This week, Taylor Swift passed Kim Kardashian and Beyoncé to become the most-followed person on Instagram, with over 50 million followers. (Meaning that if Swift's Instagram followers formed a sovereign nation, it would be the 28th most populous in the world. Just behind South Korea and just ahead of Colombia.)
Outspoken talk show host Wendy Williams has a theory about the source of Swift's popularity. It's not due to her music or style, she argued on her show on Monday. It's because of ... her meanness?
"I think that the reason why is a hidden secret of mean," Williams said. "I think that she's probably meaner than Beyoncé and Kim put together."
Williams' studio audience howled at this, but she dug in.
"Oh, please," she continued. "In my mind, Taylor Swift is the queen of the mean. And she's sneaky and smart about doing it, which makes her smarter than the other two."
Williams anticipated two obvious counterarguments to this idea: the fact that Swift has so many famous friends and all the pictures that Swift posts of herself doing cute domestic things, like baking cookies. But to Williams, these thing are actually evidence of Swift's true character.
She says that Swift has "hypnotized" her squad into thinking she's great, and that her culinary endeavors represent Swift "trying to trick us into making us think she's a good woman."
So how does Williams substantiate her claim that nefariousness lies beneath Swift's cheery veneer? She ... um ... doesn't. To Williams, it seems, the cover-up proves the crime.
Also on HuffPost:
Taylor Swift
ContactFor a constant stream of entertainment news and discussion, follow HuffPost Entertainment on Viber.