While You Were Offline: Game of Thrones Has Itself a Song of Ice and Backfire

Sometimes there's one tweet that just chirps a little louder than the rest. This last week brought one of those tweets, and as soon as President Trump fired off a few characters alleging President Obama tapped his phones, that message drove conversation for days. That's too bad—there were environmental issues and well-placed nuns to talk about! Alas. With so much going on, don't feel bad if you missed some things along the way. Read on, dear friends, to find out what signals you may have missed in all the online noise this week.

What Happened: HBO did a thing on social media to announce the premiere date of the next season of Game of Thrones. It backfired.
Where It Blew Up: Twitter, media reports
What Really Happened: In an effort to create suspense over the new season of Game of Thrones, HBO hid the Season 7 premiere date in a block of ice, then melted it live (live!) on Facebook as fans waited.

There was just one problem. The ice wasn't melting that fast. Or, you know, fast in any sense whatsoever. Soon, disquiet set in.

With the feed being switched off twice midstream to try and accelerate the process off-camera, the story quickly became how disappointing and ridiculous the stunt was. Even those watching were convinced that they were rubes:

The show returns July 16, by the way. And it took more than an hour of watching paint dry ice melt for fans to find that out.
The Takeaway: Still, it's not as if this was any more boring than waiting for George R.R. Martin to finish the next Song of Ice and Fire book, let's be honest.

What Happened: In case you're wondering how to visualize a comparison between the Affordable Care Act and the new GOP alternative, Twitter has you covered.
Where It Blew Up: Twitter, media reports
What Really Happened: After much fanfare, the Republican Party released its proposed replacement for the Affordable Care Act. Dubbed the American Health Care Act, it offered tax cuts for the rich and coverage cuts for everyone else, and no one seemed to like it. But how did it compare to Obamacare? Oh, Twitter was on that.

Before too long, the comparisons had become a full-blown story, proving once again that any complex government policy can get more media attention if it's translated into a Star Wars joke.
The Takeaway: Still, it's not as if the Affordable Care Act was perfect as it was. Maybe there's another way to approach this meme?

What Happened: Don't worry, those who want to see the new healthcare solution defended. Speaker of the House Paul Ryan has PowerPoint on his side.
Where It Blew Up: Twitter, media reports
What Really Happened: In an attempt to sell the American Health Care Act to the public, Speaker Paul Ryan unpacked his PowerPoint skills on Thursday to try and explain the plan to people. To say that the media wasn't impressed would be a pretty big understatement, but social media wasn't any more forgiving:

Well, if you insist…

Yes, this definitely seemed to go over well and not backfire at all, especially when the dragging got noticed by the media.
The Takeaway: Maybe Ryan should've used Keynote?

What Happened: If there's one thing the world knows about President Trump, it's how much he respects women.
Where It Blew Up: Twitter, media reports
What Really Happened: This past Wednesday was International Women's Day, the annual celebration of the achievements of women worldwide. As is traditional on such days, the President of the United States released a statement in support; Donald Trump, naturally, released his via Twitter.

Yeah, Twitter had some thoughts about that.

It wasn't just Twitter, of course; the media proved to be equally cynical about his claim.
The Takeaway: You wanna take this one, Luke Skywalker?

https://twitter.com/HamillHimself/status/839470114525351936