Tragedy Hits Millions

From a very young age, I learned what it meant to be head over heels in love. To be so smitten that you start planning your wedding and future life. How, you ask, did my six year old self know this type of love? Girllll, I was a child of the 90’s boy band revolution and I had my heart set on Justin Timberlake. And Joey Fatone, Lance Bass and JC Chasez. I didn’t bother with Chris Kirkpatrick though, because his pineapple head braids freaked me out (and rightfully so!).

Image source Buzzfeed

This experience of love is exactly why I’ve always had a soft spot for One Direction. Besides their songs being catchy as hell (and pretty cute), I see my younger cousins and friends’ little sisters go nuts for those fellas and I get it! I understand what it’s like to be hopelessly devoted to the members of a boy band. That’s why when I heard the news that Zayn Malik quit 1D, I felt the devastation of millions.

However, I also find enjoyment in laughing at the personal misfortune of tweens, so seeing the Internet buzz with their dramatic reactions was pure gold. Even better was seeing Mayor Marty Walsh express his sympathies while doing a Twitter chat around the same time that Zayn made his announcement:

Image source Twitter

So in the words of our fearless leader, it’s time to solider on. May Zayn’s memory (and man bun) live eternally.

Image source Tumblr

Posted by Tracy

An Oscar-worthy Reenactment

Image source FooYoh.com

Over the years, YouTube has become an online forum powerhouse where people can connect, share, inform, inspire and of course, make complete idiots of themselves. In a few words, it has become a fame-maker, humiliator, tearjerker, how-to-er, and a how-the-$%*! -did-he-do-that…er. Unfortunately, as much as it is a platform for celebrating humanity, if you have ever read some of the hideously ignorant comment chains for any given video, it can seriously cause you to reconsider your faith in humanity. (That is, if it is even still intact.)

Enter UK comedy network Dead Parrot’s Grahame Edwards and Eryl Lloyd Parry who have turned some of YouTube’s most derogatory digital tête-à-tête’s into a series of sidesplitting vis-à-vis, starting with their first aptly named  video, “YouTube Comment Reconstruction #1: One Direction: What Makes You Beautiful.” The single scene features the two brilliantly stodgy Downton Abby-esque actors reenacting a painfully pre-teen conversation between the two YouTuber’s ‘Sophie Danze’ and ‘JILIANLOVESTHEBIEBS’. The result is genius: high society men relaying the insidious side-ponytailed snark of unbridled teen angst in a black and white melodrama reminiscent of the great Citizen Kane.

The second two reconstructions I’ll let you find on your own, with the caveat that they are, as many YouTube comment strands tend to be, deplorably NC17. But really, what would you expect from someone with the user name Mikefuckingwins23?

Posted by Jenna