It is amazing (and hella disturbing) how most people even bother to scan, let alone read a story anymore before spreading it around the Internet. Sign of the times, I guess. But when the offending organization is the Huffington Post (which carries my ¡Ask a Mexican! column), such a rush for web hits becomes downright irresponsible, especially when you're pulling the chains of Arrested Development fans such as myself.
Yesterday, the mega-aggregator posted a story with the headline, “'Arrested Development' Character Tobias Funke Gets Ben & Jerry's Flavor,” setting off an aggregator frenzy and prompting many of my fellow Arrested Development fans to forward me the story in glee. It's been a good week for us; this weekend, the show's creator and cast revealed they're returning for one final season before taking the story of the wacky Bluths of Newport Beach to the big screen.
Only problem with the Ben & Jerry's revelation? It was absolutely false.
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The Huffington Post story told readers to click on a link that would reveal what the flavor was. But whatever free writer the Post asked to write that story didn't read that link close enough; it lead to New York Magazine's Vulture blog, and while there was a picture for Tobias Fünke's I Just Blue Myself (“blueberry ice cream with a rich body chocolate swirl & white chocolate cut offs”) ice cream, anyone who bothers to read or at least click through a couple more links quickly discovered it was the latest Ben & Jerry's mockup by graphic designer Jon DeFreest. It's a great joke, but anyone with half a brain cell would've caught it–if the Vermont ice cream company ever came out with an actual Arrested Development ice cream flavor, everyone knows it'd involve banana. Or…(cue Oscar Bluth) would it???
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