Wittgenstein is the sincerest form of flattery

On Friday afternoon, at the height of #TheDress, I thought to myself, what is the silliest possible article that I could write on this topic? The one that will be held up as an example of how the media lost its collective mind? And I hit upon:

What can Wittgenstein teach us about #TheDress?

usvsth3m_wittgenstein

This is partly because I dimly remembered Wittgenstein talking about “the meaning of things” including pictures, and mostly because Helena’s adorable pet hamster is called Wittgenstein.

vote_wittgenstein

Imagine my surprise, the very next day, to see this upon the BBC News website:

What would Wittgenstein say about that dress?

bbc_wittgenstein

Now, Giles the editor has reached out to me personally – as I believe the phrase goes – to assure me that they commissioned their piece before mine was published, and that there is no skullduggery going on.

I know Giles personally, and have no reason to disbelieve him.

But…

It did strike me that this means I wrote mine as the silliest possible angle you could take on the story, and the BBC did theirs seriously.

What would Wittgenstein make of that, I wonder ;-)