Oscar, James and George in the company of Bertie

Internet flaming is only interesting for a little while, and then it gets boring and a little sickening, like a sugar high. Actually, it's usually not even interesting (in the intellectual sense) to begin with. It's exciting, agitating, activating—things that are easy to confuse with interest. Real interest is quieter and a little more stable. I'm a big fan of classic hard-hitting literary wit, but it doesn't work on the internet. You need a smaller, closed system for it to work—like the literary salon Monty Python were making fun of here: ▶ this video .

A TikTok spokesperson said the goal was to prevent bullying on the platform, tying the document to a report from December that showed that the company was suppressing vulnerable users’ videos in a misguided effort to prevent them from becoming the centre of attention that could turn sour. Now that is some fine spin! Reminds of the Oscar Wilde sketch. ▶ this video

That's a haunting image, but it's so close to the premise of this classic Monty Python sketch that my mind leaps immediately to it anyway: ▶ this video .