Rep. John D. Dingell has spent nearly 24 hours trying to wrap his head around the dizzying world of celebutantes. And it ain’t working.  

After being stumped by a seemingly random tweet from someone at the Environmental Protection Agency — which has, of course, since been scrubbed from existence — trumpeting their standing in reality TV star Kim Kardashian’s nascent iPhone-friendly time-suck , the Michigan Democrat apparently turned to staff for a crash course in all things O. J. Simpson’s-former-lawyer’s-since-remarried-wife’s-brood’s plans to prove Andy Warhol wrong.  

(Et tu, EPA?)  

Team Dingell did not respond to queries regarding whether the debrief on the reigning tabloid queen/bride of hip-hop mogul Kanye West/mother of North West included “A Clockwork Orange”-like screening of TMZ clips, binge-watching of E!’s burgeoning Kardashian-centric programming (have the pets been given shows yet?) or a quick flip-through men’s magazines.  

Staff has now informed me of what a Kardashian is. I’m only left with more questions. — John Dingell (@john_dingell) July 22, 2014

It’s obvious, however, that the pop culture cram session clearly didn’t take. Dingell’s confusion struck a chord with many in the Twittersphere, including:  

Bemused fans  

#Dingell2016? RT @john_dingell: Staff has now informed me of what a Kardashian is. I’m only left with more questions. — Ryan Sloane (@RyanSloaneCNN) July 22, 2014

Straight-up Haters  

@john_dingell @jaketapper As it happens, affected cracker-barrel self-amused egotism is actually WORSE than anything Kardashian-related — Glenn Kenny (@Glenn__Kenny) July 22, 2014

Would-be Pundits  

@john_dingell @LibertarianSass A Kardashian is a luminary in the DiversionaryVanguard of the LowInformationLeft. I.e., an ICON of YOUR base — Ａｒｒｅｓｔｅｄ Aplomb™ (@ArrestedAplomb) July 22, 2014

And, (our favorite) Armchair Epidemiologists  

@john_dingell It’s easy. Just imagine something with the same social effect as Ebola virus, and the persistence of the creature from ‘Alien’ — Gerard Wyer (@gerardwyer) July 22, 2014

The EPA, meanwhile, appears to be of the mindset that this embarrassing little episode will soon become water under the bridge.  

Whoops…our bad. Sorry about tweet. Upside – more attention for the Office of Water (https://t.co/GhuYcpwqwx), thanks @KimKardashian — U.S. EPA Water (@EPAwater) July 22, 2014

Dream on, mobile-game playing, fame-chasing, poor-Twitter-handling bureaucrats.