keep hitting Reply All or the virus can infect your computers

February 21, 2025 11:22 AM

The Lorne Michaels Book-Event Thread Is the Reply-All Disaster We Need [New York Magazine; ungated]
posted by chavenet (33 comments total)

This is what I needed today. Who knew Jon Hamm was such a chaos agent.
posted by warriorqueen at 11:26 AM on February 21 [10 favorites]

Yeah, I like how Jon Hamm aged himself up in his replies, like he was wearing a sweater vest and putting on the bifocals.
posted by Kitteh at 11:41 AM on February 21 [5 favorites]

I really loved Lorne Michaels when he was in Bonanza.
posted by dances_with_sneetches at 11:49 AM on February 21 [23 favorites]

Just a bit of FOMO to go with my afternoon tea.
posted by Capt. Renault at 11:56 AM on February 21 [1 favorite]

Rich people - they're just like us!
posted by obfuscation at 12:01 PM on February 21 [9 favorites]

I once paid a lot of money in Fort Worth to participate in a circle jerk this enthusiastic.
posted by East14thTaco at 12:31 PM on February 21 [15 favorites]

I'd like to read this email chain, mostly to see if any of them make any reference to break-room bananas
posted by Jon Mitchell at 12:35 PM on February 21 [7 favorites]

an anagram of
LORNE MICHAELS REPLY ALL

is
SPRY? RECALL EMAIL? HELL NO!
posted by lalochezia at 1:14 PM on February 21 [8 favorites]

I found it lacking in bananas in the break room, personally
posted by atomicstone at 1:14 PM on February 21 [4 favorites]

Funniest thing Colin Jost ever said.
posted by NorthernLite at 1:16 PM on February 21 [9 favorites]

Jon Hamm ate the bananas.
posted by JimInSYR at 1:26 PM on February 21 [2 favorites]

John Hamm probably re-added original recipients to email chains that they had been removed from so they wouldn't miss out.
posted by AzraelBrown at 1:34 PM on February 21 [2 favorites]

“Dear Boomers,” Tina Fey wrote in the thread at 9:38, with a link to an instructional YouTube video for senior citizens on how to read, reply, and forward emails when using a Gmail account.
“Ahahahahahahah!! Thanks Tina,” wrote SNL hanger-on Jon Hamm. “Also thanks Susan! I’ll see you there! BUMP!!”
Colin Jost joined the thread at 10:04 p.m. “Guys, the video Tina sent is malware. Make sure to keep hitting Reply All or the virus can infect your computers.”
Rosanne Cash: “I only have so much time left on the planet and I had to choose between reading this email chain and Heather Cox Richardson.”


Priceless!
posted by jenfullmoon at 2:20 PM on February 21 [5 favorites]

If you received the original email, please let us know. You can use the contact form to notify the mod team if you want to remain anonymous.
posted by Winnie the Proust at 3:02 PM on February 21 [2 favorites]

I can't believe my reply didn't make it into the article. It was hilarious.
posted by mullacc at 3:02 PM on February 21 [5 favorites]

yeah mullac, i almost died laughing when i saw what you'd wrote
posted by glonous keming at 3:48 PM on February 21 [4 favorites]

I was trying to figure out how old Susan Morrison is ( to see if her lack of BCC knowledge is a boomer thing or not) and saw she was an original editor of Spy. Which both places her firmly in the Boomer camp and made me remember that Spy used to exist
posted by thecjm at 4:50 PM on February 21 [4 favorites]

( to see if her lack of BCC knowledge is a boomer thing or not)

I assure you, it isn’t. Geez.
posted by Thorzdad at 4:55 PM on February 21 [2 favorites]

I needed more than rich assholes smelling their own farts.
posted by DeepSeaHaggis at 5:42 PM on February 21 [4 favorites]

In addition to reply all, could you all please turn on your caps lock so I can receive your enthusiasm?

The book costs $31? That seems like a lot for a book about Lorne Michaels. I thought he died like 10 years ago.
posted by JohnnyGunn at 7:03 PM on February 21 [3 favorites]

The only way out is through.

The only time I was involved in a reply all thread even romotely like this (or the bananas) was stopped abruptly when the boss who was on it too wrote, "The next person to reply all to this email is fired" There was one more email after that. It said, "You can't fire me, I quit." To play out the joke, the person who wrote it took the next day off.
posted by JohnnyGunn at 7:08 PM on February 21 [6 favorites]

I HAVE TURNED ON MY CAPSLOCK FOR THE CROCKETT AND BLOATS IN THIS EMAIL CHAIN PS STOP REPLYING TO ME
posted by egypturnash at 7:09 PM on February 21 [5 favorites]

I needed more than rich assholes smelling their own farts.

Not to get didactic, but it's rich assholes smelling each other's farts.

It's a social event, like the Met Gala.
posted by PlusDistance at 8:26 PM on February 21 [5 favorites]

I dunno. I think it'd be unavoidable in a fart-sharing community to end up smelling your own. Lorne's a huffer; it is so decreed.
posted by DeepSeaHaggis at 10:01 PM on February 21 [1 favorite]

(an article that is akin to having an aquarium)
(also, would benefit from a Drew Magarey precis.)
posted by From Bklyn at 12:42 AM on February 22 [3 favorites]

I wonder if any European recipients have already filed a GDPR violation against New York Magazine with their privacy authorities.
posted by DreamerFi at 2:25 AM on February 22 [5 favorites]

Then came Aaron Sorkin, economical, for once, with his words

Excellent.
posted by limeonaire at 6:41 AM on February 22 [3 favorites]

The video Tina Fey linked to has been "removed for violating YouTube's policy on harassment and bullying."
posted by hankmajor at 7:48 AM on February 22 [2 favorites]

The Wayback Machine has the video that Tina Fey linked. It's not a comedy sketch or anything like that. It's a very earnest tutorial on how to use gmail. I found it charmingly sincere.
posted by stderr at 9:22 AM on February 22 [2 favorites]

I watched this happen on a listserv in the very early days of the internet. Someone's out-of-office reply replied to every new message on the thread. It was a wonderfully chaotic descent into madness, as people replied to the reply only to be replied to.

600 messages in two hours before someone found a moderator to stop it.
posted by ITravelMontana at 9:38 AM on February 22 [2 favorites]

It's a very earnest tutorial on how to use gmail. I found it charmingly sincere.

I wonder if one of the people replying to that thread flagged it? As a joke?
posted by hankmajor at 10:10 AM on February 22 [1 favorite]

This post needs a why_bcc_is_your_friend tag.
posted by of strange foe at 5:24 PM on February 22 [2 favorites]

Mod note: Thanks for the reminder about reply-all, we've added it to the sidebar and Best Of blog!
posted by Brandon Blatcher (staff) at 6:33 AM on February 23 [1 favorite]