It’s one thing to get on a plane you think is heading to France and end up bound for North Africa. It’s another thing to post that big oops on the internet to millions of people ready to laugh and scrutinize your foolishness.

This is reportedly what happened earlier this month when two American women traveling from Rome told an airline representative they wanted a flight “to Nice,” and the employee supposedly heard them say “Tunis,” as in the capital of Tunisia. They posted the video of the sitcom-esque saga — from the pair cracking up as a flight attendant explained the error to their journey after they elected to stay on the flight — to TikTok, and it quickly went viral. While many laughed at the farce, some were left confused as to how the women made such a huge mistake. One would assume that there were a few indications at the airport that they were boarding a plane to Tunis — including the fact that they were flying on Tunisair.

The whole “To Nice” versus Tunis fiasco feels emblematic of a sort of shamelessness that seems to fuel our most-watched content these days. This past year, it seems like the primary way to be online is to be kind of embarrassing, if not fully indulge in a rising subgenre of what we can only call “embarrassment porn.”

jet2holiday

The most obvious example is the Jet2 holiday memes where TikTok users uploaded videos of themselves getting thrown off towable tubes, surfboards, and engaging in other accidental physical comedy set to a cheery advert for the British budget airline. But that’s mortification on the fun, easy, and only-physically-harmful setting. Other entries in the genre include everything from posting about the sorry state of your marriage to announcing your lack of knowledge about a sporting event you’re attending (let alone at the very costly US Open). The past year has seen one viral TikToker eagerly share their disregard for the boundaries and norms of the therapist-client relationship, while another was willing to broadcast........

© Vox