Bohemian Rhapsody, a rock bio based on a band named Queen and their iconic frontman Freddie Mercury, was released recently to generally favorable reviews, with people praising its sheer entertainment value whilst pointing out a slight lack of depth and accuracy that makes it fall short of a true popular movie classic.

One writer, publishing on Thrillist Entertainment, wasn’t overly impressed however. She pointed out the gratuitous glossing over and editing of Queen and Mercury’s history and explained the ways that the music on the movie was sourced (spoiler, it wasn’t lead actor Rami Malek doing the singing). As an opinion piece, it is informative and perfectly valid, even if a lot of fans out there disagree with the writer’s opinions.

However, Thrillist’s choice of the byline ‘called out’ rankled many readers, who were quick to point out the fact that Malek is an actor and is therefore required to act, not accurately recreate the voice of one of the most famous singers of modern times. And while the article goes on to praise Malek’s incredible performance as Mercury, the title of the piece denigrates his contribution as ‘just doing lip-sync to Queen.’ I sympathize with the writer here, because there is nothing more frustrating than having a piece completely overshadowed by a clickbait headline, which sets the tone for the article and the comments that follow.

The top comment, which garnered more likes than the article itself, hit home by pointing out the glaringly obvious and had many people nodding along in amused agreement. It was made by Aaron Alejos, who hasn’t seen the film yet but disagrees with the way the article contradicts itself. “The clickbaity headline made it seem like they were bashing Malek for not being able to sing like Freddie Mercury, but then in the article, they say, ‘Rami Malek never had a shot at replicating Freddie Mercury’s voice,'” he told Bored Panda. “Well, which is it? Are you bashing him (as is evidenced by their headlines), or do they understand that no one can replicate Freddie Mercury’s voice (as is stated in their article)? Their tag line of ‘called out’ is what sounded the most ridiculous to me. Called out? For what? For being an actor and playing a part?”

Clickbait is a reality these days, and it’s up to the publisher to ensure that the content lives up to the hype and the tone of the title, which is our mission here at Bored Panda. Aaron surely isn’t the only one to have become disillusioned with the practice of click-baiting, he prefers to hear what the readers have to say. “I hate it when the tagline doesn’t accurately represent what the article is about,” he told us. “The writers of these articles make up sensationalist headlines to try and get people riled up and create traffic for their sites. Kudos to them, it works. It’s insulting to the readers, but honestly, I don’t even visit the sites to read the news anymore. Comment sections are more entertaining for me than the articles themselves.”

So there you go, folks, it’s you, the commenters, that everyone is here for, not us boring old writers. And you all do a great job! Scroll down below to check out the exchange for yourself, and do your entertaining thing in the comments!

A popular website tried to ‘call out’ actor Rami Malek for lip-synching on the movie Bohemian Rhapsody

But got shut down by a commenter

Here’s how people responded to the amusing post

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