This past week Time, a magazine written for do-it-yourselfers and Old West enthusiasts waiting to see a urologist, smoothed the final spadeful of dirt on its relevance to the national conversation with a completely bewildered, out-of-it cover and feature story about virtual reality and Oculus VR founder Palmer Luckey. The Internet's reaction is condensed here in 106 withering seconds of crystallized disdain.
This is a highlight reel of the best memes, mashups and mayhem mocking the story, set to a perfectly belittling musical accompaniment — He-Man covering "What's Up" by 4 Non Blondes, itself a significant meme. Time jumped in on the day the story went live, trying to contain the damage with a self-deprecating list of its 37 favorite specimens, but there is no playing it off when old media rips a fart like this in front of the kids.
Yes, the feature was probably the water cooler chat at Wii Bowling nights in assisted living facilities nationwide but it landed with a thud among those most likely to buy, use, or know anything about virtual reality devices. Luckey, the most unfortunate victim of all this (not even 23 years old), has taken it like a pro, which is admirable considering none of it is his fault. But someday, his descendants will be researching their famous ancestor and they'll come across this video with 78 million views, scream from the top of their lungs and wonder what's going on.
