Ayo Edebiri has reached the Finding Out phase of her career
In a new interview, Edebiri revisited her "feud" with Jennifer Lopez and said she was "chilling" with apps like Letterboxd for a while
Aux News Ayo Edebiri
Ayo Edebiri has moved on from the fucking around on the internet phase of her career. We all knew it was coming—as a certified Famous Person, you can’t get away with claiming you were the dialect coach on The Departed, but only for the word “microprocessors” forever—but it’s still a sad day for posters everywhere. Tina Fey’s evergreen advice (partly inspired by Ms. Edebiri herself) strikes again: “Authenticity is dangerous and expensive. I don’t think so, honey!”
The Bear and Bottoms star addressed a couple of her infamous exploits on the World Wide Web in a new interview with Vanity Fair this week, starting, of course, with that “feud” with Jennifer Lopez from earlier this year. In Edebiri’s view, however, it wasn’t really a feud at all—the scales were too imbalanced. “That would be like Mr. Bean and Mick Jagger beefing,” she said, “and I’m obviously Mr. Bean. She’s J.Lo!”
If you don’t remember this whole kerfuffle, a 2020 podcast episode in which Edebiri had called J.Lo’s singing career “one long scam” was dredged up when it was announced that the two would be paired as the host/musical guest on a February episode of SNL. Edebiri apologized for her comments before the show (“[Lopez] was very chill and nice about it,” she told VF) and even poked fun at the whole debacle in a sketch later that night.
“Okay, we get it! It’s wrong to leave mean comments, or post comments just for clout, or run your mouth on a podcast, and you don’t consider the impact because you’re 24 and stupid,” she said. “But I think I speak for everyone when I say from now on, we’re going to be a lot more thoughtful about what we post online.”
But it’s not just snarky podcast comments that the Edebiri-hive is losing as her star continues to grow. Those, we could give or take; losing her presence on Letterboxd is a genuine tragedy. “My personal relationship with Letterboxd after having a very public relationship with Letterboxd is that I’m really kind of chilling,” she said of her extremely popular takes on the cinephile social media app in an additional VF video. “These people were coming after my reviews, and I’m just here to have a good time and be a little bit of a fool, okay?”
“It’s not my fault that I started off as a comedian,” she continued, in an increasingly manic (but still jokey) tone. “I was on Twitter, I was in the gutter, okay?” But while Ayo is vowing to “be a little less addicted to the internet in general,” those who are still very much in the gutter can always revisit some of her greatest hits on Letterboxd here. The new, “dramedy actress” version of Edebiri will return when The Bear season 3 hits Hulu on June 27.
58 Comments
Should ‘Finding Out’ be capitalized? I know the term if f*ck around and find out…but I can’t figure a reason why it would be capitalized. Is that normal with sayings and vernacular?
As for the story itself…there isn’t one. F*ck you, AV Club.
In this case, “Finding Out” is the name of the phase, so capitalization is acceptable.And I don’t think this article is meant as a hit piece against Ayo Edibiri; it acknowledges her self-awareness regarding her supposed ‘beefs,’ and I think reads more like a eulogy for the things she used to post/say and has to take down because she’s afraid of being James Gunn’d.And hey, it got me to watch an SNL sketch I hadn’t yet, and I found it entertaining.
“As for the story itself…there isn’t one.”Literally WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS ARTICLE? I thought I was having a stroke.
Yes, it should be. The term is a coined phrase that operates like a proper noun. Fuck Around and Find Out.
popular actress forced to withhold personality online due to maniacs, spins it as ‘be more thoughtful’. personally, i think the online maniacs could be more thoughtful.
What do the Animaniacs have to say about this?
It’s bullshit. The point often hear is that in Hollywood you can’t be honest because you may insult someone who may offer you a job someday. I think that is bullshit. If you don’t like someone’s work to publically say so then chances are you don’t want to work with them anyways. I also think people in Hollywood that make most of the decisions, IE the people with the money, generally don’t give a fuck about people’s beef and hire who will make them the most money and tell people that don’t get along to figure it the fuck out and be professional.
