Pop Culture Mondays/11.21.22
The “DADDY IS BACK” Edition
Hello my gorgeous pop culture junkies and welcome to a HOLIDAY edition of PCM. Most of us in the US at least are cramming things in today (unless you’re one of my many friends already holidaying it up in St. Bart’s or Fiji or some other tropical locale and who I cannot talk to at the moment out of pure jealousy) so I am going to try to keep this quick.
This edition is dedicated to Bob Iger, aka DADDY aka ZADDY IGER, who in a SHOCKING move, announced he is returning to Disney as CEO. In a STUNNING bit of news on a Sunday evening leading all the media who cover…media…to drop everything and write and write and find an angle and try to get Bob Iger on the record…or even off I am sure. It was as stunning as it was unexpected. And SAD too as many many many were hoping he would run for President:
But I will take me some Iger wherever we can get him. Now this is a pop culture newsletter, not a media newsletter but Iger is basically Baby Yoda’s dad so we have to pay homage. I think one of my favorite interviews was his recent one in September with Mama Swisher who loves her some Iger. It’s worth the watch if you haven’t seen it:
ANYWAY, Disney is back baby. Those weird stories about how long the lines were to rides and how many rides were broken and how expensive the parks were…all make sense now. SOMEONE was doing their job behind the scenes. 😂
And before we get into it….I need to address the Taylor Swift/Ticketmaster thing and also explain why I am not addressing the Taylor Swift/Ticketmaster thing. I work with Live Nation which owns Ticketmaster so I am conflicted out on this one. What I can say is in my 25 plus years of working with founders and CEOs, most of whom have been brilliant and inspiring, there are a few who stand out as being exceptional. Michael Rapino is one of those leaders who I have learned more from and who has taught me more about leadership and empathy than almost anyone. And while Swiftie Nation is ALL POWERFUL, and has made some amazing content around this whole topic, I am standing on the sidelines on this one. BUT, I will say there is one take that came out yesterday I think explains this whole situation the best and that is from Bloomberg’s Lucas Shaw so READ IT HERE.
OK so LET’S get into it. If you missed last week’s podcast, I did a solo one where I just get into FBX and SBF.
As this is a holiday version, we are just going to touch on a few topics today which include OBVS Elon, but also a guy named Kevin on TikTok who is seducing the entire world, the World Cup and some content that you have to binge this week and a few explainers of things/people/trends.
We are ignoring the break up of Harry and Olivia (not saying this had anything to do with the fact I saw his concert last week and then they break up -not saying that at all. JUST saying let’s leave these kids be for a while❤️) and the Elizabeth Holmes sentencing (11 years!!!) and the horrendous murders of four University of Idaho students that seems ripped from a horror movie and more on SBF and the BULLSHIT of “Effective Altruism” and how that’s just a cover to behave badly. I AM IGNORING.
Grab some coffee or tea and your headphones and enjoy…
SO, I GUESS we must start with all things Elon and Twitter. I don’t really mean ALL things because if that were the case we would be here for days. But here are just a few things:
- Twitter did NOT shut down despite everyone thinking it would. The fact that there was a mass exodus of employees who survived the lay offs but did not want to adhere to Elon’s new rules, left many thinking the lights would not stay on. But people certainly had their fun with him and had this projected onto Twitter HQ in San Francisco:
- SPACE KAREN. I mean, maybe my favorite description of Elon, and one I feel will stick. At least here at PCM it will. Forever and always Elon is now known here as “SPACE KAREN”
- Space Karen is still a troll…a 51 year old man baby who thinks he’s funny (he is not) and uses memes in shocking ways and we are ONE step away from Pepe the Frog memes aka QAnon racist crazy shit. Here are a few that he tweeted this weekend:
To remind us that Space Karen is also a highly sexist misogynist pig (I mean can you imagine being a woman and working for him??) he tweeted this about trying to tempt Trump to get back on the platform as he UNBANNED him. Trump apparently sticking with his people on Truth Social, but Space Karen made a classic attempt using 12 year old boy “humor”. He used a “poll” he posted on Twitter as a reason as to why he let Trump back on. The people have spoken kind of thing. Which is
A. Bullshit because 70 percent of his followers are not real so the poll is BS.
B. and more amusing to me, is he used the LATIN term but out of context. So here is what he said:
Yes correct. “The voice of the people is the voice of God…”
BUT…the full text is:
Nec audiendi qui solent dicere, Vox populi, vox Dei, quum tumultuositas vulgi semper insaniae proxima sit.
Which translates into English as:
“Do not listen to those who say the voice of the people is the voice of God, since the tumult of the crowd is always close to madness.”
It’s just TOO much. But….
…NOT to be outdone, he decided to give good ole homophobia a try with this one:
To be fair, it was in my opinion, ridiculous for CBS to make the announcement they did which Space Karen is referring to. Here is one of the local affiliate’s tweet which was what many were sharing at CBS:
I mean this was a silly move in my opinion. PEOPLE ON ALL SIDES are making poor poor decisions.
