Pajama Boy

"Pajama Boy" is a derisive term for a photograph posted online in 2013 by the American political organization Organizing for Action (OFA) of one of its employees, Ethan Krupp,[1] in support of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, otherwise known as Obamacare.

Background

The photo was posted on December 17, 2013 by the organization,which advocates for the legislative agenda of President Barack Obama, from President Obama's own Twitter account. It was part of a general campaign to get younger Americans to sign up for the health insurance program. The photo showed Krupp wearing thick-rimmed glasses, wearing black-and-red plaid onesie pajamas, and cradling a mug. The accompanying text read: "Wear pajamas. Drink hot chocolate. Talk about getting health insurance. #GetTalking."[2] The tweet linked to the OFA website http://www.barackobama.com/health-care-holidays, which encourages individuals to discuss Obamacare during the holiday season with those family members that are uninsured, and encourage them to sign up.[3][4]

The tweet and pajama-clad man featured in it were quickly dubbed "Pajama Boy", and mocked across social media, particularly by conservatives.[5]

Pajama Boy soon developed into an Internet meme in which the Pajama Boy image was digitally inserted into other photos,[6][7] or the text of the tweet was revised or new text added to mock the campaign.[8]

Criticism

Chris Christie

The day after the original tweet, December 18, New Jersey Republican Governor Chris Christie lampooned and criticized Pajama Boy with his own tweet, which featured a photo of him volunteering in an apron with the accompanying text: "Get out of your pajamas. Put on an apron. Get volunteering. #SeasonOfService."[9][10] Writing in The Washington Post, Chris Cillizza said that Pajama Boy had the "worst week in Washington", calling it a "horribly, terribly, plaidly wrong" "effort to encourage young people to sign up for Obamacare."[4]

Libertarian critique

Writing in Bloomberg News, libertarian pundit Megan McArdle said conservatives got "trolled" by Pajama Boy: "The purpose of Pajama Boy is not to get people to buy health insurance, but to get a rise out of conservatives -- and thereby to engage the solidaristic, money-raising, meme-spreading power of OFA’s liberal base."[11] Fellow libertarian commentator Nick Gillespie, writing in the Reason magazine blog, similarly wrote that, though "for many - arguably most - Americans, this guy is hipster douchitude on a cracker," the image succeeded in getting "people to talk about health insurance".[12]

Accusations of antisemitism

Writer Jay Michaelson, in The Jewish Daily Forward, wrote that criticism of "Pajama Boy" was anti-semitic, noting that Krupp is Jewish and that "Jewish men have been accused of being unmanly for hundreds of years".[13]

References

  1. ↑ Spiering, Charlie (December 19, 2013). "Meet Ethan Krupp: Pajamacare boy and Organizing for Action employee". Washington Examiner.
  2. ↑ "How do you plan to spend the cold days of December?". Twitter. Organizing for Action. 17 December 2013.
  3. ↑ "Health Care for the Holidays". Organizing for Action.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Cillizza, Chris (20 December 2013). "Who had the worst week in Washington? Pajama Boy.". The Washington Post.
  5. ↑ "Christie tweets retort to Obama's 'Pajama Boy'". The Washington Post. 18 December 2013.
  6. ↑ "The Many Adventures Of Pajama Boy". BuzzFeed. 23 December 2013.
  7. ↑ "NRO Slideshows:Pajama Boy". National Review. 18 December 2013.
  8. ↑ Lowry, Richard (18 December 2013). "Pajama Boy, An Insufferable Man-Child". Politico.
  9. ↑ "In New Jersey, we are spending the cold days of December volunteering". Twitter. Governor Christie. 18 December 2013.
  10. ↑ "Chris Christie dresses down Pajama Boy". Politico. 18 December 2013.
  11. ↑ McArdle, Megan (19 December 2013). "Conservatives Are Getting Trolled by Pajama Boy". Bloomberg News.
  12. ↑ Gillespie, Nick (December 18, 2013). "If You Think the Godawful "Pajama Boy" Obamacare Ad is Godawful, You're Probably Not Its Audience.". Reason Magazine Hit & Run Blog.
  13. ↑ Michaelson, Jay (December 28, 2013). "Obamacare 'Pajama Boy' Controversy Wrapped in Anti-Semitism".