For 13 years, “The Wendy Williams Show” dominated popular culture commentary, with a new episode released every weekday. During her “Hot Topics” segment, Williams covered tabloid headlines, celebrity news and current issues. She was a shock-jock known to voice her personal opinions and address celebrities directly, giving them brutally honest and grossly comical advice.
Since production of “The Wendy Williams Show” ended in 2021 due to Williams’ health concerns, popular culture discourse has spun out of control. The internet has turned into an echo chamber sanctuary for complainers, whiners, crybabies, snivellers and groaners to relentlessly criticize the lives of celebrities whilst avoiding getting out of bed and having to face the cold, hard world.
As a popular culture commentator, Wendy Williams effectively represented and acknowledged judgemental thoughts and personal qualms that everyday people have about others. She also introduced new things to hate on the very next day, which provided regularly scheduled cultural cycling. (Woop woop!)
Yet, without Williams, we are stuck in a cycle, unable to refresh topics or make any original commentary. Think about it: How many times within the past six months have you seen someone complain about something slightly unsavory that Chappell Roan may have done on TikTok, Twitter or Threads? The answer is undoubtedly high.
It’s aggravating going on the internet in an attempt to wind down or have fun, and being bombarded with the same thing over and over again, especially when the discourse becomes not just repetitive but also hateful. We need to return to the era where there was a sense of lightheartedness in popular culture gossip rather than malice.
Without Williams, people feel that their opinions on celebrities are unrepresented, which ultimately encourages everyone to be their own Williams on the internet. Tons of Joe-Schmoes go on the web and post what they think, and then the rest of us are left with social media feeds flooded with unbearably negative commentary.
While writing this, I opened my Instagram explore page to see a photo of Timotheé Chalamet posing with Florence Pugh at an event for “Dune: Part Two.” The comments are as follows: “I don’t get why he is with Kylie Jenner,” “I’’m so tired of seeing Timotheé Chalamet; does anyone else feel this way?” and “So why TF is he with old poker face Kylie Jenner … so weird.”
The world of popular culture has spoken: Chalamet’s relationship with Kylie Jenner is not popular. Yet, we do not need over 500 people in the comment section reiterating the same thing over and over, with a variety of grammar errors so bad it’s almost impressive.
Society needs a Wendy Williams, someone who is recognized as the Queen Hater, so that all the little haters can worship the condensed hate-gospel for the day and move on.
With the reinstatement of our Queen, there would be new-found space on the internet for commentary on more important issues. If we remain hypnotized by the digital invasion of the privacy of models, actors and singers, whom we give unreasonable and dangerous levels of attention to, maybe we would actually pay attention to the world around us. Maybe we could take another step towards being a universally well-informed society.
On another important note, there has been groundbreaking popular culture drama since “The Wendy Williams Show” went off-air and we have been deprived of Williams’ coverage. We haven’t gotten to hear what she thinks about the Diddy allegations, Katy Perry working with Dr. Luke after the Kesha trials or the conspiracy theories claiming that Beyonce is a serial killer.
I wish that I knew #WhatWouldWendyDo?
I acknowledge the fact that for many, Wendy Williams came off as abrasive, rude, overly audacious and problematic. But the National Radio Hall of Fame inductee had a job that served a purpose and she did it well.
No matter anyone’s moral qualms with the national projection of celebrity criticism for entertainment, no one will ever be able to convince all the gossip-lovers in the world to suddenly shut up. In the present day, four years after the discontinuation of “The Wendy Williams Show,” it has become clear that the show did not serve as enablement for haters but instead soothed them.
People will butt in and criticize with or without Williams, but she helped everyone move on to something fresh and stop beating dead horses. Let the popular culture fanatics have their Queen, and let us be free of the vicious and repetitive cycle that has recently characterized popular culture. There’s a reason she never let anyone touch her microphone … No one can hate like she can. #FreeWendy
Celeste Cariker PZ ’28 is from San Juan Capistrano, CA. She intends to major in political studies and has special interests in social justice and law. In her free time, she plays guitar, lifts weights and listens to music.
