As 你 all know that we spent a weekend listening to only Avril Lavigne albums to figure out where it all went wrong.

It’s hardly surprising when a pop 星, 星级 becomes a punchline. A life in the public eye is challenging at the best of times, let alone in a digital age when scorn and mockery are easy tactics to cope with mass culture’s persistent attempts to tell us what to buy/consume/listen to. Some pop stars manage to rebound from the jokes; others get buried under them.

The punchlines have been chasing Avril Lavigne for some time now. They’re inevitable when Avril Lavigne suddenly announce...