Pop Culture Mondays/1.10.22

The “WORD” Edition

Brooke Hammerling
Pop Culture Mondays
9 min readJan 10, 2022

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Welcome to my brain…

Happy Monday my darling pop culture junkies! Coming to you a little earlier today as I am in Jamaica which if you don’t know me, is my happy happy HAPPY place. So I am powering thru this PCM so I can get into the water immediately and start drinking some dark Blackwell Rum (the BEST)….SO, let’s get to it!

While many of us will all remember we were when we found out the jury found Elizabeth Holmes guilty, (GUILTY btw of defrauding the rich people not of defrauding patients but ok) there was another bookend to the week. Many went to bed or are waking up to the news that comedian Bob Saget passed away unexpectedly in his hotel room while on tour. Only 65.

Sudden death of anyone is always hard for us to get our heads wrapped around so that’s what everyone will be trying to figure out today. My gen knows him best as the nerdy father on Full House which also launched the Olsen twins and gave us sexpot at the time, John Stamos. We also know Saget as the host of America’s Funniest Home Videos which Saget hosted from 1989–1997 which was my 9th grade through college which is wild for me to think about. That show was always on yet I am not sure I ever actually watched it…but it was just THERE, always. Like Bob Saget. A sad day for his family and friends and fans for sure.

But let’s get into the fun stuff…or low brow stuff…and everything in between. Welcome to my new followers and if you are confused…well, so am I but give it a week or two. This is where people come to see funny memes and viral videos or understand trends and basically lose a lot of brain cells. We are AND always will be…Trump and Trump-adjacent FREE. (Those brain cells did not fight that hard to be lost on that shit, am I right?)

XO….

TRIGGERING

WTF IS WORDLE:

OK, so by NOW if any of you are on the Twitter, you have seen people post these strange markings/lines with numbers. Wordle 203 5/6

⬜⬜🟨⬜🟨
🟨🟨🟨⬜⬜
🟩⬜⬜🟨🟨
🟩⬜🟩🟩🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

For those of you well aware of Wordle, right now you’re screaming, “I am the champion of WORDLE!!!”, just settle down for a moment and let me explain to those who are NOT familiar.

For MOST (like myself), their intro to WORDLE came from THIS NEW YORK TIMES ARTICLE:

OK, let’s start with the fact WORDLE was created by a man named WARDLE…get it? Josh Wardle, a software engineer for companies like Reddit, created this word game as a gift to his word-game loving partner Palak Shah. Ms. Shah, like many of us, is obsessed with Spelling Bee and the Daily Crossword on the New York Times, so as a gift of love, her man created this game. I mean…I can barely get a guy to buy me a coffee so this is impressive and THIS IS LOVE…also, let’s be real..THIS IS BROOKLYN. I mean of COURSE, they live in Brooklyn. Is there more of a Brooklyn story than this one? I THINK NOT. So, the concept is with ZERO hints, you pick a 5 letter word. Then colors will determine if you have any of the right letters and if so if they’re in the right location. If you have a correct letter but in the wrong location, the letter will be a yellow gold color. If you have the right letter RIGHT location, the letter becomes green. If you are using a letter not found in the word, that letter becomes dark grey. You get 6 chances to figure out the word. It is as much of a word game as it is a game of logic.

AND BRAGGING RIGHTS. Because how can something be successful in this day and age if we cannot SHOW IT OFF. So, that’s why you may have seen these cryptic puzzle pics on your socials. The creator was clever in that when you share it, you don’t share the word, you share your score. How many rows did it take you to figure it out.

AND in my opinion, this will be what kills it as fast as it came. I mean I think people will still play it, but the sharing aspect has gone from, “Oh cool what is this?” To, “Ok I love this let me share I did it in 2 lines…” to “I want to throw my phone into the sea if I see one more person share their score!” Like full-on cringe level. (YES I am correct here). I saw in this article, it all referred to in the best way:

As one Twitter user put it, you either die a hero ranting about how no one cares about Wordle results or live long enough to see yourself post Wordle results.

