Blake Shelton Named Sexiest Man Alive

Submission 11,327

Overview

Blake Shelton Named Sexiest Man Alive refers to People Magazine offering country singer and television personality Blake Shelton their annual "Sexiest Man Alive" title. The news was met with backlash and confusion by many, who thought Shelton was a strange choice for the honor.

History

People Magazine has offered a "Sexiest Man Alive" award since 1985.^[1] On November 14th, 2017, the magazine announced that their choice for Sexiest Man Alive for 2017 was country singer and judge on musical competition show The Voice Blake Shelton.^[2] Shelton joked that he couldn't wait to "stick it" to his fellow judge Adam Levine, the Maroon 5 singer who had previously been named People's Sexiest Man Alive.

Developments

The news was quickly met with backlash and jokes from people who did not find Blake Shelton worthy of the title. An hour after the announcement, Twitter user @TheJennC^[3] joked that apparently actors such as Idris Elba, Chris Evans, and Jason Momoa had fallen off the planet, gaining over 2,200 retweets and 7,500 likes (shown below, left). User @MeaKoopa^[4] made a list of categories Shelton isn't the sexiest member of, such as "Gwen Stefani's ex" and "Racist," gaining 3,900 retweets and 17,000 likes (shown below, right)

Twitter user @KrangTNelson^[5] pointed out that in the very video People produced about Shelton coinciding with the honor, Shelton looks unattractive, gaining over 90 retweets (shown below, left). Twitter user @cushbomb^[6] made a similar point by pairing a screenshot of People's tweet about the honor with a picture of Homer Simpson (shown below, right).

Further backlash to the announcement came in a popular thread on /r/blackpeopletwitter^[7] which gained over 14,500 upvotes. Jokes about the announcement were covered by The Daily Dot,^[8] Syracuse.com,^[8] Mercury News,^[10] and more.