controversy

If you've been on Twitter at all over the past 24 hours, chances are you've heard about the sorry saga of John 'Bean Dad' Roderick and his epic Twitter downfall. If not, we'll catch you up to speed. On Jan 2, @johnroderick posted a marathon of a Twitter thread, boasting at length about refusing to show his hungry nine-year-old daughter how to use a can opener to open a can of beans. In the thread he recounts encouraging her to struggle with the device over a span of six hours in hopes to help her build character, or something. An outcry across Twitter immediately ensued and it didn't take long for people to dig up many racist, sexist, homophobic, and antisemitic tweets from @johnroderick's past. This kerfuffle went so viral, it might even affect the future of Jeopardy! (Don't ask.)

'Bean Dad' is, without a doubt, the unfortunate first main character of 2021. Hopefully this isn't foreshadowing a very cursed year. We've collected some of the funniest Twitter reactions to the whole 'Bean Dad' saga. (Content warning: some of the screenshots of @johnroderick's older tweets contain offensive language.)

Deadline announced earlier today that Wonder Woman's Patty Jenkins and Gal Gadot would be teaming up again to bring a new epic about Cleopatra to life. While the news has been better-received than Gadot's "Imagine" debacle from the early days of quarantine, not everyone's happy about the choice. Gadot's an Israeli with very European heritage, and it seems that many Twitter users feel that casting does a Scarlett Johansson to an Egyptian queen. As some people are crying whitewashing, many have pointed out that by most credible accounts, the fierce ruler was actually of Greek heritage - though her mother's roots have been heavily debated. As with most Hollywood casting controversies, it seems that everyone has a very important opinion on the matter. You can enjoy (or scoff) at some of them below.

Fox Business reporter Evie Fordham tweeted out the other day declaring the five types of men she thinks you should avoid, and asked others to do the same. As you can imagine, this was met with some controversy, and inspired others to make their own parody versions of the tweet! 

(We have to add in that we do support her last point about social distancing. Stay home!)

The Salvation Army is a household name for most when it comes to helping out those less fortunate. However, this Twitter user points out why the organization might actually not be the best place to spend your time and money if you're looking to help homeless folks out. The reasons are pretty depressing!

We never thought we'd see people get so worked up over a board game, but here we are. 

Hasbro just launched a "women-centric" version of the classic game Monopoly that they've named "Ms. Monopoly." In the game, players invest in various inventions created by women. 

Where the game gets controversial is the rule that female players must make more money than their male counterparts, which many Twitter users have been calling out as "sexist" and counter-productive to actual gender equality. 

Below are some of the amusing Twitter reactions and memes in response to Hasbro's launch of the new game.

When Twitter user Matthew Harris tweeted a sketchy photo of a woman sitting in a backless seat on an airplane, it sparked a barrage of parodies and roasts.

The airline, EasyJet, was quick to reply on Twitter, asking Harris to take down the photo so that they could "best assist" his complaints.  People on Twitter, however, weren't falling for the budget British airline's BS, and began creating parodies of the tweet.

Fortunately (or perhaps unfortunately, depending on your own personal opinion), it's been reported that these backless seats were actually inoperable on the flight and passengers were not permitted to use them. 

However, we've gotta wonder why EasyJet was so quick to get defensive in the Twitter thread. Very suspicious indeed...

Macy's has come under fire for selling "portion plates" which mark the plate with how much food you "should" be eating at each meal. Many people are angry that the plates could potentially encourage eating disorders. Macy's did decide to pull the product from the shelves, but many others don't believe the move was necessary.

What do you think? Did Macy's go to far with this stunt, or are people overreacting? We'd love to know what you think!

Oh boy, it's been over 20 years and the infamous "would Jack have fit on that board at the end of Titanic" debate is making its rounds on the internet once again! 

During an MTV News interview with the cast of Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Leonardo DiCaprio was asked if he thought that Jack could've indeed fit on the board at the end of the movie, to which he simply replied "no comment." (But come on, we all know what that means.)

