Random Commentary
This is an amazing tweet:
Going to Africa. Hope I don't get AIDS. Just kidding. I'm white!
— Justine Sacco (@JustineSacco) December 20, 2013
Yes,it’s racist, vile, insensitive, ironic, and everything else the internet has to say. It’s also an amazing set of circumstances:
A PR head-honcho for some recognizable brands (OkCupid, Vimeo, Dictionary.com, The Daily Beast) sends out a time-bomb that detonates as she is incommunicado on a long international flight.
The internet-world turns on her, and the propagandist wizard can’t conjure up a defense.
Her bosses had to respond without having the time to coordinate with her. As this email to Valleywag points out:
“This is an outrageous, offensive comment that does not reflect the views and values of IAC. Unfortunately, the employee in question is unreachable on an international flight, but this is a very serious matter and we are taking appropriate action.”
Let’s get deeper into the rabbit hole. She is starting the Christmas week in Africa. It’s fair to assume it’s a vacation -business could presumably wait another week. Is the trip totally ruined? Or is she made of the kind of insulation where she’ll just flip us off and go back to tweets like this one to PETA:
I like animals, but when it's this cold out I'll skin one myself for the fur. #peta
— Justine Sacco (@JustineSacco) January 24, 2013
Perhaps she’s joking, and expects the world to get it. Her timeline is full of comedian shout outs, and some have commented that her African AIDS line is actually a Sarah Silverman line. Maybe she is like Michael Scott on The Office who saw himself as a comedic force when no one else did. Gawd knows this blog is full of self-satisfying quips, and jokes so inside, one should wonder if they are jokes at all. (Editor’s note: enough self-indulgence)
She seems to have a sense of what is funny and what isn’t:
Remember when…Seinfeld was funny? #superbowlads
— Justine Sacco (@JustineSacco) February 6, 2012
Dear @SouthPark Please start airing funny episodes soon.
— Justine Sacco (@JustineSacco) April 5, 2012
Sacco could even score a writing gig on South Park with risque statements like:
I had a sex dream about an autistic kid last night. #fml
— Justine Sacco (@JustineSacco) February 24, 2012
and:
Someone get the rape kit ready for Tom Brady. Go Giants! #SuperBowl
— Justine Sacco (@JustineSacco) February 5, 2012
Then again, she would have to fashion that into a 22 minute story arch. Not impossible.
Btw a grateful hat tip to ON The Media for first fishing out those two gems.
Will be interesting to see what kind of hand the torch-wielding mob will force.
Anything to say Sacco?
I can't be fired for things I say while intoxicated right?
— Justine Sacco (@JustineSacco) January 30, 2013
UPDATE: This hashtag blew up on Twitter. #HasJustineLandedyet
If you really wanted to know…you could have tracked her flight.
And she has….and erased her Twitter account. Hence all the pictures stripped from this post. Good thinking for all the people who took screen shots.
About Frank M
Deleting the account may be the first intelligent thing she’s done today…