Here is just a sample:

(I am guilty of not using dark mode all the time, anyone else?)

Then some got funny:

And finally….we are all doomed tomorrow!

MAKE IT STOP

IT’S CHE DIAZ….

For the LOVE of all that is good and holy I need to explain to you how much I loathe the Sex and the City reboot. And I have friends who have told me they find it gets better so I gave it a go and NOPE I do not agree. MAYBE, it’s my own age that is at the heart of it but these ladies are only a few years older than me and they are ELDERLY and OUT OF TOUCH. BUT, I digress…as it is NOT about me (sigh). But of all the characters to emerge or re-emerge, this is the one that has set OFF the Internets…CHE DIAZ. Played by Sara Ramirez, Che is a non-binary stand-up comedian and podcast host. (SPOILERS) — They get into sexy time with Miranda (sorry Steve but you are too busy getting your hearing aids to work you ignored your person..) and Che supposedly hosts a popular podcast WITH the one and only Carrie Bradshaw. This is actually what killed me on the first episode of the show. Carrie, when asked about masturbation, became SHY and unable to even SAY the word. She was mortified. This is the SAME CARRIE BRADSHAW who told us ALL about her hot politician boyfriend who had a fetish about peeing on people…or being peed on I don't even remember. BUT like…COME ON. For the first few seasons of MAD MEN, I could not look at John Slattery without thinking about being peed on. TRUE STORY!!

ANYWAY, we now have the meme, “It’s CHE DIAZ” which is how Che seemingly always announces themselves and in particular when they buzz up to Carrie’s apartment and Miranda answers and refers to herself as “RAMBO” and then gets FINGER BANGED BY CHE DIAZ. YOU’RE WELCOME. …I guess I should tell you to watch it. The INTERNETS EXPLODED into their take on this. FOR EXAMPLE:

I mean I could sit here all day posting this meme but we all have better things to do. But either you now understand what this meme you saw means or else you are amused or just annoyed AF. A fine line.

AND JUST A FEW OF MY FAVORITE THINGS (AND SOME DESPICABLE ONES TOO…)

OK, let’s get to some other fun and annoying things this week. A week explained….

  • MY favorite TikTok trend is one even I got in on and I rarely TikTok. “Emotional Damage TikTok” is my JAM. It is a mash-up of “Pompeii” (CLICK HERE), a song by Bastille I love, and a clip from a guy talking about emotional damage and I love it so much:

MY attempt…

  • ELMO LOST HIS SHIT. And the Internet went wild. In case you missed it, said moment is below…but basically Elmo got REAL feisty about sharing his beloved oatmeal raisin cookie with ROCCO the pet rock. Never related to anyone more in my life:

Elmo addresses the drama (obviously) on Twitter. His long-standing feud with ROCCO continues.

AND of course, the two who MOST should be involved in this debate are THE ROCK himself and Cookie Monster. AND THEY DID:

Poor Elmo really has been plagued by Rocco from the start it seems. FUNNY AF.

  • A terrible tragedy happened in Brazil and it was captured on video, natch. The experts claim this was due to long bouts of rain which meant the land came loose at the exact wrong time. But the earth is FINE you guys just fine. NO climate crisis here at all. 👀👀👀
  • This TikTokker has gone viral for calling attention to Rebel Wilson in her recent videos. Rebel has lost a lot of weight and is seemingly enjoying her new self but some TikTokkers find her to be different not just physically but WELL just watch:

In particular, she is referring to these TikToks which some find creepy/soulless/like she was invaded by zombies.

  • ADOPTED PET TREND. There are so many TikToks but here is my fave which gives you an idea of this trend. Rescued pet gets adopted and lives BEST LIFE:
  • And last but not least, thank you THANK YOU Stephanie Ruhle for turning me onto this gem.

THAT IS IT my darlings.

The tropical rain has stopped here at my magical Goldeneye (CLICK HERE) if you want a real low key perfect getaway then this is YOUR place) and I must go swim swim swim.

Stay safe my beauties. Stay kind. Stay funny AF. GET VAXXED if you are not already but you are I know.

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