppenheimer," his take on the story America's most lethal weapons. Nolan said in an interview that he cast actual scientist in the film, which is about scientists, and made a comment comparing them to the regular film extras that are cast in such roles. " These guys were thinking about the geopolitical implications of nuclear arms," he said — and not lunch like the others.


The repercussion: Nolan is a bit bulletproof at this point, and shout to him and his brother for striking, but c'mon man, this take was so tepid. I thought the quote was taken out of context for Twitter, but the full comment makes it sound even worse. I just hope that the catering on Nolan's sets are good, and that everyone, from director to assistant, gets the same plate of food.


Adwait Patil



Monday

David A French

The character: David A French, NYT Opinion writer, terrible opinion haver

The plot: French has been at the NYT for just over a year now and he's still a long way out from becoming the archetype NYT writer, but he's getting there fast. French wrote a piece about the death of Jordan Neely on the NYC subway after he was put in a chokehold by fellow passenger Daniel Penny, who has been charged with second degree manslaughter. French posed a hypothetical question in his piece, wondering if a condition for violence was created on the train that led to a man's death.


The repercussion: When you're getting good money to write regular opinions, not all of them are going to be good — and that's fine. But when you shoehorn an obtuse opinion without backing it up, it's not going to fly. Millions travel in the subway system daily and its crime statistics are public data, so there's not much you can use to make your case Mr French.


Adwait Patil



Wednesday

Brent Lang

The character: Brent Lang, Variety writer, time lord

The plot: Brent Lang of Variety wrote the following article, which can either be considered high satire or a genuine examination of a film's length. He wanted to rate Marty's movies based on their runtime, which is a weird way to look at things.


The repercussion: The internet did not respond kindly to the thought that someone would judge a movie solely by its length instead of its quality, ideas and execution. Especially not the filmography of one of our greatest living directors, Martin Scorsese. His resume is immaculate and maybe you can quibble with some bloat in some of his films, but not a blanket statement on decades of his work based on the runtime. So Variety got ripped to shreds for the piece, and we can't disagree. "Goodfellas" can't be long enough and a bad movie can't be short enough.


Adwait Patil



Saturday

Justin Murphy

The character: Justin Murphy, writer, weed gummy eater

The plot: On May 13, writer and Twitter user Justin Murphy shared the below tweet. It is — thanks to the app's new 10,000-character limit for subscribers — exceedingly long, so to save you from having to read the whole thing, I'll summarize.

Murphy begins by claiming that millions of people are now getting "absurdly high every day," details his experience with a CBD gummy — which he says left him attempting to understand the afterlife — and concludes by describing America as an "an open-air crack den." Whew.



If that tweet wasn't wild enough, it quickly transpired that Murphy hadn’t eaten a CBD gummy at all. In a picture he shared and then deleted, the packaging shows that the product contained Delta-9 THC, a psychoactive chemical in marijuana — which would explain the symptoms he described. Murphy deleted the tweet with the photo, but another user has since shared a screenshot of it.



The repercussion: People who know more about weed than Murphy does fact-checked his tweet.


Darcy Jimenez



Wednesday

Emma Green

The character: Emma Green, New Yorker writer, indie arts scene supporter

The plot: Emma Green wrote about a group of 200 people who like to socialize together and call themselves "The Thought Criminals." If you thought the name was dumb, their members are even dumber. The group consists of mostly privileged individuals who've been canceled for being stupid. They're also quite rich, literally, so they can party by themselves on a boat in the East River and what not. Now, circling back to the main point — was there one? Nope. We've seen this exact article before, with repeat characters, and I really don't understand what purpose this serves.

Please help me understand where this drivel came from — did Green think this was a good idea, or is she just another NPC?


The repercussion: At this point, all the characters mentioned in the piece, well most of them, have been laughed at online. Since the band was back together once again, it made it easier for Twitter to point its finger at them again.


Adwait Patil



———

Read the previous edition of our One Main Character column, which included a questionable profile in the NY Times, a royalist, a person who doesn't mind their own business, a frustrated take on lunch in America and an old-timer actor trying to create a scene about diversity.


Did we miss a main character from this week? Please send tips to [email protected].

Comments

  1. Tim Stiles (MonkeyT) 11 months ago

    "These guys were thinking about the geopolitical implications of nuclear arms."

    Richard Feynman kept himself busy by pranking the security guards about a hole in the fence and teaching himself how to pick locks. I'm sure if Mr. Nolan asked them, they told him what he expected to hear.

Cut Through The Chaos With Digg Edition

Sign up for Digg's daily morning newsletter to get the most interesting stories. Sent every morning.