Earlier in the week, a hashtag of #RIPJImmyFallon was trending and Jimmy reached out on Twitter asking Space Karen for help. Here’s how that went:
A nice segue into our next theme, THE WORLD CUP, we have Space Karen trying to hype Twitter as the best place to watch the World Cup, except for, it’s not.
So let’s go to QATAR drama now.
Qatar is the host of this year’s FIFA World Cup which is not a shock or surprise as this was pre-ordained I believe back in 2010. That’s right, TWELVE YEARS AGO. But in some ways it feels like we all just woke up and were like WAIT THIS IS WRONG they are abusers of human rights and have preposterous and inhumane laws around LGBTQ. But in MY opinion the shitstorm seems to have been kicked off NOT by human rights violations but by the fact beer and alcohol was banned from the venue.
Q’UELLE HORREUR!
Human rights issues? MEH. NO BUDWEISER?? FUCK THAT.
THIS IS NOT MY OPINION just an observation.
Anyway, Budweiser is the official sponsor of the World Cup. The Budweiser bio on Twitter is literally:
But when it was announced that NO alcohol would be allowed at the Qatar venues, Budweiser tweeted this since deleted tweet:
I mean you would THINK they would have all figured this out before the week of the event? But I guess not. What is BUD to do with all that beer? Well…
And the celebs like David Beckham and Morgan Freeman are getting crucified for their involvement which is about ONE thing guys and ONE thing only:
It costs a LOT of money to keep that Victoria Beckham fashion line in business you know?
Popular UK comedian, Joe Lycett, was one of MANY calling David Beckham to stand down from Qatar. He claimed he would shred £10k, which of course was not really going to happen but he used his platform to call out Beckham’s hypocrisy:
What hypocrisy? OH so glad you asked…
Joe in fact SHREDDED this magazine cover and the magazine changed its Twitter profile pic to him doing so:
And they made an official statement:
WHAT A MESS. What we need is an escape from the hate and horrible world we all find ourselves in. What could that be?
ENTER NEWEST TIKTOK SENSATION, Kevin, aka “strangek3vin” on TikTok who unexpectedly has taken the platform by storm with his eyes. If you recall ages ago we had this handsome Canadian boy named William White who seduced middle aged women around the world with his lip synching of old 70s and 80s tunes while seductively looking at the camera and biting his lip. WELL, we have a new one and it is rather…unexpected.
AND THIS…this is why I don’t believe in dating apps. THIS GUY….this guy has a VIBE that might not come through in still pics. BUT I digress…let’s see a couple more…(SWOON):
What this man does with his eyes should be taught to all. Literally, we would be in a much more peaceful world I think. Here is his explainer:
- MOVING ON….want to talk quickly about NEPO BABIES and what’s happening here. First, what is a Nepo Baby? According to URBAN DICTIONARY:
Child of a famous actor/celebrity etc. lots of the time Nepo Baby’s don’t have any skills what so ever and only get famous due to the connections that their parents have but sometimes they actually do have acting/modeling/whatever skills!
We seem to be in a world filled with children of the famous who are now the stars of fashion and film and some are talented but none had to go through the hardships non-famous people had to go through to get there. It is just what it is. You go to HArvard and you get a network that’s very different than if you went to a local community college. Though assuming you got into Harvard by hard work where as you are a nepo baby by just being born but just go with me on this analogy, cool?
Nepo babies have been an ongoing theme on social media but it came front and center thanks to a NEPO BABY herself, Lily-Rose Depp who gave this interview:
This did not go over well with a lot of people, including the stunning Italian super model, Vittoria Ceretti, who posted this to her Insta Stories:
And I think that says it all.
MOVING ON….do you know who these women are?
This is the global sensation KPOP girl group, Blackpink. This is like the girl version of BTS and frankly, they are the biggest pop group in the world at the moment. This recent video for example has over 440 million views:
I mean…I work out to this music because it is FUN. Which I guess means I am a BLINK as their fandom is known as…THE BLINKS.
And moving on…
OK, last but not least…some content to check out this weekend.
First, did you read the novel, “Fleishman is in Trouble,” by Taffy Brodesser-Akne? Well you should. But fret not…because. it is now an amazing series on Hulu with the perfect cast and Taffy herself adapted it. It’s a story about divorce sort of but layered. IT IS SO GOOD. My only issue is Adam Brody plays the character Seth and he is forever and a day to me SETH COHEN from THE O.C. so I keep thinking it is grown up Seth Cohen but I digress…
Another series I watched start to finish was on Netflix about the devastating earthquake in Nepal that took thousands of lives. This series is brilliant in how it showcases the tragedy all throughout Nepal and the fragility of the city of Kathmandu and the infrastructure as well as what happened to those attempting to climb Everest. And man are there some unexpected villains. But it is beautiful and tragic but there was SO much incredible high res video of the moment the earthquake hit, you have to watch:
Aftershock: Everest and the Nepal Earthquake (Netflix)
THAT IS IT, my darlings…
Have a wonderful holiday for those in the US or celebrating abroad. CALORIES DON’T COUNT ON THURSDAY I have been ASSURED.
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