[COMMENTARY] Monica Lewinsky Wins ‘Dear Intern’ Twitter Trend
Everybody makes mistakes, but not everybody makes a mistake that goes viral and follows them for the rest of their lives. When you become infamous, you have a choice to make: either embrace your infamy or spend the rest of your life trying to run from it.
HBOMax sent a bizarre email to its subscribers on Thursday with the subject line “Integration Test Email #1,” and the body of the email only containing one sentence: “This template is used by integration tests only.” Streaming users immediately turned to Twitter to voice their concerns, with many creating memes saying that it could be a new show that HBO is airing.
Looking very much like the mistake it was, the email was shared widely by HBOMax subscribers, and the jokes began almost immediately.
How do we notify the HBO person their integration test passed?
— Mitchell Hashimoto (@mitchellh) June 18, 2021
Saw Integration Test Email trending and thought he died pic.twitter.com/Bw1zILAbdo
— Jada 😏 (@squiliamfancy) June 18, 2021
The streaming service quickly sent out a tweet explaining what happened, upping the ante on the Twitter meme game by admitting that it was indeed an intern who’d made the mistake.
We mistakenly sent out an empty test email to a portion of our HBO Max mailing list this evening. We apologize for the inconvenience, and as the jokes pile in, yes, it was the intern. No, really. And we’re helping them through it. ❤️
— HBOMaxHelp (@HBOMaxHelp) June 18, 2021
The news prompted a wave of “Dear Intern” tweets in which Twitter users shared their own embarrassing stories from their internships, including mistakenly downloading viruses to company computers and erasing massive amounts of files.
Dear Intern,
It's an email. At least you didn't erase the entire Community Access TV station's chyron graphics archive on accident.
Signed,
A Broadcast Engineer who once erased all the chyron graphics at a Community Access TV Station by accident when he was an intern.— Mark "Noodles" Kewman (@mkewman) June 18, 2021
Dear Intern, I was using my desktop calendar to make a monthly note of when I started my menstrual period, but after several months I realized I was making that note on a calendar I shared with all of my colleagues company wide. I was 37 years old.
— Caissie (@Caissie) June 18, 2021
Dear intern,
I once globally took down Spotify. It almost happened twice. My team was awesome about it and I'm still here. You managed to find something broken in the way integration tests are done. It's a good thing and will help improve things. Good luck <3.
— Daenney (@daenney) June 18, 2021
And then, the world’s most infamous intern joined in the fun.
dear intern:
it gets better.
♥️
ps. don’t wear a beret for awhile, k?
— Monica Lewinsky (she/her) (@MonicaLewinsky) June 18, 2021
Lewinsky, now a Vanity Fair contributor and anti-cyberbullying advocate, referred to the hat she was famously photographed wearing while working at the White House because she knows how to make the jokes before anyone else can.
And then Twitter really exploded, because shockingly, there are people out there with strong opinions about Monica Lewinsky (aka the World’s Greatest Sport, in this writer’s own strong opinion), and because social media has killed anything that resembles polite discourse, none of them were shy about letting her know it.
I have no patience for Monica Lewinsky. Every little jab at relevance is grating. Bill Clinton needs a huge amount of blame. However, she was an adult and this was consensual. She was not a victim. Who was? Hillary and Chelsea Clinton. The only innocent people in this.
— T.Biggs (@TBiggsTequila) June 19, 2021
Monica Lewinsky slept with multiple married men. That's a pattern or a business model. Whatever it is, what it is NOT is an example of a victim.
Kim Kardashian slept w multiple married or in a relationship, men. She parlayed that into millions of $. Monica wasn't as successful. pic.twitter.com/PDdJFU9w6v
— Lady Danbury's eyebrows (@KimShoeCrzy) June 19, 2021
Fortunately, Lewinsky’s followers and fans have her back.
IMO Monica Lewinsky can fucking tweet anything she wants just like I can. Y’all have heard of scrolling on by right? Give her a fucking break. She was a VICTIM.
— Y'all hurry up🏳️🌈🇺🇲 (@catfishyak) June 19, 2021
this country did monica lewinsky so dirty…. like she was an intern and he was the president… that’s the biggest power imbalance in the world and she was the most hated/attacked person for what was entirely bill clintons fault
— alexis isabel (@lexi4prez) June 19, 2021
The ironic part about Republican women being obsessed with Monica Lewinsky is that they are always begging to serve as any white man's puppet and will drop to their knees the second they are told to by men who pretend to own them…🙄
— Kyla In The Burgh 🏳️🌈🏴☠️ (@KylaInTheBurgh) June 19, 2021
I don’t follow her, she doesn’t follow me, and I truly don’t want or need a follow. I have absolutely no ulterior motive to say this other than it being true.
Monica Lewinsky is one of the nicest and funniest people on Twitter and people shitting on her can fuck off.
— Tony Posnanski (@tonyposnanski) June 19, 2021
People are *still* pitting Monica Lewinsky against Hillary Clinton, meanwhile Bill is out here like pic.twitter.com/08qYr4p6fJ
— Imani Gandy (@AngryBlackLady) June 19, 2021
I don't know, maybe it's just that Monica Lewinsky has a better sense of humor than you do, haters #TeamMonica @MonicaLewinsky #DearIntern
— Tara Dublin Is Vaccinated AF (@taradublinrocks) June 19, 2021
*Leans in*
*Taps mic*
Hillary Clinton was the victim of Monica Lewinsky’s consensual affair with Bill Clinton. Monica Lewinsky was a victim of the press and her own poor judgment. Don’t get it twisted.
— Trinity Always Saves Her Receipts (@TrinityMustache) June 18, 2021
Lewinsky has gone viral many times on Twitter thanks to her self-deprecating quick wit.
an internship at the white house will be amazing on your resume. 😳
— Monica Lewinsky (she/her) (@MonicaLewinsky) July 14, 2019
But Monica Lewinsky will be getting the last laugh, however. Her company Alt Ending Productions has inked a deal with 20th Television ahead of the latest installment of the “American Crime Story” anthology series following the Clinton impeachment. Lewinsky is serving as a producer on the series, with actress Beanie Feldstein portraying her. Other cast members include Clive Owen as Bill Clinton, Edie Falco as Hillary Clinton, and Sarah Paulson as Linda Tripp.