It's a day that ends with "y" so that means the internet is mad at model and author Chrissy Teigen.
But this time, they may have a point.
Teigen is being raked over the coals for hosting an ultra lavish party themed after the Netflix series Squid Game—including having her house redone to resemble the show's set and thousands of dollars of prizes for guests.
Given the Korean drama's focus is the abuses of capitalism and its setting is a game show that debases the poor for the entertainment of the rich?
Well... suffice to say Teigen's soiree didn't exactly go over very well with the internet.
Teigen's Instagram comments quickly filled up with detractors.
Squid Game is a South Koren series about a fictional game show in which 456 people drowning in debt sign up for a series of children's games all but assured to kill them for the chance to win a prize pool of 45.6 billion Korean Won—about $38 million.
And it's all for the entertainment of wildly rich international "VIPs" who wager on the contestants' chances of surviving and winning.
It doesn't take a political science degree to suss out the whole thing is a commentary on capitalism and income inequality—and Teigen would qualify as one of the betting "VIPs," not a contestant.
Given that context, Teigen's party struck many people as tone deaf at best.
The obvious opulence of the party alone is eyebrow-raising—party planning firm Wife of the Party transformed Teigen's and husband John Legend's house into a replica of the Squid Game set, no cheap undertaking.
But then there are the smaller details of the Gatsby-level bash that made people pause and say, "Really?"
Details like the decorative piggy banks full of cash hung around the house. Or the waiters dressed as the Squid Game "guards," who collaborate to sell the organs of the contestants who die during the game show.
Or how about the giant check presented to the winner of Teigen's version of Squid Game? Surely it was for charity, right?
Sorry, but no. Unless the recipient chooses to do so.
Otherwise it's just a prize for one of Teigen's friends that includes a flight to Napa Valley and dinner at ultra-exclusive restaurant French Laundry, where a tasting menu starts at $350 per person. Or at least it did before the pandemic—it's now $850 per person for a private booking.
While it may have all been fun and games for Teigen and her celebrity VIPs, many regular people on the internet were shocked by the lack of self-awareness of it all.
They sounded off about it on Twitter and Instagram.
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Teigen has frequently found herself the target of online criticism—so much so she briefly left Twitter in March.
She returned three weeks later.
u/Duskymoonlight/Reddit
u/Duskymoonlight/Reddit