Don't know your James Charles from Zoella? Get with YouTube celebrity culture | Amelia Tait
There is a particular breed of middle-aged man that prides itself on not knowing who Kim Kardashian is. “What’s that?” they cry in comment sections throughout the land, “What’s a Kim Kardashian?”. This performative I’m-too-busy-with-books-to-even-turn-on-the-TV intelligence usually backfires immediately (you’re telling me you’ve read 10,000 books but can’t discern that “Kimberly” is a woman’s name?)
Pretending not to know who celebrities are to seem clever is likely an age-old phenomenon (Spartacus? Never heard of him) but on Sunday – with traffic gridlocked as thousands of teenage fans flocked to see the 19-year-old at a shopping centre – many people are realising that they actually, genuinely haven’t the foggiest who 2019’s celebrities are.
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