She’s not being honest, though. She’s just fucking around and having a laugh, doing it to be funny and amuse herself and develop fans.It’s perhaps a little unfortunate that that kind of performative goofballism can’t survive when you’re actually accomplished and popular, but it is what it is. Expecting everyone to understand your sarcasm without the /s is just not reasonable.There are times when I read a Ricky Gervais interview and feel like maybe he’s the only person truly who’s actually living a commitment to his bits like this, despite the backlash that his huge platform presents. That he is in fact mocking the assholes that hold the views he espouses, wanting people to laugh at him not with him. And that may actually be the case, but I always go back thinking, no, he’s just an asshole willing to take any laugh he can get.
I appreciate Ayo’s goal here. I knew her from comedy podcasts before she blew up, so I wasn’t surprised by the comment. I adore Ayo, and she was not wrong about JLo. Many people in the industry probably feel the same way. I know critics and other commenters have expressed the same exhaustion and bewilderment about Lopez. Also, she seems like a total c*nt.
You didn’t know her before she blew up.
I was an enthusiastic GenX viewer of In Living Color. So… I’m pretty sure I was exposed to her early days. EDIT: Oh, were you suggesting that I didn’t know Ayo before she appeared on The Bear. Because, yes, I did. Are you familiar with Hollywood Handbook? Or Blank Check? Or Iconography?
Nahhh idts.
It felt like J.Lo’s singing career was an attempt to create the idea that J.Lo was a “triple-threat entertainer,” despite having little ability to either sing or act. Not sure how she got the acting career based off of her admittedly impressive dancing skills.
Exactly, burying the truths there. J.Lo’s grift feels like it’s finally been found out. Her last album and accompanying film tanked and I don’t think her new netflix film will do well.
She doesn’t have the talent she thinks she does. She’s a great stage performer, she can put on a show and dance her behind off. But singer/actress aren’t in that wheelhouse
That all may be true, but JLo is the prototypical modern celebrity and we’re living in her world now. Others have come along and done it better, but she set the terms for better or worse.
There’s no story here.
Kept waiting for this to go somewhere, but nope, of course not.
But two celebrities are kinda sorta feuding on the internet! You can’t expect Nu AV Club to ignore that hot goss! FOR THE CLICKS!!
I truly don’t understand what this article is about. It rehashes the Jennifer Lopez thing which is very old news. It mentions in passing something about The Departed but doesn’t follow though. And she had a relationship with something called Letterboxd but now she’s chilling, I guess? What is this article saying?
she had a funny review of the departed on letterboxd.
But why is that news?? What’s being reported here? That she had a funny review of The Departed on Letterboxd?
THE A.I. WILL NOT BE QUESTIONED
In a new interview…There. That’s what the story is about. First four words of the subheader.What even is this comment section anymore?
But it doesn’t tell us anything from the interview. This article has no point of view or comment on the interview at all. It is an incoherent rehash of the interview with no connectivity from one “point” to the next.
the point is that you have to be careful saying hurtful things on the internet, as simple as that.
Except the only hurtful thing she said on the internet, as far as this article shares, is the J. Lo thing, which, again, is very old news. What does the Letterboxd thing have to do with saying hurtful things on the internet?
What I really don’t get is what is your point, at this point. What exactly do you want and expect.
A coherent news story with a clearly identifiable point that makes sense from one sentence to the next and contains new news. Not just a mishmash of quotes pulled from another article. But if you’re happy with this story and feel edified by it, then more power to you, truly.
