Taylor Swift Takes Over Roku City With 'Tortured Poets Department' Bus, Leading To Memes And Backlash

The famous Roku City, a screensaver on Roku smart TVs and devices that the internet fell in love with last year for its mellow colors and signature graphic design, has now been invaded by advertising for Taylor Swift's new album The Tortured Poets Department.

Fans and citizens of Roku City seeking a break from the wall-to-wall coverage of Swift in recent days found none when they turned on their devices this week, and many took to the internet to voice their frustrations or reference it in memes.

Posters compared the appearance of a Tortured Poets Department-branded tour bus to the invasion of the Fire Nation in Avatar the Last Airbender. Others accused Swift of colonizing Roku City, calling back to her line about wanting to live in the 1830s.

Roku City does exist as an advertisement-delivery platform and occasionally changes during such takeovers as a way to monetize the screensaver for Roku. Yesterday, the company posted gleefully about the advertisement's arrival in Roku City.

Many Swift fans celebrated seeing references to their heroine onscreen, marveling at easter eggs, including one of Swift's cats and art from the album on billboards around Roku City.

At this point in The Tortured Poets Department publicity cycle, the flood of content and analysis about the album shows little sign of relenting.

Much of it is not about the content of the album itself, but about the content of Taylor Swift as a public figure: heavily commercialized, omnipresent and the most highly visible normie in existence.