Fired IT Staff Deliver Parting Diss at Billboard

Animal House-themed post announcing layoffs was quickly deleted
By Arden Dier,  Newser Staff
Posted Apr 15, 2020 7:51 AM CDT
Updated Apr 18, 2020 11:00 AM CDT
Fired IT Staff Deliver Parting Diss at Billboard
Kent “Flounder” Dorfman, played by Stephen Furst, is pictured in a scene from "Animal House."   (YouTube)

Revenge is apparently best served by Kent "Flounder" Dorfman. A photo of the Animal House character described as having a 0.2 grade point average topped a late Tuesday article published by Billboard with the headline "Billboard / Hollywood Reporter lays off entire IT staff due to Covid19." In fact, Billboard's website had been "vandalized" by its fired IT staff, per Gizmodo. The article, including a dig at bosses, came as Valence Media announced layoffs at various publications, including Billboard and the Hollywood Reporter, where the New York Post reported 35% of newsroom jobs were to be slashed.

"The online Billboard Charts are essentially perfect, so IT staff are no longer needed. Fat drunk and stupid is no way to go through life," read the post with the byline "devops," which was tweeted by Billboard's official account before being deleted, though it can still be seen here. "Fat, drunk and stupid is no way to go through life, son" is a line told to Flounder, played by Stephen Furst, in "the classic slobs-versus-snobs comedy," per Gizmodo. "If we can learn anything from this, it's to consider the human impact of profit-driven decision-making," per Vulture, "and also perhaps to revisit Animal House during quarantine." (More layoffs stories.)

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