It recaps the Letterboxed thing. She used to fuck around writing goofy reviews on Letterboxd, which the author clearly appreciated. She’s since had people “coming for” her reviews, since they seem to take it all very seriously while she’s just having a laugh, much like she’s stopped shit posting about J Loans the like. The author attributes this to her being a rising star who isn’t an anonymous up and comer, but is now an established dramedy actress who gets a bit more scrutiny.Agree that the article could be better written, and that some of this requires interpolating from what’s presented and what we already know if you caught the first half of this story when she was hosting SNL. It also relies probably perhaps too much on slangy quotes from Edibiri that are kind of hard to parse if you haven’t seen that jargon before. But that said, this is far from bad as far as AV Club articles go. I mean yes it’s inherently terrible as it’s another one in a long line of articles that merely rehash another site’s original content, but this isn’t one where I had to click into the links to the original to either (a) understand it or (b) verify how wrong it was on one of the issues presented.
“But that said, this is far from bad as far as AV Club articles go.”I mean it’s just that you spent two paragraphs detailing the article’s faults, so I’m not sure I believe that you even believe that, but if this word salad made sense to you then more power to you, honestly. If you like it, I love it.
No I didn’t. Apparently your reading comprehension issues aren’t limited to just this piece.
Yes, definitely my reading comprehension issues and not terrible writing. I will say if this looks like good writing to you, I weep for your brain and the kind of shit you’ve been feeding it.
Look, I get it’s VERY IMPORTANT for you to win this argument, but now you’re actively misrepresenting what I said. I never said it was good writing, just far from bad as far as recent AV Club articles go. I mean shit, you seemed personally offended when I explained to you what the article said (understanding I gained from, you know, reading it). If understanding the content you read isn’t what you’re after, then why the fuck are you even here?
Okay, I’ll rephrase, if you think this is “far from bad,” I still weep for your brain and the kind of shit you’ve been feeding it. I don’t know why you think that’s any better. You can’t recognize bad writing, and I think that’s sad. But that’s okay. I’m not trying to win anything. I think the article is bad and you’re trying to convince me that it’s “far from bad.” I’m not trying to convince you that it’s bad. I’m just saying I think it’s bad.I’d love an explanation as to how I “seemed” personally offended, since I definitely was not personally offended, but you don’t need to bother. I do want to understand what the article is about, and much obliged, truly, but I’d also like the article to be understandable on its own without a primer from other commenters. But again—if you think this article made sense and is “far from bad,” then, if you like it I love it, as I said before. I don’t know why you feel the need to convince me that it was “far from bad.” It shouldn’t bother you that much that I think it’s awful. Maybe Emma’s your cousin, in which case I apologize for insulting your family’s honor? We can duel about it if you want.
Count me among the readers who have no fucking idea what’s going on here. But I have to say, “claiming you were the dialect coach on The Departed, but only for the word ‘microprocessors’” is “Dr. Evil’s dad making outrageous claims like he invented the question mark”-levels of hilarious.
I had the AV Club liquidated, they were being insolent!
> “That would be like Mr. Bean and Mick Jagger beefing,” she said, “and I’m obviously Mr. Bean. She’s J.Lo!”Damn, she really starting a beef with beloved British celebrity Rowan Atkinson, huh? Guess she ain’t done f*cking around at all, AV Club.
One advice I always give to anyone giving criticism online – do it as if the target of that criticism was sitting in front of you, listening. For two reasons: the “fuck around/find out” one and because you really want to remember there is a human being there in the target after all.
I genuinely don’t believe the AV Club has any employee named “Emma Keates” and that it’s just a generic white girl name they invented to attach to another article written by ChatGPT. I know the content quality here has been crashing since Herb took over, but I have to be convinced that anyone who thinks of themselves as a writer could be this terrible at it. This article is so bad it can’t be real.
We don’t even have the Herb to blame anymore and the writing is still shoddy.
if Taylor Swift called J Lo’s career a scam it would be a beef, if Meryl Streep did, it would be an insult, if a comedian does it…it’s a little different. It would have been more different if it was like “you know how I know J Lo’s singing career is a scam?” But still, every mean thing people have said in their lives isn’t a gigantic deal. Also just be anonymous on the internet and you can be mean until AI unmasks you at some pointAlso, J Lo’s singing career is a scam. I honestly wonder if she paid people to come to her concerts at some point. I mean, she was a fly girl so obvi a great dancer, she has been okay in a few movies (out of sight) and awful in many more (Hustlers…which was just “yay we drug and rob people girl power!”) but her music career is like…seems imaginary, I’ve never met anyone who listens to her music.
She spent 20 million of her own money for her recent movie. It didn’t do well.
yikes, do you mean the one with Owen Wilson or the one with Josh Duhamel? I think both pretty much bombed but $20MM? Yikes. Atlas looks terrible (sci-fi where it looks like every shot is up the characters’ noses so you can see there’s no set). “Kiss of the Spider Woman” is a smart move: established director, property that was already a successful movie and a successful musical…the problem is that it hinges on what we are talking about, believing that she is a sensational music star. TBH, I’m not a big Soderbergh fan but they should reunite and do a Karen Sisco movie.
it’s neither of those it’s a weird music video style experimental film called this is me…now: a love story
Oy…well…hopefully she’s in love with herself enough that we don’t have to be
This Is Me…Now: A Love Story. I thought she turned in a good performance in The Cell. It’s just an all around great film.
I thought it was torture porn, but I like Tarsem’s other work especially “The Fall”
Unfortunately I didn’t get to see The Fall. I’ve never found it streaming anywhere and still unsure if I can buy it. Did you not like The Cell?
I didn’t when it came out, it seemed like, as I said, torture porn, just with better production values…like in the line of that movie where the daughter on 24 was abducted. Maybe I’ll give it part of another chance at some point. The Fall is for sale on DVD, it’s a bit pricy for a DVD, but it’s one of the films I have shown to the most people. Highly recommend.
Thanks! I do remember seeing it for sale and it was pricey. I think I should treat myself, though, because his aesthetic is singular. I admit I hadn’t considered The Cell as torture porn merely because I hadn’t thought of it. Weird because I found Game of Thrones repulsive. The Cell is graphic. Maybe I’m waffling because those scenes are so essential to understanding Stargher’s movitations, and I think that Singh was very sensitive to the horrors of child abuse. There is no worse kind of abuse. He made it beautiful, absolutely, but I still can’t see it as porn because I don’t see it as gratuitous and I think that’s the main contributor to a “porn” effect. Even though it was visually gorgeous, that aesthetic made it so much more horrifying. The scenes, as awful as they were, were highly detailed and those details were aligned with layers of meaing. My own abusers were obsessed with aesthetic perfection, so it resonated with me. He was also working with some very deep symbology. Now I want to research it all day and write more, but I don’t want to wear out my welcome. I’m grateful for your POV. It really got me thinking.
I would definitely try to find it used first, but Criterion charges like $36 all the time and it should really be in the Criterion Collection. Somebody should do a film series called “I’m going to tell you a story” with The Fall, The Princess Bride, Baron Munchausen, The Usual Suspects, and maybe even that pretty bad George Miller COVID genie movie a Thousand Years of Solitude. I was very sorry to hear about your past.
That’s kind of you. Funny you should mention Criterion. I ended my subscription because they didn’t have any of the films I wanted on streaming; classics you’d expect to see there. I’m a Berman fan. There’s Hitchcock, but not much. I like your idea for a film series. I haven’t heard of the COVID genie movie. Miller is a trip.
It had Idris Elba and Tilda Swinton and was mostly shot in one room, and then the stories were shot with non-recognizable actors in far-off places that apparently did not have the same protocols. i usually like what Criterion offers, but if you have torrents etc, all those movies are available
Interesting! I don’thave the tech savvy for that, I’m afraid.
if you have a firestick, modding it to download the app called “Cinema” is very easy, instructions online, just know that it often is slow and annoying 😀
Thanks for the info!
That’s because she’s not really Jennifer Lopez. She’s….
I don’t what that meant but I love her in The Bear and I thought the movie Bottoms was hilarious especially the scenes with Marshawn Lynch.