Heck knows how much shitposting we’ve done on this site (re: this piece about a dude’s awesome booty, the Terminator in Bukit Batok, etc) — but one would never expect a respectable (allegedly) and self-congratulatory publication such as The Straits Times to wade into the cesspool as well.
Case in point: This totally unnecessary and uptight overanalysis of guys referring to each other as “bro”, “dude”, and “mate”. TL;DR, this bro John Lui is not a chill dude who likes calling other mates by familiar slangs and terms of brotherhood, and the national newspaper decided that his rant was fit to publish.
“Men only use ‘bro’ to add a layer of sugar over a hard nugget of compressed fertiliser,” Lui actually wrote. Bro, so articulate and insightful and witty, bro.
Look, we get it. Readership is hard to obtain — especially on slow days — and sometimes writers have to be intentionally provocative to spark off a burst of reactions. We know, ’cause we’ve done it before (like this, and this).
But as far as click-baiting goes, Lui’s opinion piece can be seen as a rather cringeworthy attempt — he comes off less as a “smart, smarmy wisecrack” and more of an “old grump shaking his cane at nothing”.
Nonetheless, it succeeded in garnering juicy Sunday clicks and comments, though not for good reasons. Check out all the vociferous hate both Lui and The Straits Times received here, and enjoy these highlights below:
