Revenge of the nerds

There's no deep philosophical significance to this post, but in a small way, it may illuminate the herd mentality, or what might better be described as the hive mind, which is so prevalent on the Internet.

I was looking at Rotten Tomatoes' roundup of reviews for the new Batman movie, The Dark Knight. One critic, Joe Morgenstern of the Wall Street Journal, gave the film a somewhat negative - though not entirely negative - review. He found the plot muddled and the tone suffocatingly dark. On the other hand, he praised Heath Ledger's performance.

What alternately amused and appalled me was the reaction of the Batman fanboys who flooded the site with hysterically angry comments. You would think poor old Joe had just declared a ban on acne cream. Hell, it would seem, hath no fury like a fanboy scorned.

Of course, vigorous debate on the Net is nothing new, but this "debate" immediately descended into bigoted personal attacks and escalated to a rather detailed death threat. Along the way the reader is treated to astonishing examples of illiteracy, ignorance, and sheer stupidity.

A few choice pickings from this cornucopia of choler:

joseph, now don't be a homo.

you Flipping MELON!!! Did you watch the mvoie with a dildo STUCK up your *** or soemthign!!??

I guess you couldn't find a way to use your enormous vocabulary (maniacal? nihilism? recurrent? I bet you actually think you sound smart) in a prodcutive way, you trash the film.

This guy just likes to use big words, plain and simple.

Assclown...

what an old queen! Note to Chris Nolan - add nipples to the bat costume and ramp up the gay quotient next time so Joe Morgenstern gives the sequel to TDK a good review!

well it looks like everyone agrees you're Captian Dushbag! I knew the WSJ was having problems but never knew why, if they are willing to hire idiots like u they deserve go insolvent!

grow some balls you girl

YOU ARE A MORON AND A ******. Burn in Hell.

you sir are a ball bag. may you die slowly from testicular cancer

If you go to the website they give you the opportunity to e-mail him. We all need to flood the hell out of his in-box letting him know what an idiot he is for not liking the movie...

Joker should blow up the Wall Street Journal and kill all its faggy pompous windbags.

You ****ing fail. Go die.

you're a douche

What a homo! Go watch Hairspray again.

I understand his face is more creepier than the joker but still he shouldnt hate it because of that...

I just got out of high school a month and three quarters ago and i know more about plot and character than you do in your life time. My opinion of your review is that you are a MORON

Oh c'mon! Phagot! Well, all I can say is that my exploration by looking at your face is that you need a extreme make over. Starting with your hair, try wearing wigs when having your picture taken, Ok! and can you trim your nose hair, you're a skunk!. I can't believe you're writing for Wall Street or may be all you do is write the pages! Phagot!

Your an Idiot...

Joe you are a pathetic excuse for a critic. The fact that you are even regarded as a "Top Critic" makes your title even more disbelievable. Your review offers no insight into one of the best superhero films ever and compounds the fact that you are just a pessimistic critic. Most likely your review was motivated by your jealousy of the realization that you never cut it as an actor so, you decided to strip genuine performances of their deserved credit. I would also like to add you don't recieve very much attention as an individual, which is probably why your one of the few *******s that gave this film a bad review. This compounds the fact you are an outcast in the mainstream of society and will remain so until you can formulate a decent review. I doubt my comment will help you realize how detrimental words can be because this is how you make your living. Until you come to that moment of truth in your incompetent life just keep on being an outcast, which you seem to have grown familiar to being considered.

this homophobic review could only come from a deeply-closetted pederast

drop dead old bastard.

And have you even read any of the comics???

go eat a donkeys ****

You're an idiot who should drink acid and die.

you, joe morgenster, are the stupidest scourge of humanity.

You know, some people have been so enraged by your little opinion piece that they want you to kill yourself. Please DON'T!!! You know why, because I am going to have so much fun killing you myself! I promise, it WON'T be painless. I am going to carve a smile in your face. And then I am going to carve you stomach. And you know why? Because i just want my phone call. You're my b**** now! I am going to track you down through your IP address and then I am going to f****** kill you!!!

Did your boyfriend dislike the Dark Knight as well?

Top Critic........more like top homo!

All but lost in this barrage of invective - 190 comments in all - are a handful of intelligent offerings:

It's really pathetic that some of you morons can't find a more creative way to express yourselves without resorting to homophobia. How old are you anyway? Six? Seven years old? You're embarassing yourselves.

The film is great, this review is ridiculous, and all the homophobic bigotry in the commentary here is idiotic. What, are you twelve?

I suppose I'll see in a few hours whether he was right about anything about the movie, but the comments here show one phrase of his was spot on: "the ritual ravings of fanboys". Each of the few reviewers who dared to say anything negative have been savaged on these boards with typically juvenile, and sometimes sexist, remarks. This even though each of them had positive things to say, but had enough negative to tip them over into the "rotten" category according to RT.

As I said above, if there's any significance to this post, it's that groupthink often brings out the worst in people. This is probably never more true than when the people in question can hide behind the anonymity of the Internet, while striving to impress their peers with ever-more-offensive insults and putdowns.

The ego, unleashed in a faceless crowd, is an ugly thing - uglier even than the Joker's scarred mouth and smeared lipstick smile.