Best Buy in Hot Water Over Murder Joke

Serial, a podcast re-examining the 1999 murder of Hae Min Lee, is a bona fide viral sensation. (Host Sarah Koenig was interviewed on The Colbert Report last night.) In fact, the show is so popular that Best Buy apparently forgot one crucial thing: It's about a real-life murder, so perhaps not the best topic for Twitter jokes. You may want to stop reading on now if you're not current with the podcast, as spoilers follow.

Best Buy tweeted today, "We have everything you need. Unless you need a payphone. #Serial," Vulture reports. As those who are caught up know, the prosecution said Adnan Syed, the ex-boyfriend convicted of killing Lee, made a critical call from a Maryland Best Buy parking lot to tell a friend he'd committed the murder. But in a recent episode, Koenig made the argument that the Best Buy in question may never have had a payphone. The ill-advised joke was retweeted 1,000 times (including, at least briefly, by Serial's Twitter account, Mashable reports) before Best Buy pulled it and apologized, calling the tweet lacking in good judgment. (More podcast stories.)