Pop Culture Mondays/10.18.21
The “SPRINKLES” Edition
Happy Monday my darling pop culture junkies! WHAT A WEEK FOR CONTENT (oh and a Kardashian got engaged to a ’90s rock and roll guy who was one of the original reality show people so MAZEL to them but NOT IN THIS NEWSLETTER you crazy kids, you have THE DAILY MAIL for that!)
BUT we have plenty of other ground to cover. I am STILL in NY where it went from summer to winter over night and everyone is adjusting. BUT before we get there…a little NYC observation I have to make as a NYER thru and thru who has betrayed her people by moving to LA, I say this:
The entire geography of NYC has changed as a result of COVID and this is one of the most shocking things I have yet to see. AND THAT IS, the college grads who have parents who get them apartments in NYC all used to go to MURRAY HILL or the EAST VILLAGE…LIKE, that is where they LEARNED to be NYers and got their street smarts and if they SURVIVED this and hung in there they would eventually get to places of their dreams in the West Village for example. But you do NOT GO to the West Village straight out of the gates from college. THERE are dues to be paid my friends. EXCEPT, all bets are off now and the West Village is seemingly like an extension of the campus at University of Michigan or Syracuse or ASU and it is a scary place with girls walking side by side in groups of 5 ON THE SIDEWALK, wearing athleisure with blazers and fake bags from Zara and their supersized iced coffees from…..STARBUCKS.
So with that…SIGH….welcome to my brain and I am sorry for that but buckle up, grab some headphones and enjoy the quick break.
XO….
CONTENT CONTENT CONTENT:
OK, so rather writing about JUST one thing, let’s summarize a BIT of what people are talking about this week. Whether you are on HBO or Netflix or any of the other places you are giving $$ to monthly (PS can we discuss HOW much we are all spending on these streaming services monthly and likely paying 3x what we should be paying SIMPLY because so much is bundled but they are TRYING to keep you confused and at least for me IT IS WORKING but I digress….).
THERE was a lot in the content wars this week…
FIRST UP WE HAVE….MEDIA TWITTER’S FAVE rich white dysfunctional family, THE ROYS.
THE OLDS ARE HAPPY. When I say “OLDS” I mean you. I mean me. I mean US. I don’t mean your kids who likely care NOT about Logan Roy and his family. But for the MEDIA TWITTERVERSE, nothing seems to matter other than this family and Cousin Greg AKA Sprinkles. Look, IT IS AN AMAZING SHOW. And even though it had its premiere party last week in NYC for which I TRIED to score an invite to and HBO was like SORRY BOO BUT NO by saying “they were oversubscribed” which meant they had a million middle-aged white dudes attend and document on their stories the other middle aged white dudes attending. I am not bitter HBO, you be you. But regardless of that, the show premiered last night and everyone’s favorite dysfunctional family DELIVERED. And so did the socials:
LOOK…I could go on here but there are spoilers but here in a summary are my favorite things that will make no sense unless you watched it:
- Kendall Roy got hot. I don’t know if this is JUST me because I OBVIOUSLY love a bad boy (not the tragic ones as once they become tragic it’s like a “no” from me but the tragic ones that become strong and in control? HOT. So either that is MY psychology OR the writers are playing this up by giving him a NEW addiction (power) but WOOO BOY I did not see that coming.
- “THE JUICE IS LOOSE” → If you watched it you know what I mean. But look, the trailer of what’s to come dropped and I mean as someone who doesn’t really have a family…I find them super compelling like WHAT A FUN CHRISTMAS THIS WOULD BE…bring on the drama and the passion and the hate and the betrayal!
AND in case you missed this bit of news: Kara Swisher has signed up FOR YET ANOTHER GIG and that is hosting a very cool Succession podcast but with a twist (I have not yet listened to it but I SHALL!!)
OK MOVING ON…..We have THIS to discuss:
SO. I discussed this briefly last week. BUT the drama continues at Netflix, though this is the kind that maybe they don’t love. Maybe if they had different people doing their PR, they would have had better advice at HOW to manage this, but alas, it’s a tech company and not an entertainment company REALLY so they have a different WAY of handling things. BUT I am not here to dissect the goings on of a tech company’s board room BUT I am sure they are laughing all the way to the bank regardless of ANYTHING. But if you watched Dave Chappelle’s “The Closer,” then you are utterly aware of the drama around it — IT SEEMINGLY being an opportunity for Dave to respond to his “critics” and defend his transphobia by stating he had a trans friend so…..well you know.
