Weekly Internet Roundup: Trespassing for Clout, Bedbug Coachella Couch, and Swifties vs. Matty Healy

Greetings, it's Friday and we're back at it. ‘It’ being a summary of a few happenings and conversations that social media has obsessed over this week. Even more so than usual, everyone seems to be doing this wrong at the moment — and it's inspired some interesting fallout. Let's take a look.

F**k Around, Find Out of the Week

There are plenty of gimmicks that people do for virality that could be interpreted in bad taste, such as calling out somebody who didn't do anything wrong, or MrBeast's lavish acts of public charity. Another entry on this dubious list is the prank video. Perhaps the only thing worse than being stopped by a clout chaser in the street and being asked for a tour of your apartment is one of them walking right into it without asking.

British TikToker Mizzy got in trouble this week in a failed attempt to start a trend doing exactly that. Filming himself walking into a stranger's house because the door was open, he ended up being both fined and arrested for the widely condemned act. While there is no universe in which doing this is right or funny, it is interesting to peep what a rich person's hallway looks like. 

The Great Street Couch Debate 

A few days ago, a TikToker explained to the world how she had procured her ‘dream couch’ from the NYC sidewalk. Documenting how she found it, cleaned it up, and installed it in her apartment, the internet promptly decided she had made a terrible mistake. For a couple of days, all anyone could talk about on Twitter was whether or not this piece of furniture was riddled with pests. In fact, people were so aghast at an imagined bedbug infestation that for once, they didn't even stop to pass judgment on appearances, which is probably just as well. It's not the most appealing piece of furniture, even without getting the sidewalk treatment.

Unstoppable Force (Taylor Swift Fandom) Meets Immovable Object (Busted British Musician)

If you ever want to get a room of annoying people riled up, go in there and state your opinion about if we can separate the art from the artist. If you want to see a mini enactment of what the end times might look like, do this in relation to a celebrity they have an insane parasocial relationship with. Swifties, I'm not sorry to announce that the reaction to Taylor dating fellow singer Matty Healy has been unbearable. The frontman of The 1975 has said and done some seriously offensive things in the recent past, and it has led the Taylor Swift fandom to have a meltdown over the fact that she is willingly associated with him.

The whole thing has culminated this week in a Twitter Thread by a Swiftie feeling like she needed to hold herself accountable for attending her concert despite the criticism of her boyfriend. This is surely the kind of thing that the word ‘unhinged’ was invented for.

That's it for now. However, there is no rest on the internet, and undoubtedly we will have another random assortment of things to talk about next time. Have a nice weekend!