About

Is Mastercard A Queer Ally? Is This TV Show My Friend? refers to a catchphrase born from a tweet skewering pop culture criticism that prioritizes analyzing a piece of media's politics over its content. The tweet has often been cited as a joke about various articles and arguments about pop culture content, particularly if that content is well-funded, such as a major television show or music from a rich artist. It has also been used as a snowclone in which some of the proper nouns are changed.

Origin

On July 3rd, 2015, Twitter user @negaversace tweeted, "Is [pop star] a feminist? Is Mastercard a queer ally? Is this TV show my friend?" The tweet skewered discussions of pop culture that prioritize the politics of major media productions rather than the content. It has since been deleted but gained at least 15,000 retweets and 35,000 likes before then. Screenshots of the post remain online (example^[1] shown below).

Spread

Since 2015, the tweet has been commonly used to comment on various discourses happening online. For example, in 2018, it was quoted in an Elle article^[2] about the idea of "feminist robots." The same year, it was quoted in a Medium^[3] article by Eleanor Robertson about the state of pop culture discourse.

The tweet has seen similar use on social media. For example, on November 28th, 2021, Twitter user @Julian_finite^[5] used it to joke about an article claiming Immanuel Kant was the first "woke" philosopher, gaining over 15 retweets and 120 likes in two and a half years (shown below, left). On December 22nd, 2022, user @IslesFGC^[7] used it to joke about a tweet asking if Batman's Wayne Enterprises was "pro-union" (shown below, right).

On April 19th, 2023, Twitter user @c0mmunicants^[6] joked about the conservative outrage toward Bud Light with the phrase, gaining 20 likes in one year (shown below, left). On November 9th, 2023, Twitter user @unclearredtide^[4] used it to joke about a person saying an Abbott Elementary cast member should be fired for being a Zionist, gaining over 20 retweets and 390 likes in seven months (shown below, right).

Various Examples

Search Interest

Unavailable

External References