Michael Che is feuding with critics who don't like That Damn Michael Che

Pajiba

Last week, Che called out Los Angeles Times TV critic Lorraine Ali for her negative review of his HBO Max show in since-deleted posts on his Instagram Stories. (Che deletes everything he posts on Instagram.) On Monday night, he did the same for Vulture music critic Craig Jenkins for his mixed review -- and accused Vulture of assigning Jenkins to write about That Damn Michael Che because he's Black. "That Damn Michael Che thinks big and hits low, but in its finest moments, it reckons intelligently with the absurdity of the social conditioning men in their late 30s got from growing up in the ’80s and ’90s, and the jarring contrasts between what was expected then and what’s acceptable now," Jenkins wrote in his review posted Monday evening. Jenkins responded to Che's criticism on Twitter, tweeting: "now that i know he's lurking me and talking sh*t let me  say i think it's dead weird to create a whole mythology for why a critic didn't love every episode of a show and particularly one who says the show is frequently quite smart and insightful. young behavior. who has the time? spoiler: a person who likes music might also be a person who likes TV or film or video games or maybe even food. you'd think it wouldn't perplex a person who writes and acts and does stand-up for a living that someone else might care about more than one field at a time but hey." As Pajiba's Brian Richards points out, the problem is Che has become overly sensitive about media coverage about him, noting that "Che keeps going out of his way to prove that he does give a sh-t what people think, especially when it comes to him and his work." Richards adds: "For any artist working in any industry where their work is shared with the rest of the world for them to judge however they see fit, it’s not always easy or pleasant to see what you do and how you do it being judged and criticized by strangers. And some artists learn how to absorb these criticisms and discern which ones are worth listening to (and using as tools to learn how to become better artists) and which ones deserve to be ignored. But if you’re an artist like Michael Che who still refuses to learn such lessons, who still refuses to develop tougher skin when dealing with all kinds of criticism, and instead treat every review from a critic as if they’re challenging you to duel over pistols at dawn, then you’re probably in the wrong business. Even teachers learn how to deal with kids who sit in their classrooms and say the meanest and foulest things imaginable to them in order to amuse themselves and their friends, and they get paid significantly less than you do."