Actor and comedian John Mulaney has taken to Instagram to lambaste users for sending death threats to his wife Olivia Munn and their kids.
Munn sparked major controversy last week when she said in a People magazine interview that she hates watching popular kids' YouTuber Ms. Rachel, whose full name is Rachel Anne Griffin Accurso.
Given Ms. Rachel's outspoken advocacy for victims of the Gaza genocide, people assumed Munn's comments were a subtle dig at her work on the matter.
In an Instagram Story, Mulaney said the uproar escalated to death threats even after Ms. Rachel herself asked fans to direct their ire at People, not Munn.
Mulaney wrote:
“An innocent comment my wife Olivia Munn made about what children’s programs we like has somehow — unbelievably — been conflated with not caring about the deaths of children in Gaza."
" “Because of this, my wife and my two kids are now receiving violent and threatening comments and messages in her DMs."
"This is absolutely insane and needs to stop. The people doing this are so wildly out of line and so unhelpful to any conversation... This kind of behavior is not activism."
In the since-deleted People article in question, Munn also said she dislikes Blue's Clues and other kids' programming, simply because she finds children's television grating and annoying. That seemed to have escaped the notice of the "activists" in question.
What seems to have initially sparked the outcry was a since-deleted post from Ms. Rachel herself highlighting the way People was focusing on Munn's comment rather than her work in Gaza itself.
In that post, she explicitly laid the blame at the feet of People, not Munn, a sentiment she reiterated in a more recent post asking her fans to leave Munn and Mulaney alone.
Many online have praised Mulaney's response, especially because incidents like this give fodder to those who have consistently smeared Gaza advocates as unhinged.
"'This kind of behaviour isn’t activism' feels crucial. Streamline your efforts into something useful, like contacting your local politicians or donating or sharing information.:"
"I think people just want someone to cancel and hate and hide under the guise of caring about what’s going on in the world." —Dismal_Answer_2761
"they're sending threats to children to show... they care about children?" —Classic-Carpet7609
"It's extremely clear she's saying that she doesn't like to watch little kid's shows because they're not entertaining or interesting to adults... Munn is obviously not saying anything about Ms. Rachel's (good, cool) advocacy for Gaza, but she's also not even saying anything very negative about Ms. Rachel in general!"
"Are, we, like OK? As a species?" —ThatSpencerGuy
The answer to that question is no, we are not—and the fact that an entire mob of people ended up sending death threats to kids over a controversy they invented themselves due to their own lack of media literacy and refusal to read beyond a headline is the proof.
Meanwhile, how many more kids in Gaza died while these people were spending their time and energy screaming at Olivia Munn on Instagram?
@An_Enemy_Within/X