The Funniest Tweets About The Washington Post‘s Terrible Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi Headline
Photos by Alex Wong/Getty
These are hard times to be in media, but that’s no excuse to be a bonehead. The Washington Post made a truly unfortunate choice in covering the death of ISIS leader and despicable terrorist Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi on Sunday, initially referring to this objectively terrible person as an “austere religious scholar” in their obituary’s headline before later replacing that cringeworthy descriptor with “extremist leader of Islamic State.” A WaPo staffer later acknowledged in a tweet, “Regarding our al-Baghdadi obituary, the headline should never have read that way and we changed it quickly,” but the damage was already done. The internet is forever, and the internet is fast, as demonstrated by the numerous Twitter users who captured WaPo’s gaffe and flipped it into fodder for comedy, using the hashtag #WaPoDeathNotices to mock the paper’s euphemistic phrasing by applying it to notorious villains from history and pop culture alike. Check out a selection of the funniest tweets below.
“Thanos, a passionate advocate of population controls to save Earth, dies at over 1,000 years” #WaPoDeathNoticespic.twitter.com/16lvv8hery
— Josh Jordan (@NumbersMuncher) October 27, 2019
Hans Gruber, self styled “exceptional thief“ who parlayed a classical education to become acerbic critic of America’s foreign-policy and “bankrupt culture“ dies at 44 from injuries sustained in a fall. #WaPoDeathNoticespic.twitter.com/WcyRq1PVuh
— Eddie Love (@EddieLove44) October 27, 2019
Wicked Witch of the West, devoted sister, broom enthusiast, died suddenly from oversaturation, age unknown#WaPoDeathNotices
— Emily Brandwin (@CIAspygirl) October 27, 2019
Voldemort, relic collector and noted snake charmer, dead at 71. #WaPoDeathNoticespic.twitter.com/nt85iI2kP5
— Adam McAnally (@AdamMcAnallyAZ) October 27, 2019
Saddam Hussein, successful politician, oil baron and noted tough boss, dead at 69. #WaPoDeathNotices
— Sen. Denise Batters (@denisebatters) October 27, 2019
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