In news that will doubtless make the hearts of the Jersey Shore cast swell with pride, a new MTV reality show is under fire after some idiots did something awful. According to The Hollywood Reporter, a planned premiere party for Siesta Key, the new reality series from the channel, has been canceled after one of the show’s stars received death threats. Sure, Snooki may have been punched in the face once, but this probably qualifies as a worrying level of anger.
The subject of the threats is one Alex Kompothecras, star of the series and presumable wannabe Kardashian. The cancelation was supposedly a result of the furious social media reaction to a “shark-dragging” video, in which a live shark is seen being dragged behind a boat at high speed. Animal rights activists—and people who just don’t like assholes, more broadly—were quick to condemn those responsible, one of whom turns out to be friends with Kompothecras. And since internet rules require outrage to be sprayed like a fire hose, burying even bystanders in the vicinity of something bad in a deluge of moral judgement and anger, a boycott of the series was launched, and Kompothecras was targeted for his association with the persons in the video.
Kompothecras was quick to defend himself, boldly resorting to tactics like noting that he is actually a different person than the one who dragged the shark, wasn’t on the boat, and doesn’t condone the behavior. “I had absolutely nothing to do with the shark video. Yes he’s a friend of mine, but no I don’t agree with what he did. Check your facts before you go posting on my page. Thanks,” he wrote (on an Instagram post that has since had all comments deleted), which sounds reasonable even before factoring in people making death threats against him regarding something with which he had nothing to do.
Of course, if he wanted to come out of the fracas looking wholly innocent of any wrongdoing, perhaps Kompothecras shouldn’t have done things like post a picture of himself giving the thumbs up after capturing and killing a hammerhead shark, a threatened animal covered by the U.S. Endangered Species Act. That would’ve been a good start. Or if you do, make sure the group boycotting your show can’t find it and use it to make you look the shithead you’re desperately trying to avoid being seen as.