Great job, Internet!: Hugh Laurie schools a House hater on how television works

Actually, making the similar product week after week is sort of the idea.

By Matt Schimkowitz | June 8, 2026 | 6:00pm

Screenshot: YouTube

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Great job, Internet!: Hugh Laurie schools a House hater on how television works

Once upon a time, there was a website where everyday people could interact with celebrities. Twitter, it was called, and it was the only place where Tony Hawk could thank someone for “the hesitation” before killing him during the Race War. Alas, those days are long over. But every once in a while, amid the clips of Clavicular, seemingly legal CSAM, and Nazis laundering ideas to people who believe propaganda doesn’t work on them, it shows remnants of its former self.

Such an event happened over the weekend after Hugh Laurie searched his name on X, the Everything App, and found a post criticizing his hit show, House, M.D., which ended, oh, about 14 years ago. “Late to the party, but I’ve started watching Season 1 of House. Same narrative every episode,” writes journalist Janet Murray. “Patient has mysterious illness. Hugh Laurie (House) gets diagnosis wrong. Patient nearly dies. Hugh Laurie gets diagnosis wrong again. Gets threatened with being fired. Patient nearly dies again. Hugh Laurie has last minute leftfield idea. Gets diagnosis right. Doesn’t get fired. Eight seasons of this?”

Murray must not have been paying attention to Laurie’s character because Dr. House is sort of a smart ass who enjoys putting people in place. It’s a trait he got from the actor who played him, Hugh Laurie, who was more than happy to explain why Murray’s “trenchant analysis” missed the point of the show, which is ostensibly to create entertaining drama through “variations on a theme” week after week.

“Thanks for your critique, Janet,” Laurie wrote. “We actually tried a couple of episodes where House (Hugh Laurie) (please put the brackets in the right place) gets it right first time, but they were only 6 minutes long. NBC weren’t happy. Then we tried some where House never gets it right and the patient dies. The audience wasn’t happy.”

Laurie went on to sarcastically explain how Murray’s critique would stack up against other art forms: “JS Bach wrote 30 Goldberg variations on the same chord structure; Frida Kahlo painted 50 portraits of herself; Henry Moore, what??” Weekly, episodic television has more to offer audiences than plot, such as characters and how they react to the plot. “The point is, or was, variations on a theme; if all you see is hospital, medical blah blah, then it wasn’t meant for you,” Laurie continued. “Nonetheless, I look forward to your first novel!”

Every now and then, Twitter does still have the juice, and by that we mean a userbase that believes it can outwit Dr. House. After eight seasons of that? Yup, after eight seasons.

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