Pop Culture Mondays/12.19.22
The “ARGENTINA” Edition
HAPPY Monday, my darling pop culture junkies. I know SO many of you are off on your gorgeous holidays…I see you and I ENVY you whether you are in St. Barth’s or the mountains of France or Switzerland or ALL my friends at Goldeneye in Jamaica.
I am just sitting here in leggings and Uggs drinking my 8th coffee in my SACRIFICE to get PCM out this week. :)
BUT…what a week. AGAIN guys….again.
First, let me tell you this week’s Baby Yoda image comes to you from the brain of AI machine DALL*E2. It was fun to see what it delivered as I entered different terms around Baby Yoda and Argentina — it took a few different iterations before we finally got there. Some were sort of disturbing, like an actual baby with Yoda ears which is too scary to put here…but here is one I thought I would show that shows the literal take on it:
But the AI is so good it learned after each time what I meant…ANYWAY, we have more AI below but let’s just say this week was nuts. AGAIN. This week’s PCM discusses:
- Harry & Meghan and some of the drama which ensued (we all see you, Jeremy Clarkson…)
- SPACE KAREN AGAIN.
- Britney Spears conspiracies.
- TikTok AI trend.
- RIHANNA
- Avatar ( I saw it!)
- And some other viral moments you have to check out…
LOOK…..The World Cup. It was a sensation. I understand this. I did not watch it. Because I am clearly a terrible human BUT I watched it on Twitter in the sense that for a MOMENT, everyone stopped talking about Space Karen and were all tweeting variations of the exact same thing:
This is the best World Cup of my lifetime.
Everyone was watching. Some lucky people I know were there. My fave photo, though to come out of yesterday was PERHAPS the most obvious grouping known to humanity, and that was:
This is like a RENAISSANCE painting.
ANYWAY, my point is you are not here for the round-up of World Cup posts. There are plenty of other places for that. SO….let’s get into it.
LET’S DISCUSS:
THERE is a lot to unpack here, and I don't even know where to start. I will say that I have many many many friends who dislike these two and this documentary did not help. I also have many friends who enjoyed the documentary and found them annoying but ultimately sympathetic. And even others who love them, love them taking control of their story and everything about them. So let’s try to navigate.
In MY opinion, the documentary was well done, and I appreciate taking control of the narrative AND…if Harry wanted to begin a “LET’S BURN IT ALL DOWN” campaign, this was an excellent first step. I think some of the marketing of the series was unfortunate, like Netflix calling it a “GLOBAL EVENT” because STOP IT RIGHT NOW. It is not a global fucking event. It is a docu-series about a British Prince and his American wife who have captivated people for better or for worse but a global event, guys? NO. And if you are a Royalist, then no…you will literally see red and find it all infuriating. The doc DOES lay out a good case for why they broke emotionally and escaped and puts into context all of the abuse she received after seemingly breaking through a notoriously difficult crowd.
A bit of personal context (we will have more…), but my mom died a couple of months before Diana. It was a very dark time for me, and I could barely get out of bed and function as a normal part of society. I was 22 and a YOUNG 22 and had never gone a day without speaking to my mom, so every day I didn't speak to her, I counted. Like counting days of sobriety. When Diana died, I was glued to the television. Some weird shared grief began to take over me, and it was both comforting AND disturbing to me, and I sort of lived in that weird in-between space during it. I will never ever forget the face of Harry as he walked behind his mom’s coffin, and it haunts me to this day. I remember thinking how impossible it must be to grieve like that publicly…to be a little boy who lost his entire world and his only connection to “normalcy” in that family but having to BE OF SERVICE to the British people…AND the world. That boy needed to be hugged and held and told it was ok to cry and grieve and not put on a brave face out of some duty.
My point is….I understand his need for escape, and it ALL started at that moment. I have spent my life in that mindset, and it has DEFINITELY played a part in my life choices and, certainly, in the men I chose for a period of time…who would help me escape that pain and that feeling of loss and abandonment. It is a real thing. So I totally understand Harry’s need for this.
And Meghan. Well, if she doesn't really showcase how terribly misogynistic our world is, then I don’t really know what to say. I have met so many people who literally say, I HATE HER. Like they don’t know her, but they made that declaration. They see her as they see all strong women:
- An opportunist
- Ambitious (this is a bad word, apparently)
- Dramatic
- Self-absorbed
- Calculating
Is it because she is Black? An American? An actress? An independent woman? I mean yes and yes and yes and yes. The documentary does showcase how much was happening over an extended period of time and how the media, the relentlessly negative coverage was changing the brains of the public. Did Harry and Meghan make some bad decisions? Yes. The letter to her dad comes to mind. Did they maybe have a different take on things than the real story? Perhaps. But, like, move on. They are not doing ANYTHING to you, so why are you so worked up and in a rage?
AND that brings us to a very well-known British personality, Jeremy Clarkson. For those who do not know, Jeremy is a writer and a famous host of the global TV show, “TOP GEAR,” before getting fired for hitting a member of their crew and re-inventing his show for Amazon called “The Grand Tour.” He has a new show on Amazon called “Clarkson’s Farm” about his re-birth as a farmer.
AND for transparency's sake: He is also someone I dated. Briefly. But there was that one summer.
AND alas, a classic Hammerling example of someone I looked to for an escape. And I am only sharing this because I feel rather well-versed in speaking about him and telling the story of what happened this weekend.
