E! has angered a lot of people after publishing an article in which a writer said that Sunday's Teen Choice Awards made her feel old because she didn't know who any of the YouTube and Vine stars were.
Here are 18 moments at the #TeenChoiceAwards that made us feel SUPER old: http://t.co/CHgQ1DFU3R
The article, by online editor Seija Rankin, was called "18 Moments From the 2015 Teen Choice Awards That Made Us Feel Super Old." In it, Rankin discusses how she felt totally confused watching the awards because she didn't recognize many of the stars.
"There were entire categories in which we'd never heard of the nominees. Eva Gutowski? Lele Pans? Joey Graceffa? Felix Kjellberg? Are those even real people?" she wrote.
Some of the stars' millions of fans didn't take too kindly to Rankin's words. After E! tweeted the story, its Twitter account was bombarded with angry messages.
@eonline this is the most ignorant article i've ever read. I can't believe this was allowed to be published.
@eonline this article is so rude, it was a TEENS choice awards, of course you who is in your late twenties/early thirties, didn't know any
Some weren't mad — just disappointed.
@eonline I usually love E! And now I'm just thoroughly disappointed
Many people were also angered by another part of Rankin's article, in which she wrote she couldn't believe how revealing some of the stars' outfits were.
@eonline besides you shouldn't be shaming women for what they. We wear what we think it's comfortable and suitable for us. So disgusting
Some of the stars mentioned in the article tweeted to E! that they wanted to introduce themselves.
Hi @eonline! My name is Joey Graceffa, YouTube creator and New York Times bestselling author, so nice to meet you! http://t.co/dJkp8s3162
Gutowski called the article "embarrassing."
I hope E knows how embarrassing this is for them. https://t.co/AKhYm3URmE
And Pons mostly stuck to retweeting people making fun of the way the article misspelled her name.
@lelepons who is lele pans 😂
As the angry messages grew, E! decided to tweet a reference to its show The Grace Helbig Show, which stars YouTube star Grace Helbig. The tweet also included a snarky photo of Kermit sipping tea.
Remember that time we gave a YouTube star their own TV show? 🐸☕️
However, Helbig made it clear she wasn't on Team E!, tweeting that its response was "embarrassing."
This is embarrassing, @eonline. https://t.co/Agia73nCxF
An E! spokesperson said in a statement to BuzzFeed News that the article was meant to be "humorous."
E! has always been supportive of the YouTube community and big fans of its stars who are regularly featured on E! News and across our programming. This particular E! Online story about the Teen Choice Awards was intended to be an irreverent, humorous take on the event. The corresponding tweet was taken out of context of a larger conversation, and was only meant to point out E!'s series with the incredibly funny and talented Grace Helbig, reinforcing how much the network values YouTube stars.
Rankin did not immediately return a request for comment from BuzzFeed News, but the author tweeted that the angry fans don't understand "sarcasm."
E! Online will be holding a Master Class in Sarcasm, and judging by Twitter post-Teen Choice Awards it seems like all of America needs it