The internet, in a nutshell, is a fancy type of telegram service that allows 80,000,000,000 incredibly fucking stupid things to happen every 24 hours. It is for the most part very, very bad, but, thanks to the power of numbers, every day it manages to churn out at least one thing that is improbable and delightful.
If 10 years ago you wanted to see a verballing between One Nation leader Pauline Hanson and SBS newsreader Lee Lin Chin, you’d have to somehow lure them both into the same location and tell each of them that the other nicked their car and didn’t leave a note. With the internet, however, that shit just happens.
Because that’s the sort of thing she would do, Chin had a go at old mate Pauline on Twitter today, over Pauline’s brief foray into possibly attending Trump‘s inauguration:
Who hasn’t got tickets? No actual Americans want to go so they’re just inviting everyone. I’ve got a +8 for my man harem. https://t.co/4jVn2jrQpa
— Lee Lin Chin (@LeeLinChinSBS) January 16, 2017
Pauline, of course, responded with a baffling burn rooted in Islamophobia, as is pretty much everything she says:
I hope @LeeLinChinSBS your harem isn’t also rorting the taxpayer by collecting welfare like some other harems do because that is a bad look. https://t.co/m92dZ58NZh
— Pauline Hanson (@PaulineHansonOz) January 17, 2017
Hanson is clearly unaware of the first rule of engaging in an argument with a fictionalised version of someone on the internet: don’t, because it makes you look like a dumbass, because they can just say whatever:
Men pay to be in my harem. It’s like you don’t even know who I am. https://t.co/iezTMDHcaZ
— Lee Lin Chin (@LeeLinChinSBS) January 17, 2017
Quality bants on the timeline today, folks. Although, as someone pointed out, this is pretty much just two social media managers (not necessarily men, though – Chin’s account was formerly run by the SBS‘ Chris Leben but not anymore and Hanson’s is supposedly run by James Ashby) pretending to be two women fighting with each other, which is a biiit weird:
Two men pretending to be famous women arguing with each other on Twitter. What a glorious age we live in. https://t.co/jdo2bdD6Qt
— Snarky Platypus (@SnarkyPlatypus) January 17, 2017
It’s like wrestling really, the joy comes from when you pretend that it’s real.
UPDATE: A previous version of this article stated that Chris Leben manages Lee Lin Chin’s Twitter account, which he no longer does. The article has been updated to reflect this.
Photo: Getty Images / Lisa Maree Williams, GG.
