Celebrity Photos of the Week

June 11, 2012 7:13 PM

Celebrity Photos of the Week

Steven Tyler of Aerosmith gives a shout-out to his favourite percentile of top income earners during a performance on American Idol last week.

posted by latkes (37 comments total)

Did the Globe and Mail just get punked?
posted by Doleful Creature at 7:18 PM on June 11, 2012

This is a bad person with misguided values. According to some, this Quebecker is no better than a Greek person who lost his job and isn't gracious enough to be pleased that his unemployment is helping Wall Street recover from the 2008 recession.

I hope this sets a new direction for the G&M.
posted by arcticseal at 7:20 PM on June 11, 2012 [2 favorites]

I feel like the Globe and Mail did something like this last year, maybe during Occupy? I've definitely seen this exact format of self-satisfied culturejamming before.
posted by modernserf at 7:23 PM on June 11, 2012

Here we go.
posted by modernserf at 7:31 PM on June 11, 2012 [1 favorite]

File under Snap, Oh
posted by Spatch at 7:33 PM on June 11, 2012 [3 favorites]

Too subtle.
posted by box at 7:38 PM on June 11, 2012

Steven Tyler is wearing a codpiece. Why.
posted by mkb at 7:41 PM on June 11, 2012

To protect his cod.
posted by deliquescent at 7:43 PM on June 11, 2012 [14 favorites]

Emma Stone attends the German premiere of 'The Help' (German title: Der Turkish Illegalman Arbeiter) in Hamburg last week.

Wow.

Are these written by someone with both feet, their left arm, and the wallet comfortably out of the door or are the Globe and Mail editors actually thinking these amazingly snarky thoughts?
posted by Slackermagee at 7:57 PM on June 11, 2012

I've had the kind of work day where if someone asked me to write captions to those shots, that's what I would have done. But only with more Fucks. I Thank the caption writer for finally opening my release valve.
posted by mudpuppie at 8:18 PM on June 11, 2012

Are these written by someone with both feet, their left arm, and the wallet comfortably out of the door or are the Globe and Mail editors actually thinking these amazingly snarky thoughts?

Maybe somebody already linked to an article that explained this, but as I recall the person who writes the captions is truly "anonymous" in that the G&M won't reveal his/her identity... These captions were all the rage last year. Anyway, the captions are kind of funny in a bitchy sort of way, and, let's face it, they drive traffic to the G&M site - a lot of my Canadian friends on Facebook share the link to the caption.

So nobody's job is on line at all.
posted by KokuRyu at 8:34 PM on June 11, 2012 [2 favorites]

These are funny. Even funnier that the management okays them. I LOLed.
posted by zardoz at 8:38 PM on June 11, 2012

I bet Steven Tyler's cod smells like it's been lying in a hot Dumpster (TM) for a week.
posted by gingerest at 8:38 PM on June 11, 2012

Heeee!
posted by moneyjane at 8:43 PM on June 11, 2012

Yes, indeed, the G&M's celeb photos of the week are always snarky, though not always political.
posted by looli at 8:50 PM on June 11, 2012 [2 favorites]

Ah, yes, it's coming back now... The story is that a junior copy editor at the G&M was assigned with the thankless task of writing the captions of the celebrity photos. S/he got board and started inserting snarky captions, wondering if anyone would notice. The rest, they say, is history.
posted by KokuRyu at 8:52 PM on June 11, 2012

Is the broken HTML part of the joke?
posted by delmoi at 9:34 PM on June 11, 2012 [5 favorites]

That's pretty great, although the slideshow for mobile is fucking terrible.
posted by brundlefly at 9:43 PM on June 11, 2012

Oh God, the photo of Robert Pattinson they chose to use (twice!) is making me snort helplessly with laughter.
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 9:51 PM on June 11, 2012 [2 favorites]

Am I the only one getting an Untrusted Connection warning (in Firefox)?
posted by Mezentian at 9:58 PM on June 11, 2012

Celebrity Photos of the Weak, amirite, fellow billionaires?
posted by twoleftfeet at 10:08 PM on June 11, 2012 [1 favorite]

You know, the tuition thing is shitty (and perhaps my empathy as an American is a touch limited), but it's not an infringement on fundamental rights.
posted by schmod at 10:09 PM on June 11, 2012

It isn't?
posted by XMLicious at 10:28 PM on June 11, 2012 [5 favorites]

I was annoyed enough by your comment, schnod, that I reset my password using my phone and logged in on a public computer to post this. So I'm pretty annoyed.

