People Hilariously Empathize With ‘The Intern’ After HBO Max Email Snafu

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We’ve all been there.

Many Twitter users are expressing empathy for an anonymous (and possibly fictitious) intern blamed for an email that mistakenly went out to some people on HBO Max’s mailing list on Thursday night.

“We mistakenly sent out an empty test email to a portion of our HBO Max mailing list this evening,” the company tweeted. “We apologize for the inconvenience, and as the jokes pile in, yes, it was the intern. No, really. And we’re helping them through it. ❤️”

We mistakenly sent out an empty test email to a portion of our HBO Max mailing list this evening. We apologize for the inconvenience, and as the jokes pile in, yes, it was the intern. No, really. And we’re helping them through it. ❤️

— HBOMaxHelp (@HBOMaxHelp) June 18, 2021

The email in question had the subject line “Integration Test Email #1″ and the body of the email read, “This template is used by integration tests only.”

A screenshot of the email HBO Max mistakenly sent out.

The responses were broadly those of support for this alleged intern, along with some criticism for HBO Max’s public casting of blame. And many people took the opportunity to share their own disastrous and/or hilarious mishaps at work.

Dear intern,

I once sent out a 1-900 sex hotline as a conference call number for the Women’s National Democratic Club, the average age of membership was about 78.

Shit happens.

— Rae Pickett (@RaeRoca) June 18, 2021

Dear Intern:

Once, when I was a junior copywriter, I applied to my dream job at @TheAtlantic and wrote “copyrighter” on my résumé. Like, I misspelled the job I wanted, which was a job for good spellers.

You’re doing great, okay?

— Angela Mayfield (@pinkrocktopus) June 18, 2021

Dear Intern,

In the first month of my new HR job with a major defense contractor, I sent out an email about shirt orders that included the division president and several corporate leaders.

Title of email: Your Shit is in the HR Office – Please Pick Up by COB

— Hannah Holloway (@hholloway2010) June 18, 2021

Dear Intern,

I once accidentally uploaded a sexy pic I sent to my boyfriend at the time to a shared drive and a coworker pulled it up in a presentation to a conference room full of high level execs. On a 72-inch projector screen.

Integration Test Email is no biggie.

Hugs,

Me https://t.co/24hmInRFay

— Gennefer Gross IS VACCINATED!!! (@Gennefer) June 18, 2021

Dear Intern, when I was 25 I made a PDF assigning each employee to the Muppet they reminded me of the most. I meant to send it to my work friend, but I accidentally sent it to the entire company. My supervisor (Beaker) wanted to fire me, but the owners (Bert & Ernie) intervened. https://t.co/zMKvQ6nxjj

— aerin. (@AerinChevyFord) June 18, 2021

Dear Intern, I was using my desktop calendar to make a monthly note of when I started my menstrual period, but after several months I realized I was making that note on a calendar I shared with all of my colleagues company wide. I was 37 years old.

— Caissie (@Caissie) June 18, 2021

To top it all off, Monica Lewinsky weighed in with a few words of wisdom for any intern caught in the crosshairs of controversy, referencing frequently circulated images of her wearing a beret in the 1990s and offering assurance that “it gets better.”