When snarking goes wrong
No apology from T Dog Media coming
Over the eight years T Dog Media has been in operation, I’ve attracted a lot of fans who support this endeavor due to my love of writing, especially about the media business (and I thank you for it.)
But along the way, yours truly has also made some enemies. Mancow. Mark Konkol. The Parents Television Council. The guy who runs the Chicagoland Radio & Media website. Jim Belushi. (from the first day of this site!) Some DJ named “Pugs”. WGN Radio management, past and present. Wil Wheaton.
Wait a minute, you’re asking. That Wil Wheaton? The second-most famous of those you mentioned? One who looks like Mancow but is smarter but just as annoying?
That’s right. And I found this out Monday morning when he blocked yours truly from his Twitter account, one I’ve been following for years.
Now, yours truly rarely follows celebs on Twitter – in fact, the only three I follow now is R&B artist Mya (who I met in person three years ago and was very nice), actress Rosario Dawson, and Garry Shandling.
Now, I thought Wheaton was a cool guy. After all, he did appear in Star Trek: The Next Generation and was brilliant as an evil version of himself on The Big Bang Theory (well, until recently.) He’s also a guy immersed in nerd culture and science fiction, much like I am. After all, I grew up a nerd – on the South Side of Chicago no less, surviving wedgies and being shoved into lockers, in all.
But here’s where the similarities end. As you know, Wheaton is a Los Angeles Kings fan (and I hate the Kings) and yours truly is a Blackhawks fan, and the two teams met in the Western Conference Final this year. Yours truly decided to have some snarky fun, ribbing him, his new show (The Wil Wheaton Project) and his precious hockey team.
But on Sunday night, after the Kings scored a goal in Game 7, I tweeted this:
Wow, a new celebrity D List. RT @wilw I think we may all be watching the same thing. pic.twitter.com/w0ry2EAu1e
— T Dog Media (@tdogmedia) June 2, 2014
OK, that may been a little harsh. After all, I thought it was a good joke. Or so I thought.
After the Kings beat the Blackhawks in overtime to advance to the Stanley Cup Finals against the New York Rangers, I noticed I wasn’t receiving anymore tweets from Wheaton, thinking he took a breather, or something. So more snark followed:
Where's the Star Trek: TNG guy named Wil? He's in hiding? Bring your sorry ass out here and celebrate.
— T Dog Media (@tdogmedia) June 2, 2014
Then I found out Monday he blocked T Dog Media.
When I found out, I tweeted to his show’s Twitter handle that I hope it gets canceled and the Kings get swept in four.
So it turns out Wil Wheaton is another one of these phony D-list celebrities who can dish shit out on social media, but can’t take it when the tables are turned. And the Grade A douchebag is going to unfollow me because of the snarky way I talked about him and his hockey team.
Good grief dude, get a grip.
As a nerd, getting made fun of is part of the territory – yours truly is used to it. Since he hosts a show on “nerd culture”, he should know that.
So why get offended Wheaton? I still trying to figure out who the hell appointed you king of nerd culture along with the equally annoying Chris Hardwick of Nerdist. There’s nothing like selling out to the man.
But I guess Wheaton blocking yours truly is for the best as his tweets over time became less about nerd culture and more about the Kings, political shit, and annoying Photoshop pictures I could care less about. Since now I have no plans to watch The Wil Wheaton Project, he doesn’t have to worry about me inducting it into The T Dog Media TV Hall Of Shame. By the way, Wheaton’s SyFy show – which airs Tuesdays at 9 p.m. locally- did not crack the list of the top hundred cable shows in the 18-49 demo on May 27, getting outdrawn by all things, reruns of Aqua Teen Hunger Force on Adult Swim and 25-year old reruns of Full House.
It pays to be nice to your followers.
While I love nerd culture, yours truly has to be honest here – the subject is too narrow for a weekly TV show, let alone a Monday-Friday strip. Of course, if I tweeted that to him, I would’ve been blocked anyway.
Seriously, it you can’t take ribbing, then you have no business on Twitter or social media – let alone the entertainment industry. If Wheaton had learned this, his career would’ve progressed farther than it is now from a doormat role on a TV sitcom and a stupid cable TV show no one watches.
So if Wheaton is looking for an apology from yours truly… yeah, he can keep on looking. He’s not getting one from me, so he can go fuck off. So goodbye and good riddance.
Oh and by the way, I returned the favor and blocked him.
And Go New York Rangers.