Notorious object of sometimes-legitimate, sometimes-misplaced Internet scorn Lena Dunham is ruffling feathers again. Not for not having enough black people on her show, or signing an inflated seven-figure book deal, but this time for “joking” about notorious Canadian serial killers Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka and their victims. Following friend Mindy Kaling’s suggestion that she, Dunham, and B.J. Novak dress as the West Memphis Three for Halloween, Dunham upped the ante in her patented, unflinching, “I’ll-say-anything” way, tweeting, “You guys go as killer Canadian couple Paul Bernardo & Karla Homolka. I’ll be her sister they murdered. Scariest! Luv U.”
The offending tweet didn’t go over so well in Canada, despite Canadians’ usual tendency to feel sycophantically honored anytime the nation’s name passes the lips of a real-deal American. Confirming the tweet’s offensiveness, The Toronto Star contacted the lawyer who represented families of the victims raped and murdered by Bernardo (a.k.a. The Scarborough Rapist, a.k.a. The Schoolgirl Killer) and his wife throughout the late 1980s and early 1990s, as well as a professor of ethics, who deemed the tweet in “extremely bad taste.” Still, you don’t really need a professor emeritus of sensitivity to tell you that making cracks about serial murderers that are still pretty fresh in the public’s mind—especially cracks that bear none of the discernible markers of actual jokes—isn't exactly a smart thing to do.