Open Letter: Stop Ripping on Justin Bieber, Already

Have the Justin Bieber jokes stopped yet? Can they, already?

Look, we know that it’s a fault of all mankind that we have to putdown and petty sack those who are doing better than us, but it’s gone far enough. Sure, there are off-putting things about Justin: how he seems to know his hair is goofy but touches it anyway, how he says “haters,” and how he thinks Jaden Smith is the next Will Smith.

But, in reality, how can you knock a kid who sold out Madison Square Garden at 15, and then again in 30 seconds… twice?

You can chide anyone because of your own insecurities, but you can’t deny their talent, or their success. Shouldn’t we love him, after all? In one master stroke, he legitimized YouTube and put Stratford, Ontario on the map, making it more than just the place where some Shakespeare nerds go to dress up and perform King Lear.

(*NOTE: Yes, we know the Biebs recently, kind of, made fun of Prince William for going bald. But, that didn’t seem like an insult. It actually seemed like he was confused as to what “balding” is.)

He took a hobby and a passion from a pre-teenage ritual and turned it into not only a vast, money-making machine, but an art form. Sure, it’s tacky, cheesy, and too often lame. But, what do you think you are, a construction worker? A World War II vet? A police officer who entered the Twin Towers on 9/11?

Who is anyone else to talk?

And, if that’s not enough, the jokes have gotten lame. Stale. It seems like whenever someone can’t think of anything clever to say – which is virtually all the time for most everybody – they turn to a Bieber joke.

It’s unoriginal. The only one laughing is your chain-smoking girlfriend, and that’s just because you both dropped out of school in Grade 10 and lack a frontal lobe with an ability to recognize charm or churn out wit.

I’m sure, somewhere, there are dudes still bragging about picking on Ryan Gosling in high school. There are girls who say Norah Jones wasn’t cool. There are those who like to remind you of their high school touchdowns and the one time they were nominated for Spring Fling queen.

But, grow up. Everyone else has, and Justin Bieber stopped listening to you, anyway.