I am not a critic or a writer really of any kind…I just share my own personal feelings and this one had me perplexed because I HAVE LOVED DAVE CHAPPELLE. And he is not some strong bastion of a moral compass…he has degraded women before. White women. ALL women. His humor pushes the boundaries. Makes us uncomfortable. Makes us nod in agreement even though we know it is totally inappropriate to do so. It was smart and cutting and didn’t spare anyone from criticism really. BUT, the thing about this newest special is at least the last 6 mins or whatnot where he goes down this weird defensive rabbit hole of transphobia….it’s just not funny. Like it’s more like an out of touch old dude just spewing unfunny and cliched things. We live in a cancel culture moment for sure and I am not saying the show or Dave should be cancelled….I mean what’s worse for them is people not talking about it and I hope that’s where we net out at some point because it (THE SPECIAL) SHOULD be irrelevant because it is SO uninteresting. ANYWAY, people have been fired, memos from the CEO have been leaked, and people are responding and I definitely recommend reading THESE articles on it:
AND THEN WE HAVE:
I have talked a lot about “Squid Game” before but more convos around it are happening and it keeps going and going and trends are happening as a result. The show, which is really one of my favorite things of late, has made SO much money and cost SO little. SIGH. But here are my fave things from socials and SNL:
THE COOKIES “HOW TO”:
THE MUSIC:
DOGGOS:
And then THIS “SNL” sketch which of course has Pete Davidson in it (and RAMI MALEK) which is so funny and gets into so many things we can all related to LIKE what a Korean WON is compared to the US DOLLAR. Anyway, it’s so good:
AND what the kids are now talking about is the 3rd season of “YOU” on Netflix (Netflix should sponsor this Newsletter!)
AND LASTLY…we have PCM fave Timothée Chalamet as Willy Wonka which to be FAIR, this image was released a couple weeks ago and I didn’t include them in last week’s PCM because I WAS PROCESSING IT ALL:
And the memes:
UNIVERSITY OF DELAWARE & TIKTOK ARMY:
I honestly cannot imagine what having social media let alone the INTERNET must be like in college. When I was in college, we let our friends know where we were by leaving notes on the little white boards we hung from our front doors in the dorms. We didn’t live in a world where other worlds mattered to us, only the world which we were IN.
For example, as a freshman I went to a FRAT PARTY at the ATO house. This was ON campus. but we didn’t have mobile phones or email. During the party the power went out. We were told the power went out across the whole campus. How were we to know differently? But of course the boys, the TOTAL GENTLEMEN (sarcasm here kids) said to us don’t worry ladies…stay here at our HOUSE til the power gets back on and you will be fine. Every guy had a ton of candles so their rooms and the house was LIT up. Many of us stayed. Many of us were convinced to go to someone’e room. And the rest is history as they say and something I rarely talk about if ever. We didn’t find out there was actually NO black out until the next day. THE frat turned off all their lights and then told us there was a blackout across the whole campus and we would be safer staying with them. ATO did this to the young, unsuspecting girls to see who they could get to hook up with them by making them scared, and beholden to them and the next day there was NO platform for us to tell the world what happened. We just whispered about it and did our best to forget about it and to let other girls the next years know what the guys do.
BUT NOW…there is TikTok. And U. Delaware has a problem. As we are seeing too often, tragically…another young man has assaulted a co-ed in an off campus apartment and she was brutally assaulted and he was charged and the school did NOT make a statement so the kids took to TikTok and now the world knows and it’s pretty incredible:
AND JUST A FEW OF MY FAVORITE THINGS (AND SOME DESPICABLE ONES TOO…)
OK so you’re probably now whistling “A WHOLE NEW WORLD” at the moment and I AM SORRY it will stay with you for a bit longer. It just does that. IN the meantime, a few other things of note this week:
- A TikTok Trend uses Bieber’s voice from a CARPOOL KARAOKE. The videos are like this:
AND may I present the OG video where the “SOUND” is from:
- Tom Cruise needs to LAY off the FILLERS MY MAN.
- Have your kids asked you whether it’s a no bones day? Or have they told you it’s a bones day? Well if not, buckle up and if SO, this is the quick explainer. This guy started making videos about his old pug, NOODLE, who sometimes decides not to move aka NOT STAND UP or as he describes “have no bones day” or some days when he decides to stand upright he calls it “having a bones day”. FOR EXAMPLE:
So this has set off a trend about what the forecast will be and whether it will be a BONES DAY or a NO BONES DAY. I love it so much:
- THIS magical wonder is baffling the Internet:
THAT’S IT my darlings. And what those of you DON’T know (if you don’t follow me on the Twitter) is that I wrote this newsletter…which takes me HOURS and hours and I start at 6AM and I write it all straight and somehow THIS week it all disappeared like that term paper moment that vanishes and I was shocked and stunned and maybe cried and I was getting read to start all over again but THANKFULLY Ev Williams and his incredible team Medium have built an amazing product and were able to find it and I am SO GRATEFUL.
Be SAFE. Be kind.
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