This week, Twitter users began proliferating a meme format that has publicists screaming, crying and throwing up.
The meme format is relatively simple: a vertical stack of three photos. The first has clip art of a woman and says, “Never ask a woman her age.” The second photo has clip art of a man and says, “A man, his salary.” The third, however, packs the punchline and is different every time.
Some iterations of this meme include the following captions:
- “McGill University what was going on between 1957-1964 in the Allan building.”
- “Your favorite directors what petition they signed in 2009.”
- “Jon Hamm why he transferred from the University of Texas to the University of Missouri.”
- “A stingray where he was on September 4, 2006.”
- “Woody Harrelson why his dad’s name is blue on Wikipedia.”
- “Matthew Broderick why he was fined $175 in 1987.”
- “Mark Wahlberg why he spent 45 days in jail in 1988.”
Some of these might be more obvious than others, with the stingray referencing Steve Irwin’s death by the animal in 2006. However, some were downright confusing, reality-altering and earth-shattering.
I’ll try to build my way up from least to most shocking.
The experiments occurring at McGill University from 1957-1964 were related to the CIA project MK Ultra. On the campus, many participants were fed LSD and subjected to psychological torture in the pursuit of human mind control.
In 1990, actor Jon Hamm was charged with hazing and was disbanded from the Sigma Nu fraternity at the University of Texas for lighting a pledge’s pants on fire and forcing him to blow it out. He was only put on probation by the university but later elected to transfer to Mizzou.
In 1987, Matthew Broderick, famous for his role as Ferris Bueller among other films, was driving a rented BMW in Northern Ireland. At one point, he crossed into the wrong lane for an unknown reason, murdering a woman and her mother who were in the car coming towards him. Ultimately, he was fined only $175 for vehicular manslaughter, and the case was swept under the rug.
At this point, you might be wondering how these are my starters. Just wait.
While you might think that actor Woody Harrelson is a nepotism baby, his father’s Wikipedia is not linked to his status as a celebrity in entertainment. Instead, his page exists because of his career as an assassin and his successful attempt on a federal judge’s life in 1979. He served multiple life sentences, dying in prison in 2007.
In 1988, a 16-year-old Mark Wahlberg was arrested for attempted murder after knocking out a Vietnamese man and punching another Vietnamese-American man who sprang to his unconscious friend’s defense. The attack was entirely racially motivated and the second instance of this “Ted” star getting into legal trouble for assaulting someone because of their race.
In 2009, multiple directors signed a petition started by Harvey Weinstein that asked for the immediate release of director and international sex offender Roman Polanski, who was arrested that year for raping a 13-year-old girl in 1971. Signers include Woody Allen (which makes sense), Darren Aronofsky, Guillermo del Toro, Harrison Ford and Tilda Swinton, amongst over a hundred others.
If we’ve learned anything from this trend, it’s that the devil works hard, but publicists work harder, and even beloved celebrities can have dark pasts.
