Tina Fey Roasts People Who Believed That Fake ‘Golden Girls’ Poster

I’m still weaning myself off of using Facebook by writing people’s birthdays into a calendar. I don’t need the pictures of me in high school/college; I just want to not rely on a third party to remember when to say happy birthday. So, I’ll still peruse Facebook on occasion. Because of that, I am often bombarded by older members of my immediate and extended family sharing s*** that is so egregiously fake it would require mere moments of critical thinking to suss out.

This was a problem long before AI. For instance, folks would share photos of, say, Abraham Lincoln featuring “real quotes” from the 16th President of the United States. However, on close inspection, the quotes are usually wildly specific to modern times and, ya know, fake. They would often stop short of saying, “You’re right to think Donald Trump is a bad president.” That’s true, but not something Abraham Lincoln said or alluded to. It also doesn’t help that the photo would often be of Daniel Day-Lewis’ portrayal of the politician.

The advancement of AI has only made the platform a bigger hotbed for misinformation. But, ideally, it should make it easier to spot. I understand wanting to believe a famous person said something you like or agree with. What I can’t understand is seeing something like Donald Trump at a barbecue with Black people or Elon Musk sitting happily with all of his children and thinking, “Yup, that’s real.” Some AI photos are hard to spot, but they mostly resemble slop if you look for more than a moment.

There’s also a need for critical thinking. What if the pictures don’t look like garbage? Then, just think for a moment. Would Trump be caught dead sharing a meal with Black folks who aren’t sucking up to him or giving him money? No. Does Elon Musk love his children? No. These are easily verifiable facts. Like, for instance, a reboot of a legendary comedy show like The Golden Girls led by four of the funniest women ever, being announced with only a poster and not wall-to-wall press.

Look at that s***! How anyone could look at this and not know it’s fake is insane to me, but I definitely saw people I know sharing it when it went viral last year. I don’t expect everyone to know the ins and outs of Hollywood, but I expect them to have enough common sense to know Disney wouldn’t release a poster that looks this friggin’ bad. They’d sooner drop a picture of the title with only the names attached before they released something this horrendous.

I’m not the only one who thinks so. Tina Fey addressed the fake poster recently when talking to Entertainment Weekly. “Oh, this. I did know about this,” she noted. “I like that this was fooling people. Like, why would we ever take a picture where Amy and Lisa Kudrow are in costume, but we’re not? If this fooled you, you might be a Boomer. And if you’re Gen X, and this fooled you, go to a hospital.” I appreciate that Fey doesn’t let her generation off the hook. This problem is not specific to boomers.

I don’t know if there is a fix to this problem. It’s only going to get worse. Hopefully, people will attempt to improve their media literacy. We have to value education on these matters as a society and… and… we’re so screwed, you guys.