Director James Cameron claims the reason Jack didn't get on the board with Rose was because of buoyancy, and not the issue of having enough room. Honestly, we're calling BS here - why didn't they both get on the damn thing and test it out first!?

Anyway, before we get too heated over this age-old debate, please enjoy some memes and reaction tweets!

Last week the governor of Georgia signed the "heartbeat bill" which would ban abortions after a fetal heartbeat is able to be detected by a doctor. The state of Alabama followed suit, proposing a total ban on abortions in nearly all cases. We won't get into the politics of that whole deal, but you probably understand why it's controversial to many.

On Friday, Alyssa Milano tweeted her call for a "sex strike," with the intention of withholding sex from men until women can get their bodily autonomy back, in her words. Liberals and conservatives alike are saying this movement is a little, um, misguided? 

At the end of the day, at least we can all come together regardless of our political affiliations to make fun of celebrities who say totally ridiculous sh*t!

Are y'all ready for a mess of a news story? Lori Loughlin, AKA Aunt Becky from Full House, was taken into custody this morning for participating in a huge college admissions sting to get her completely unqualified daughter admitted into the University of Southern California. Several other wealthy celebrities were involved, including Desperate Housewives' Felicity Huffman and her husband William H. Macy.

Charges so far include $25 million in bribes to university authorities and fabrication of credentials to be admitted into some of the top universities in the nation.

Some have pointed out that Loughlin's daughter, Olivia Jade Giannulli, would never have been admitted to USC on her own academic merit. Giannulli, a prominent beauty YouTuber, even admitted in a video back in August that she plans to focus more on college parties than her classes.

Under the monikers #FreeAuntBecky and #CollegeAdmissionScandal, many memers and Twitter users have expressed their frustration at the situation, pointing out that regular people have to get admitted to universities on actual academic merit and not absurdly rich parents.

Ooh boy, here we go everybody. 

If you haven't been following the news lately, singer R. Kelly was jailed last month on account of numerous sexual abuse charges against him. We're not going to go into the exact details of those charges, but we'll let you read a bit about them for yourself here. 

CBS aired an interview with R. Kelly on Tuesday morning, during which he vehemently denied the allegations, screamed into the camera and began crying in an attempt to save his reputation. So, did he commit the acts he's been trying so hard to cover up? Well, we'll let you judge that for yourself.

And of course, absolutely no scandal is ever free from a copious number of memes, which we've compiled for you below! Enjoy!

It's official: Kylie Jenner is the world's youngest "self-made" billionaire ever at age 21, even younger than Mark Zuckerberg, who made his first billion at 23. There's no doubt that Jenner, who started Kylie Cosmetics in 2015, works incredibly hard at what she does, but the internet has been skeptical of whether "self-made" is an appropriate title for someone born into the already-wealthy Kardashian-Jenner empire. 

Twitter users have been offering their spicy takes on the matter, which you can read below.

The internet bore witness to some serious emoji controversy this week over an emoji that doesn't actually exist. Twitter user @mioog tweeted a crossed out pride flag, later claiming that he had found it in Apple's code. The tweet inspired more tweets, some claiming it was an Apple creation, and others making jokes that were pro-LGBT. As can be expected, there were also many, many memes. It was soon revealed on Reddit that the emoji is actually a combination of Unicode characters, and not, in fact, a sinister homophobic emoji of Apple's creation. This comes as a relief, and allows us to enjoy some of the dumb memes that have come out of this internet debacle. I can't wait until this unicode gets expanded to political posts. Oh the chaos that will ensue. But while dreaming about the mayhem a simple computer writing code could cause, check out this dark web-comic that has taken the web by storm, and been made a viral meme overnight.

The newest scandal involving rapper 21 Savage was arguably more exciting than the Super Bowl on Sunday. If you haven't heard, 21 Savage was arrested on Sunday morning in Atlanta by ICE, with allegations that the rapper is actually a British citizen and is residing illegally in the US. Memers have been relentlessly making fun of 21 Savage, joking that his lyrics seem less...shall we say, foreboding now that we know this information?