The Internet is Freaking Out About Ira Glass Saying Shakespeare Sucks

Last night This American Life host Ira Glass, who has just recently been getting the hang of Twitter, threw out an idle thought that sent the internet into a tailspin: does Shakespeare *gasp* suck?

He was pegging it to a performance of King Lear at Shakespeare in the Park that he attended with Judd Apatow and Amy Schumer among others (the selfie can be found here) and, as one helpful tweeter pointed out to him, he accidentally addressed his complaint to John Lithgow, making it seem especially abusive. It's hard to tell if he's kidding or not—according to these two tweets, Shakespeare is good for actors but otherwise unrelatable to modern audiences.

After sending a couple brisk replies, Glass has not returned to Twitter in the 14 hours since he communicated his revolutionary, counter-cultural ideas (UPDATE: he's back, but not talking about Shakespeare yet). But the much-admired NPR host is enough of an arbiter of taste that people are wondering if he has a point, or maybe just isn't getting it, when it comes to the Bard. Grantland/EW columnist Mark Harris wondered if perhaps Glass was trolling his twitterati as some sort of social experiment:

New York Times columnist Jason Zinoman took my personal favorite approach, quoting whole verse from Lear:

Some of the funniest responses include:

But New York Magazine's Matt Zoller Seitz said he took the wrong approach in saying "Shakespeare sucks," which made it sound less like Glass was expressing a personal opinion and more like he was stating a fact. Essentially, if Ira Glass told you to jump off a bridge, would you?

We hope Mr. Glass quickly returns to his mentions column to address this important issue before it reaches fever pitch. Should we like Shakespeare, or shouldn't we!? Tell us, Ira! Why won't you tell us?!

This article was originally published at http://www.thewire.com/entertainment/2014/07/the-internet-is-freaking-out-about-ira-glass-saying-shakespeare-sucks/375187/

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