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December 23 is Festivus, the “holiday for the rest of us” popularized by Seinfeld that involves an “airing of grievances” — all of the annoying things that happened in the last year — followed by “feats of strength,” such as wrestling the head of the household to the ground. Instead of a tree, there’s a “Festivus pole,” usually made out of aluminum because George’s father Frank Costanza thought tinsel was “distracting.” In fact, last week, a Florida blogger set up one made out of PBR cans to protest a nativity scene in the rotunda of the Florida state capitol building in Tallahassee.
So in honor of the beloved parody holiday, NewsFeed looks back at some of the people — well-known and lesser-known — who went viral for airing their grievances in 2013:
• The woman who screamed at an Apple Store employee became a hit on Vine:
• 9News anchor Kyle Clark’s on-air viewpoint urged Colorado residents to upload fewer boring photos of snow-covered patio furniture to social media and more of the state’s breathtaking natural landscape:
“Why is it that every time it snows we whip out photos of our patio sets like we’re showing off baby photos of our kids?…If you like it, then you shoulda put a thing on it, like a disgruntled dog or your husband drinking a beer.”
• Chicago business owner Hasan Syed spent more than $1,000 on a promoted tweet to complain about British Airways after the airline lost his father’s luggage on a flight from Chicago to Paris.
• Writer and comedian Marina V. Shifrin announced she quit her job at the Taiwanese video company Next Media Animation in a YouTube clip that has racked up more than 17 million views. “For almost two years, I’ve sacrificed my relationships, time and energy for this job, and my boss only cares about quantity and how many views each video gets,” subtitles say as she dances to Kanye West’s “I’m Gone.”
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• Martha Stewart took to Twitter to mourn a broken iPad:
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• In an Instagram rant, Justin Bieber accused the media of perpetuating rumors that he’s going to rehab and that he’s a disappointment to his family: “Everyone in my team has been telling me, ‘keep the press happy,’ but I’m tired of all the countless lies in the press right now.”
• An employee at the Golden Corral in Port Orange, Florida, who identified himself as “Brandon Huber,” posted a video of raw meat lying near the restaurant’s dumpster. “I don’t want to cook this food, I don’t feel safe with it,” he said in the clip, which has more than 3.8 million views. The corporate headquarters responded on Twitter, assuring customers that the patties had never been served.
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• Smartphone video captured Jeff Bliss, then a sophomore at Duncanville High School near Dallas, standing in front of a classroom, yelling about how ineffective his social studies instructor’s teaching style was, thus sparking a conversation about the nation’s education system: “If you would just get up and teach them instead of handing them a frickin’ packet, yo. There’s kids in here that don’t learn like that. They need to learn face-to-face.”
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• During a kind of breakdown that unfolded over Twitter, Amanda Bynes, who was hospitalized over the summer, called numerous public figures ugly — Courtney Love, Miley Cyrus, Rihanna, even the Obamas.
LIST: Top 10 Feuds of 2013
LIST: Top 10 Apologies of 2013