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Our head hurts already, and that’s before we’ve had our first glass of mulled wine, but the Virginia Tech professor John Lewis – who often gets confused on Twitter/X for the popular department store – has finally had his say on this year’s John Lewis Christmas advert. Often heralded as one of the first signs that the festive season is fast approaching, the commercial this year tells the story of a Venus flytrap named Snapper who wreaks havoc in the family home, to the song “Festa” by the Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli. The ad also doesn’t feature a ‘dad’, but rather a mother and grandmother, with John Lewis explaining that they “always attempt to show a broad representation of British life” across their marketing and that it is a “very realistic scenario for thousands of families in the UK”. Though of course, in addition to the advert itself being a tradition at this point, in the world of social media, it’s to be expected that Mr Lewis will get a misplaced tweet as a result of having the handle @johnlewis (the store’s handle is @johnlewisretail, by the way). Giving his take on the ad, Mr Lewis wrote: “I’ve had some interesting Christmas tress before, but…” It’s the first tweet the academic has posted to Twitter (now known as X) since April, when he commented on the Elon Musk-owned platform stripping him and other verified users of their blue ticks if they didn’t want to pay for the once coveted icon. “Whatever will I do without my #BlueCheckMark? My identity is destroyed. I have no reason to go on,” he said, likely with a good degree of sarcasm. Back in November 2022, he went viral after telling Musk not to suspend the Twitter account for John Lewis (the shop), saying "they are not doing a parody of me, it's a homage". While Mr Lewis has broken his Twitter/X silence this week, the last time he offered a helping hand for someone who tagged the wrong account was back in March. It is not known if he’ll return to redirecting complaints and questions to the department store’s account this year. When indy100 approached Mr Lewis for a comment or interview, he declined, saying he was not “doing interviews, even written, about this topic this season”. Please don’t log off this year, John – we could do with your tongue-in-cheek fun on our timelines as some brief comic relief while browsing the hellscape. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter How to join the indy100's free WhatsApp channel Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.

Add unprecedented sea temperatures in the Mediterranean to the grim list of heat-related records being smashed this summer.

Gen Z are twice as likely to spontaneously call in sick at work to attend a gig, compared to millennials. Summer 2023 was jam-packed with exciting going-ons across the country, including yet another sold-out Glastonbury, Beyonce taking over UK stadiums and Elton John's highly anticipated Farewell Yellow Brick Road tour. With festival and concert season reaching its peak, it was simply too hard for Gen Z to resist. New YouGov research commissioned by viagogo found that 19 per cent said they'd put on an Oscar-worthy, tiny-violin performance to skip work at the last minute, compared to just 8 per cent of millennials. When the overall population was quizzed on what other scenarios they’d skip for five-star seats, 21 per cent of UK women cheekily admitted they’d miss the birth of a family member, whilst 17 per cent of men chose to flake on a close friend’s wedding for the gig of a lifetime. Furthermore, a staggering 43 per cent of Gen Z said they'd happily give up alcohol for half a year for their chance to be in the front row at their favourite gig. Despite soaring ticket prices due to inflation post-pandemic, 61 per cent of Gen Z participants have already seen more than 25 concerts in their lifetime. Social natives Gen Z are 10 per cent more likely than millennials to share content from live events on social media, but despite this - 84 per cent of fans insisted they put their phone down to enjoy their favourite song performed live. Reflecting on their fondest memories, the data also revealed that 21 per cent of UK gig-goers consider their first concert more memorable than losing their virginity (13 per cent), their first kiss (16 per cent) or getting their first job (20 per cent). Sign up for our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.