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25th Jul 2023

Ben Shapiro so upset by Barbie he posted a 43-minute rant and set fire to dolls

Steve Hopkins

Shaprio may have set Barbie on fire, but he was the one getting roasted

Barbie has, quite literally, got a roasting from Ben Shapiro.

The conservative US commentator and media personality torched a few plastic dolls in a trash can in a 43-minute review of the box-office-busting movie that stars Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling.

In a tweet last Friday, Shaprio wrote that his producers “dragged me to see Barbie” and that it was one of the “most woke movies I have ever seen”. He added that his full review of this “flaming garbage heap of a film” will soon be posted to YouTube.

Quite fittingly, he toasted a few Barbie dolls at the top of the video.

Shapiro’s views echo that of Piers Morgan, who wrote a damning review in The Sun.

But, while people didn’t really bother to get outraged about Morgan’s analysis, Shapiro’s has sparked a fair amount of comment. Mostly, social media had fun roasting him.

Twitter users were quick to note that Shapiro was wearing a black T-shirt with black pants – the exact outfit worn by Gosling as Ken in the film’s musical performance, The Independent noted.

“My brother in Christ. You are wearing a Ken cosplay,” one Twitter user wrote.

Shapiro’s review – entitled Ben Shaprio destroys The Barbie movie for 43 minutes – begins with him lamenting that he wasted “two hours of my precious time, two hours I will never get back, two hours around my deathbed I will wish that I had not spent that time doing. It makes me viscerally angry”.

First, the right-wing pundit claims the intended audience for the flick is seven-year-old girls, so several parts of the story are too mature, such as referencing a major Supreme Court case, sexual remarks, and the main character thinking about death.

Shaprio also took issue with the film including a transgender character and dismisses the claim that the real world in the film has a patriarchal system.

“I mean, Greta Gerwig is a lady. She’s making a good living off of this,” Shapiro says about the film’s director.

“Margot Robbie is playing the lead. In fact, the entire cast aside from basically Ryan Gosling is women, so it seems like women are doing okay.”

Shapiro was mocked for going to the movie just so he could get mad about the movie.

“Dude went to go watch Barbie just to get mad lmao,” YouTuber Mutahar tweeted. Connor Franta added: “Just like my sister ‘forced’ me to watch America’s Next Top Model when I was younger.”

Twitter user, Comfortably Smug, wrote: “Admit it – you hated the film because Barbie is taller than you.”

“They finally make a movie for people who are 12 inches tall with no genitals and those people don’t even like it,” comedy writer Jesse McLaren said.

MSNBC host and former White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki wrote: “That does it…I was not sure if I would go see it….but now I will definitely go….at a minimum maybe Barbie will tell us all what woke means…”

Barbie scored a US$377m (£293m, A$560m) opening weekend around the world, making it the biggest debut ever for a film directed by a woman, The Guardian reported.

At the North American box office – which combines the US and Canada – Barbie claimed $155m in ticket sales, surpassing The Super Mario Bros Movie and every Marvel film released this year to become the biggest opening of the year.

Related links:

Piers Morgan slams Barbie film for being ‘demonstrable lie’ in huge rant

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Cinema-goers urged to buy snacks and support theatres if watching Barbie or Oppenheimer