Could they resolve it in the remix?
By Chase DiBenedetto on April 15, 2026
The PowerPoint theorists might have been onto something.
I can’t quite determine what year we’re in. More specifically, I can’t pinpoint what year the chronically online are in. It’s a time of unprecedented tech advancement with artificial intelligence taking over and astronauts returning to the moon. Yet, the past lingers: 2010s hipster aesthetics are in again. Avatar: The Last Airbender fan cams flood my FYP. Celebrities are extremely thin again, and thinspo and eating disorder content are pervasive on TikTok.
But most baffling is the resurgence of Lena Dunham and Jack Antonoff as the topic of discussion.
Dunham and Antonoff dated from 2012 to 2016. Their relationship was emblematic of that era—messy. Then emerged “The PowerPoint.”
In response to rumors post the release of Lorde’s 2017 Melodrama, a former Twitter user @buzzkillary crafted a thesis. The 29-slide presentation claimed Lorde and Antonoff were lovers and that Green Light was about him.
Like all online conspiracies, this one lay dormant in niche fandoms until events like Lorde’s 2025 album Virgin, Antonoff’s marriage to Margaret Qualley, or Dunham’s new show about infidelity rekindled interest. Then, Dunham’s new memoir, Famesick, added fuel to the fire.
In Famesick, Dunham details her breakup with Antonoff, sharing emotional intricacies of his relationship with a “teen pop star” (widely speculated to be Lorde). She describes the artist spending extensive time with her partner and being called “Aunt Lena” during her own health struggles. One statement spotlighted how she found comfort hearing him console this star, murmuring, “your teens are for experimenting.”
Dunham confesses her own transgression—cheating on Antonoff when things became overwhelming. The internet has strong opinions. Which betrayal was worse—Antonoff’s or Dunham’s? Who is the victim?
Even Tumblr weighed in.
Some view Dunham’s memoir as confirmation of an affair, reinforcing theories and garnering sympathy for Dunham, who has faced multiple controversies since the 2010s.
For some, it was a chance to explore other links, such as Taylor Swift. Were her songs a reflection of the Antonoff/Dunham turmoil?
Yet others reverted to old internet tropes, casting the women in the emotional triangle—Dunham and Lorde—as transgressors or pitiable, while Antonoff simply remained.
Lorde, in her late teens and early twenties during her peak collaboration with then 32-year-old Antonoff, is one of many young women who’ve worked with him. And Antonoff wasn’t the only older Hollywood man she was linked to. Some pointed out a more plausible subject, Justin Warren, a promotions director 17 years her senior, whom Lorde was connected with in 2015.
Dunham’s passage in Famesick acknowledges a broader issue: Antonoff’s closeness to collaborators and her exclusion from that bond.
Not even the internet’s most famous PowerPoint can truly summarize these complexities.
In light of the online discourse, I wonder: What would appease the public? Would a Lorde backlash satisfy? Or the downfall of Antonoff or Dunham, who have been internet pariahs? Or is this merely validation for PowerPoint theorists? What do we gain from these theories?
Dunham admitted to seeing the compelling presentation years ago, and even contacted its creator during a low point.
Through Famesick, Dunham, like her online peers, is still processing those early years of internet speculation. What have we learned?
If 2016 was “the last good year,” 2026 is fervently trying to revive its past—down to featuring Buzzfeed articles on Lena Dunham PowerPoint theories.