Hugh Laurie Apologizes For ‘Drunken’ Outburst Over ‘House’ Criticism After Fans Attack Journalist Online

Journalist Janet Murray recently posted a critical analysis of the eight-season American medical drama, House, on X.

The tweet got the attention of Hugh Laurie, who played the titular character Dr. Gregory House, an unconventional and cynical medical genius.

Laurie defended his work in a lengthy tweet, prompting other netizens to share similar messages.

However, after Murray opened up on the “vitriol” she had been receiving since Laurie’s retort, the 67-year-old actor issued a sincere apology.

Netizens followed suit as Hugh Laurie reacted sarcastically to Janet Murray’s House review

Image credits: NBCUniversal/Getty Images

On June 9, Murray took to X to announce that she was “late to the party” in watching House and found the medical drama formulaic.

She shared that she felt every episode of the show followed the “same narrative”: a patient nearly dies from a “mysterious illness” after Laurie’s character misdiagnoses them. Still, the day is saved at the end with a “last-minute left-field idea” from House.

“Eight seasons of this?” she concluded her tweet.

Laurie fired back with a lengthy response of his own with a hint of sarcasm, reminiscent of Dr. House, pointing out that his character getting the diagnosis right the first time would make the episodes “only 6 minutes long.”

“One could apply your trenchant analysis to other art forms: JS Bach wrote 30 Goldberg variations on the same chord structure; Frida Kahlo painted 50 portraits of herself; Henry Moore, what??” he continued.

Image credits: Simon Ackerman/Getty Images

“The point is, or was, variations on a theme; if all you see is a hospital, medical blah blah, then it wasn’t meant for you.”

After Laurie’s response, other netizens joined in to troll Murray’s review.

“Wait until Janet finds out that Scooby-Doo has been unmasking the same disgruntled real estate agent for 50 years,” said one.

“It almost seems as if it’s magic that someone has discovered how television shows work long-term,” wrote another.

In her article, published on UnHerd on June 8, Murray said that the viewers’ “tone changed” after Laurie’s jibe. She said she was called a “stupid, humorless, ‘Karen’ and, inevitably, the c-word.”

Janet Murray responded after Hugh Laurie issued an apology for “horrific trolling”

Image credits: NBCUniversal/Getty Images

On June 8, Janet Murray shared her article on X, addressing the criticism she received after her previous interaction with Hugh Laurie and urging the actor to read it.

“Because while his witty riposte was genuinely amusing, one point I make in the piece is that it was shared with his 1.2 million followers on X. I have around 38,000,” she said.

“That creates something of an imbalance — particularly given that the responses to my original post were overwhelmingly warm-hearted and affectionate towards the show.”

“The result has been some fairly horrific trolling,” she added.

Laurie soon replied to her tweet with his apology, citing his inebriation as the reason for his outburst.

“I’m sorry if people have been having a go at you because of my tweet,” he started. “Not at all the plan.  I was very slightly drunk and already upset about something that had nothing to do with you.”

Image credits: Nathan Congleton/Getty Images

“If it’s any comfort, I got it in the neck too,” he added, calling himself “thin-skinned.”

“I was sticking up for the writers whom I adored,” he continued. “Obviously, I shouldn’t have cited Bach/Kahlo/Moore — asking for trouble — and would have done better to go for the 10,000 blues songs written around the same 12 bar chord structure. I’ve listened to most of them and will keep doing so.  Because we love what we love.”

Murray thanked Laurie, saying she appreciated his apology and recognized that he was “sticking up for colleagues.”

“For what it’s worth, I like the show — despite the repetition — and I like you in it,” she added.

“The response to my initial post was so warm-hearted and affectionate towards House, which perhaps made what followed all the more surprising. Anyway, no hard feelings.”

Janet Murray decoded the “vitriol” she faced from House fans in her article

Image credits: @jan_murray/X

Despite Laurie and Murray publicly burying the hatchet, netizens continued to berate the journalist for her opinions.

“If anyone has thin skin, it’s the ‘journalist’ who posts unwarranted attacks on a much-loved show online and turns the whole pathetic mess into a woe-is-me sympathy article when she can’t handle the realities of online discourse,” one user said.

Another wrote, “So a woman wrote disparaging things about his work, and he has to apologize?”

Murray wrote more on such reactions in her UnHerd article, comparing the behavior to fans having a “parasocial relationship” with celebrities.

“There is something oddly unsettling about watching strangers direct that level of vitriol towards someone they have never met, while simultaneously telling a celebrity how much they love him,” she wrote.

Image credits: NBCUniversal/Getty Images

Psychology Today describes the term as “one-sided relationships in which a person develops a strong sense of connection, intimacy, or familiarity with someone they don’t know, most often celebrities or media personalities.”

“Social media has intensified those attachments while encouraging people to make their heroes part of their identity,” Murray wrote. “Once that happens, criticism of a television show, celebrity, or film franchise can start to feel surprisingly personal.”

“The explanation may be even simpler. Of course, Laurie’s fans weren’t really responding to me. They were responding to a celebrity they admire, performing for one another, competing to produce the funniest put-down or the most enthusiastic defense.”

Earlier in the article, she called Laurie’s initial tweet “sharp, witty, and unmistakably patronizing”: “Given that he was role-playing as one of television’s most patronizing characters, was rather the point.”

House is currently streaming on Hulu.

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