What the KJo-Shah Rukh Khan Twitter episode teaches us about trolls
Just after you finished your lunch and were fighting that unbearable desire to doze off on the desk, Twitter had a mini-storm — and Karan Johar was at the receiving end.
Everything started when the Kesari producer unwittingly ‘liked’ a tweet that compared the opening numbers of the Akshay Kumar starrer Kesari to the abysmal lifetime collection of Shah Rukh Khan’s last release, Zero. Yup, no surprises there — Kesari’s opening was better than Zero’s lifetime.
Now, as soon as SRK fans noticed KJo’s ‘like’ on the tweet — which, by the way also hurled abuses at King Khan — they were left furious. #ShameOnKaranJohar took over national Twitter trends with Shah Rukh fans calling Karan names.
Guys having a technical problem with my twitter account! Strange things are going on!from uploading shoe picture and gibberish to liking tweets I haven’t even read and would NEVER even acknowledge! Please bear with me and I apologise for any inconvenience! Sorting it out asap!
— Karan Johar (@karanjohar) March 22, 2019
KJo, however, soon realised what was happening, which led him to shoot a quick apology, blaming the 'like' on a technical glitch. "Guys having a technical problem with my twitter account! Strange things are going on!from uploading shoe picture and gibberish to liking tweets I haven’t even read and would NEVER even acknowledge! Please bear with me and I apologise for any inconvenience! Sorting it out asap!" read the tweet.
But that wouldn't do for angry SRK fan-atics.
Soon, Shah Rukh himself had to issue a clarification — even though he, self-admittedly, hates doing so. Although, ahem, there was a lot begging to be read between the lines of his 'clarification'. "I hate clarifications on SM. @karanjohar is technologically challenged but has other good qualities like his taste in clothes!?Just like Life, twitter doesn’t come with instructions, so mistakes r natural....& also he has fat fingers. Go easy all, Make Lov not War...it’s more fun," read SRK's (what we can only term as) 'loaded' tweet.
On the surface, it is quite clear that SRK just took an, albeit friendly, jibe at Karan Johar — 'Fat fingers' was a burn, if you ask us. But then, he also pointed out that 'mistakes are natural' — and that, ladies and gentlemen, is what you call the quintessential SRK charm.
I hate clarifications on SM. @karanjohar is technologically challenged but has other good qualities like his taste in clothes!?Just like Life, twitter doesn’t come with instructions, so mistakes r natural....& also he has fat fingers. Go easy all, Make Lov not War...it’s more fun
— Shah Rukh Khan (@iamsrk) March 22, 2019
Oh, but wait a minute. The quintessential SRK sarcasm was also right there — in case you didn't notice.
From what we see, SRK just took a dig at Kesari too — make love, not war — it is impossible not to interpret it in this context, especially when the conversation is around a war movie — Kesari, and a love story — Zero.
Ouch!
Now, it is not that KJo doesn't deserve the agency to 'like' any tweet he feels like — as a producer of Kesari, he ought to be jumping like a jack-in-the-box, looking at the opening numbers. To know that it has beaten a Shah Rukh Khan film calls for rejoicing. And SRK, the Badshah of Bollywood with his large heart, should be able to take failures in his stride as well as he takes successes, right?
Aaj twitter pe thodi gadbad ho gayi but baaki sab #firstclass hai. ????
— Karan Johar (@karanjohar) March 22, 2019
But the more important aspect of this entire episode is the nature of trolls — no matter which side they're on, they are basically just that — mere trolls.
What one man wrote in favour of Akshay Kumar was derogatory towards Shah Rukh. What an army of fans on Twitter wrote in favour of SRK was derogatory towards Karan Johar.
And neither deserves that.
But then, such is the nature of Twitter. Right?
PS. In all this, will Akshay Kumar please respond?