Pop Culture Mondays/1.3.22

The “THANK YOU FOR BEING MY FRIEND” Edition

HAPPY MONDAY my darling pop culture junkies. AND WOWZERS…welcome back to work I guess? HOW ARE WE DOING? I am guessing many of you have the OMICRON or have had it, and for those of us who have not gotten it yet…either we are superhumans or we just don’t socialize with actual humans. But you don’t come here to read more about the PANNY because we all need a break from the relentlessness of it so buckle up and grab your headphones and forgive me this week is a BIT late and scattered as I too am digging out from a mellow two weeks and diving back into reality.

BABY STEPS.

But let’s be clear. This week’s edition is dedicated to Queen Betty White. Frankly, Betty White leaving us on the last day of 2021 was really the perfect send-off to an emotional roller coaster of a year. I was with my friend when we heard the news and hand to God I started crying. The people in the store started crying. I even think MAYBE my dog Potato started crying. It was A LOT. Though I blame People Magazine for probably causing it with this cover:

SHE DID NOT TURN 100. SHE DIED PEOPLE MAGAZINE. YOU KILLED HER. Thank you PEOPLE MAGAZINE for showing us that funny DOES indeed get old and funny dies. BUT WHATEVER. You killed Betty White. SO thanks for that.

Welcome to my new subscribers! This is just a fun little weekly summary of the trends and viral moments happening whether in culture in general or on the socials and social commentary. Some of it you will know. Some of it you will wish you didn’t. Either way, it’s meant to be fun. And Trump (and Trump disciples FREE).

XO…

QUEEN

THANK YOU FOR….BEING EVERYTHING:

Betty White has a hold over people in all different generations. She has always been ahead of her time and while I was aware of her from the “Mary Tyler Moore Show”, it was as Rose Nyland that she became my everything. Before the “Sex and the City” ladies, we had the “Golden Girls” (who incidentally were basically the same age as the SATC ladies now and seemed to be younger and more WITH it than the reboot of SATC has made their women but I digress….)

“Golden Girls” was ICONIC and a huge thing in the ’80s in terms of topics it covered. From AIDS to gay marriage to abortion to rape to abuse to divorce to sexual freedom it was INCREDIBLE. I have dreamed of my own “Golden Girls” experience where I live in a house in Florida (sorry but we need palms and shuffleboard) with all my ladies → Are you listening Britt, Deborah, Kara, Dena, Kristy, Jess, Mel, Frances, Lydia, Candy, Ceci and Dana? YOU BETTER!! I mean I have a room in my house called the “Golden Girls” room and it is designed to be an homage to their living room.

GUYS, I LIVE FOR IT. I even dated a guy who was on an episode of it and people ask me what I saw in him (he went on to be a very talented person) and I still say… “That episode of Golden Girls is what got me and when I fell in love..” I mean I was a kid when I saw it but it stuck with me. (Maybe the one episode I should have skipped alas….)

BUT, Betty had an impact on a lot of people. When Kara Swisher asks me to dish on all the dirt I have from all I have seen over the years I always say, “If I write it now, I am just an awful human. But if I wait until I am in my 80s, then I am Betty White and it will be ADORABLE.”

THIS is a FACT.

At any rate, many of us mourn her and she had an incredible life. I thought today I could put a lot of the things she said that were SO funny and impactful in one place…not all of them as that would take days. But here are just a few:

• “Why do people say “grow some balls”? Balls are weak and sensitive. If you wanna be tough, grow a vagina. Those things can take a pounding.”
• “My mother always used to say, ‘The older you get, the better you get. Unless you’re a banana.”
• “I’m a health nut,” she said. “My favorite food is hot dogs with French fries. And my exercise: I have a two-story house and a very bad memory, so I’m up and down those stairs.”
• “My answer to anything under the sun, like ‘What have you not done in the business that you’ve always wanted to do?’ is ‘Robert Redford’.”
• “I not only knew Houdini, but we had a very lovely relationship … I really thought we had something going, and then the son of a gun disappeared.”
• “People have told me ‘Betty, Facebook is a great way to keep in touch with old friends.’ At my age, if I wanted to keep in touch with old friends. I’d need an Ouija board.”
• “Oh, I don’t need sleep. I just went to my hotel and had a cold hot dog and vodka on the rocks.”
• “I don’t care who anybody sleeps with … I don’t know how people can get so anti-something. Mind your own business, take care of your affairs, and don’t worry about other people so much.”
• On grief (I really love this one): “There’s no formula. Keep busy with your work and your life. You can’t become a professional mourner. It doesn’t help you or others. Keep the person in your heart all the time. Replay the good times. Be grateful for the years you had.”

This video really does highlight some of the best moments from Golden Girls:

And this still holds up, 12 years later, as one of the funniest intros and acceptance speeches between Sandra Bullock and Betty White…worth the watch:

And finally, our hearts go out to Ryan Reynolds who without question had a special relationship with our Queen.

And from this now INFAMOUS People Mag story on Betty turning 100, People Tweeted:

To which Ryan tweeted just days before she died:

🥰

RIP BETTY.

SIGH

THAT’S A NO FROM ME:

Look, I imagine my dreams of being a real housewife are going to be dashed after this post but I suppose I can survive. Oh, you don't need to be real or a housewife to be cast just an FYI so I COULD still fit the bill. But here’s the deal…NO CHANCE would they want me now or would I want them.