The tuition hikes, as XMLicious points out, may indeed be a violation of human rights, but there's a larger, more obvious, more heinous human rights violation here that a lot of people apparently aren't aware of. I'm talking about Bill 78, the emergency law passed by the Quebec legislature that severely curtails free expression and free assembly in the province. Since it was passed, all protests of greater than 50 people are now illegal unless the organizers submit their planned route 8 hours in advance to the police and accept any changes to the itinerary made by the police. Previously, in Canada, all protests were legal by default (as guaranteed by the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms) until they were declared illegal by the cops. Now all (>50) protests are illegal by default unless the conform to certain strict criteria. This is a HUGE violation of our rights and a HUGE decrease in the amount of freedom enjoyed by people in this province.

There's also a city bylaw in Montreal banning masks at protests that is similarly problematic.
posted by Zot at 10:46 PM on June 11, 2012 [23 favorites]

Don't forget the corruption probe of the Quebec government. How can anyone accept tuition hikes, tax hikes, cuts in services and similar sacrifices when the government itself is in cahoots with the mafia? And if you happen to protest the government takes away your right to assemble in public, make plans to assemble in public, or even wear the colour red.
posted by KokuRyu at 11:01 PM on June 11, 2012

Oh yeah, there's lots of other things wrong here too. I was specifically addressing schmod's claim that our rights weren't being violated, though.
posted by Zot at 11:21 PM on June 11, 2012 [1 favorite]

<br />
posted by idiopath at 11:38 PM on June 11, 2012 [6 favorites]

XMLicious: "It isn't?"

So, you link to a long list of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Lazy snark; not terribly helpful to informed discussion.

I searched your link. I'm guessing you meant this:

Article 26

(1) Everyone has the right to education. Education shall be free, at least in the elementary and fundamental stages. Elementary education shall be compulsory. Technical and professional education shall be made generally available and higher education shall be equally accessible to all on the basis of merit.

(Emphasis added)
posted by IAmBroom at 11:57 PM on June 11, 2012 [2 favorites]

It seems to me that a few others might have bearing as well but I don't think my comment was any lazier or snarkier than an unexplained one-sentence claim that there is no infringement of fundamental rights here with perhaps a not-so-subtle hint that the rights the American system values are the really fundamental ones. I'm an American myself but I notice that my paisanos have an unfortunate tendency to do this.
posted by XMLicious at 12:45 AM on June 12, 2012 [1 favorite]

These (Celebrity Photos) are hilarious, and the way celebrity photos should be done - with no respect for the whole 'gaze upon the perfection of these celebrities.'

And the greater story around the student protests in Quebec (as Zot points out, Bill78) is totally misunderstood by most everyone outside Quebec.
posted by From Bklyn at 12:46 AM on June 12, 2012

Christ, these were unfunny. Perhaps this is because the last ones seemed so offbeat and jarringly funny that second time round the joke doesn't work.

It read to me as belaboured and with the earnestness and repetition I'd expect to see from an activist comedy tryout.
posted by MuffinMan at 2:24 AM on June 12, 2012

And, once again, human yearning for justice and real political engagement is transmuted, effortlessly, into linkbait.

You're shaping up to be a real asshole, you know that 21st century?
posted by R. Schlock at 4:06 AM on June 12, 2012 [2 favorites]

I'd swear that is Wil Wheaton in the centre of the big Quebec protest photo?
posted by Meatbomb at 5:06 AM on June 12, 2012 [1 favorite]

Thread from a couple weeks ago about Bill 78. Seems pretty obvious the "fundamental rights" thing was meant about that, not the tuition hikes.
posted by mediareport at 7:14 AM on June 12, 2012

Geez, Metafilter, did you forget your Metamucil this morning?
posted by stoneandstar at 12:19 PM on June 12, 2012

(... so Meta.)
posted by stoneandstar at 12:19 PM on June 12, 2012

I don't know why but celebrity photos never fail to be funny to me.
posted by swedishmarsh at 7:44 PM on June 12, 2012