The Guardian Calls Anne Hathaway A 'Secret Gooner' And Discovers There Is Another Definition Of That Word

This is why you need to know your meme, folks.

This morning, The Guardian put out an op-ed on actress Anne Hathaway which featured the line, "The internet has already embraced Anne Hathaway’s decision to come out as a secret Gooner," but investigated the actress's history of Gooning to cast doubt on whether she was a true Gooner.

Of course, The Guardian was discussing whether Hathaway was a sincere supporter of the English Premier League team Arsenal, whose supporters have been calling themselves "Gooners" since the 1980s. The name is a play on Arsenal's team nickname, the "Gunners."

In the piece, author Stuart Heritage mentions a recent Hathaway interview in which she seemed excited to learn that Arsenal had scored in a match that was taking place concurrently. He then jokingly wonders if she was a true "Gooner" when she hasn't attended any of the team's matches, nor made her fandom public knowledge up until that point.

The piece was intended to be humorous, and it sure was on social media, though not for the reasons Heritage or The Guardian intended.

For many online who are not intimately acquainted with the fandom names of Premier League football clubs, "gooning" is a relatively new, popular and saucy slang word that essentially means to self-pleasure oneself for an extended period to achieve a nirvana-like state.

The Guardian's headline, "Anne Hathaway Is a Secret Gooner and Now Her Reinvention Is Complete," was simply too good to not instantly get clowned on.

Unfortunately for Gooners of all kinds, The Guardian has now updated its headline to read, "Anne Hathaway Is a Secret Arsenal Fan and Now Her Reinvention Is Complete." We may have had something to do with that.