Look, I am here to say sometimes I am WRONG. I am. It’s true. I admit this. At first, I was SO delighted that someone with a public platform like Andy Cohen called out Bill DeBlasio, the worst mayor NYC has ever seen. And Andy destroyed him on national TV. I was amused. It was funny AF tbh. And then when he unleashed on Zuck…again, without thinking about it, I was amused. He was able to do what many of us wish we could have done.

Before I go into further thinking and in case you missed both these clips from the NYE show he hosts with Anderson Cooper on CNN…here you go:

On deBlasio (which is absolutely CORRECT BTW):

Look, both points are valid. Both are hilarious. Both are NUTS that happened on a NEWS NETWORK. But I thought at the moment it was funny. But then I sobered up myself…and I also got a lot of texts and DMs from people I know and love and from absolute strangers. And all saying very similar things and I had to say WAIT A MINUTE…they are actually right.

Let’s talk KATHY GRIFFIN. She WAS Anderson’s co-host and dear friend for years. Before Andy and Anderson it was Kathy and Anderson. And it was always silly and edgy and fun and loose and not super professional. But Kathy never behaved THIS way. No, she saved her personal hatred for a political figure on her own time, and for that…a joke that was in poor taste but a joke nonetheless, she got canceled. LIKE TOTALLY CANCELLED. And dropped by her close friends including Anderson, according to Griffin. And HAD she done something like Andy did…she would have been fired the morning after…or walked off during the commercial break. But instead, with Andy, we celebrated it. We excused it because he was “DRUNK”. ALSO, many people suggested to me that he was not actually drunk and just playing it up and used it as an excuse. A theory, sure, but not entirely unbelievable. I mean it would be pretty hard to be that drunk and still stand and not slur and be aware of your surroundings but I DIGRESS.

And Anderson is not innocent here either…he has gotten away with so much INCLUDING I might add doing a 12-minute takedown story for 60 Minutes on the restaurant “THE SPOTTED PIG” (I was an investor) and not once …NOT ONCE…disclosing how many party nights HE personally spent there on the 3rd floor in various states of undress….JUST SAYING. (THAT IS TEA FYI)

The point here is…that while it was funny…it did make me chuckle…it also highlighted a huge discrepancy in how we see women vs men STILL in this day and age. One woman gets totally canceled for an ill-advised photo shoot, while one goes on a crazy political rant on live TV and is celebrated. It’s a no Bueno for me.

BUT…people had their own fun with CNN that night…this really happened with the ticker at the bottom of the screen during the NYE special…and it was in one word…SPECTACULAR. VERY Bart Simpson.

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

OK, we have a bunch of one-off moments…some I loved, some I hated, some I am perplexed by…but all are flying around like crazy.

• This kid on TikTok has gone viral a few times. He is a pop culture icon now covering pop culture. GOD BLESS HIM. A Modern Day “We Didn’t Start the Fire” if you will. If you are an avid follower of PCM you will get a lot of these references:

• DO you have an Alexa? DO me a favor and ask her what she thinks of Mark Zuckerberg. Then ask her about Elon Musk. OK…then ask her what she thinks of Jeff Bezos. You’re welcome. But all fun and games aside, Amazon nearly killed a girl as Alexa went EVIL DARK DEMON and told a little girl when asked for a challenge, to basically go and electrocute herself. Don't believe me?

• OH JEFFREY, JEFFREY BEZOS. First Alexa, now her father. Here is a guy who is so rich and has used so many different medical techniques to change his physique he gives ZERO fucks now. As many elder statesmen of tech avoid all social media and just retreat into a quiet albeit luxurious existence, our Bezos has decided to do the exact opposite. Here is the pic causing all the chatter that he posted…while most are commenting on his look, some are noticing the giant ring on her finger. I believe she has been wearing that ring before but what do I know? But I do know that her hand looks warped which MIGHT have to do with photo editing gone bad but alas here is the pic:

TikTok as always has had fun with Bezos during his HOLS:

MANY dudes seem to think he’s on either TRT (testosterone replacement therapy) or something ELSE.

• CDC Says….oh yes this meme. FUN. Funny that the organization that is meant to protect us and keep us safe is now a meme BUT here we are. As the CDC ONCE again changed its guidelines for COVID stuff leaving everyone confused (quaran what??) and THEN made an announcement that people shouldn't take cruises like DUH thanks…they got the meme treatment. Here are some of my faves:

And if you KNOW, you know:

• ALL MY APES GONE. This is a crypto/NFT related meme but basically, I am too tired to write about it all but if you have seen APE related jokes on Twitter, here you go:

All My Apes Gone

• And lastly, if you have a teen in your house who uses TikTok, you have probably heard this song (it’s CATCHY) but man this video from a few years ago reminds me of my home movies from 1986 I made at slumber parties where we thought we were GENIUSES:

AND TikTok discovered it and this sound became a THING. Some creators and the dance:

And then the singer herself got into the trend (and sidenote: I am not going to get into it BUT a lot of haters are coming out on TikTok saying this singer bullied them in high school or used racist language in their presence 10 years ago…it’s a whole situation I am tracking so MAYBE more to come.) But this whole thing gives me REN FAIRE vibes…

THAT IS IT my darlings.

I know there are SO many more memes and viral moments that have happened and I have skipped over but a girl can only do so much. Plus, I need to go lock myself away and avoid Omicron so I can fly this weekend so wish me luck.

Stay safe my beauties. Stay kind. Stay funny AF.

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