Breaking news, you get it in all kinds of ways. Of course there are push notifications, journal entries and juice channels. But the socials user can get things from very different sources, especially when it comes to celebrities. Via Muppets, for example. Jim Henson’s famous dolls always strike a chord online, even when there’s something sad to say. That became clear again when it became known that the legendary Loretta Lynn had died. The American country singer died October 4 at the age of 90. A friend noted in an Instagram story that she heard the news about Lynn through the Muppet History account (also available on Twitter and Facebook). She shared the message from the Instagram page. “Rest in Peace, Loretta Lynn,” it reads, along with a photo taken in 1978 by Lynn and Kermit the Frog. Lynn was featured as a special guest in the third season of The Muppet Show and she has in sesame street once the song ‘Count on Me’ sung with the character Count Tel.
A look at recent history shows that the Muppet fan behind the account is always on top of news about recently deceased celebrities. The page features old photos from the archives of Muppets and recently deceased: rapper Coolio, singer and actress Olivia Newton-John and even Queen Elizabeth (she shakes hands with Kermit).
In the case of the Muppets, you can speak of a kind of soft landing when hearing a sad news. There are less cute examples. The term “I can’t believe I’m discovering this this way” has become a meme in its own right for this reason. Take the death of Coolio. Former show wrestler Virgil posted a tweet after the news in which he and Coolio are pictured with a woman. “I am broken,” he writes first. After that, the tweet takes a suggestive turn that you wouldn’t expect from an in memoriam (I’m not going to repeat it). Many reactions to the tweet boil down to the same thing: astonishment that this the way they heard about the tragic news.
Self-conscious humor
Yet in digital times it is still possible to miss news about a death altogether. Ex-politician Henk Krol knows all about that. In the past, he has congratulated a number of deceased people on their birthday via Facebook, including writer Joost Zwagerman. Fortunately, Krol hasn’t made this mistake for a while, but he is still feared ironically for his congratulations. He managed to give this fact a special twist this Friday. On the occasion of the 70th birthday of Russian President Vladimir Putin tweeted Krol: “In recent years I hardly dare to congratulate anyone on his / her birthday, but for Putin I like to make an exception.”
With his self-conscious humor, Krol made clear how he thinks about Putin. “This is perhaps the best tweet Henk Krol has ever sent out into the world. For the people who understand him anyway,” wrote NRCcolleague Frank Huiskamp. Because indeed, without prior knowledge it does not work. Some reacted angrily to Putin’s congratulation. That too is part of the internet: even the best jokes can be misunderstood.