Spirit Awards

As we are all well aware, the internet allows keyboard warriors to hide behind the shield of anonymity, giving them free reign to express their opinions without any real consequences. And while the right of free speech is a pillar of this great nation, I’m increasingly beginning to believe that first amendment rights should only be rewarded to people who aren’t fucking asshats.

This is evidenced on how things unraveled after comedian Patton Oswalt teased the movie reviewer named James Rolfe (aka Angry Video Game Nerd) after he declared he would not see or review the movie Ghostbusters in a six and a half minute YouTube video titled ‘Ghostbusters 2016. No Review. I refuse.’

A particularly noteworthy soundbite in the rambling is when Rolfe smugly states that Harold Ramis is “lucky” to be dead because he won’t see the movie. Granted, the first trailer was genuinely not funny, but you gotta be a special sorta smug to boycott a movie when it’s your fucking job to review it.

Oswalt weighed in:

I really wanted to hate this Cinemassacre GHOSTBUSTERS review but I'm such a fan of noisy, thick-saliva swallowing it won my heart. — Patton Oswalt (@pattonoswalt) May 17, 2016

Eh, fair enough. I like @cinemassacre. I'm just tired of pre-emptive criticism. Society imploding. It's gross. https://t.co/YkSrzxEhGG — Patton Oswalt (@pattonoswalt) May 17, 2016

Amen. But he did that old-timey thing where you see the movie THEN criticize it. Not cool, y'know? https://t.co/Q4CnZc0s6b — Patton Oswalt (@pattonoswalt) May 17, 2016

Pretty tame. No personal shots. All good and well in internet speak.

Then the trolls game out to play, going straight for Patton’s jugular by bringing up the sudden death of his wife less than a month ago.