Jeremy is a brilliant writer. I had no idea who he was when I met him as I was not a watcher of his shows or living in the UK, but I thought him utterly charming. Only after I realized HOW famous he was, and that was not a world I could navigate, to be honest, nor he able to tolerate someone like me. At any rate, on the heels of his being photographed in THE DAILY MAIL, the very publication that Harry and Meghan had a lawsuit against, alongside Piers Morgan at the QUEEN CONSORT’S Christmas Lunch (THAT’S CAMILLA)…his article in THE SUN appeared.
AND IT WAS A DOOZIE. It was all damning tbh, but this is where people are RIGHTFULLY losing their minds:
Who is Rose West, you might be asking?
Oh, just one of the most notorious SERIAL KILLERS who killed YOUNG WOMEN AND CHILDREN.
Jeremy hates Meghan more than a person in prison for the rest of her life for murdering women and children. OK.
He also acts as if everyone in the world will know his Game of Thrones reference…they do not, but for those WHO DID KNOW…it was truly one of the most disturbing and chilling scenes ever to take place.
And you know what that scene did on that show? It made us feel empathy for a woman no one until then had empathy for, so CONGRATS, Jeremy for doing GOD’S WORK HERE.
NEEDLESS to say, the response was BRUTAL for Jeremy:
The Mayor of London weighed in:
Media personality Carol Vorderman weighed in and made it clear not everyone his age felt this way (By the way he is 62):
Jeremy’s brilliant daughter Emily who is a writer, weighed in:
Nicola Sturgeon herself weighed in:
AND UK’s new PM, Rishi Sunak weighed in:
SO…THIS is what you call a GLOBAL EVENT. Not the docuseries, but this whole shitshow Jeremy started is ACTUALLY a global event. AND is maybe the greatest proof point for Harry and Meghan that the Royal Family has been absolutely horrendous to them. For a MAN who was JUST seen celebrating at a luncheon with the King’s wife, then writes a story that gets PUBLISHED about how much he hates Meghan…it gives the suggestion that he is just reiterating everything that was said at THAT LUNCH. Whether true or not, that's certainly a big takeaway.
Jeremy then issued an “apology” on Twitter…a full day after the drama, as he was too focused on following the World Cup to be bothered by the growing outrage. His apology AGAIN highlights how he doesn’t GET IT:
I mean, this was “CLUMSY”? First of all, the fact that he is not addressing the part where he says Meghan is worse than a child killer is bananas to me. And he thinks he can use his AW SHUCKS I am just a silly guy with a clumsy sense of humor manipulation…it is NOT working.
These men are SO threatened by women in power it is EXTRAORDINARY. No, of course, they worshipped the Queen, but the Queen lived in service of THEM. The women who make them crazy are the ones who are not in service to them and, in fact, do things they disagree with, so THEY ARE HORRID, AWFUL MANIPULATIVE EVIL WENCHES.
Here is an apology, Jeremy; you can feel free to use:
I have read everyone’s comments and I realize that not only is my sense of humor outdated, but so is my entire belief system. I first and foremost apologize to Meghan Markle, her husband, Harry, her children, and her mother. I apologize to my own children for not being the father I should be and for making our life a spectacle. And I apologize to the British people for being a bully, a racist, and a misogynist, and I will work on making things right from this point forward.
Next move? Amazon Prime. Do you cancel his show?
And congratulations Jeremy and THE SUN…you have done what a $100 million Netflix docu-series didn't accomplish…you have gotten a gazillion people to come to Meghan’s defense. WELL DONE.
TWITTER IS NOT POP CULTURE, OR IS IT?:
Despite many reading this, Twitter is not the end all be all of the world. In fact, most people under 30 are not on Twitter and do NOT care about Twitter. It just isn’t where they are or want to be. Side note: THE CHILDREN ARE OUR FUTURE 😁
But, Elon, aka Space Karen, is pop culture. He knows it. He leans into it. He is doing everything he can to keep Twitter in the center of the zeitgeist. And WHILE I DO find much of what he is doing to be abhorrent (a word I keep finding myself using more and more as of late across many different subjects), I also find it funny to see SO many people do precisely what he is orchestrating. Get SO worked up about every single thing. He tweets out a poll about whether he should step down as CEO, and people actually criticize him and say this is not the way these decisions should be made.
I MEAN, GUYS. OBVIOUSLY.
Please know you're playing into all of it. You are giving it life. You are giving it oxygen. It’s all a strategy. The best we could all do, frankly is ignore it. (Ironic as I sit here writing, I know.) Many are moving to the new competitor POST though we shall see how many actually stay. There are a lot of LONG GOOD BYES for one thing. The funniest take on this I have seen was this:
But let’s quickly look at SOME of what happened this week.
First, the Twitter user who has been tracking and publishing the whereabouts of Elon’s plane (I am sure there are more than one) was kicked off Twitter:
I am going to say something controversial.
That shit should never have been allowed ON Twitter. I don't care if the info is public. I remember when Gawker Stalker came out, and it would give REAL TIME updates on where celebs were, whether a restaurant or a show or a flight, and that is scary because there are crazy people out there. And yes, Twitter now exists so people in restaurants can tweet out in real-time, GEORGE CLOONEY IS AT TABLE NEXT TO ME, but their audience is small more than likely.
But in all things Twitter at the moment, the execution was flawed. Primarily because Elon claimed the account led a stalker to chase the car his infant son was in directly from when the plane landed in LA. Only to be disputed by an investigative piece in the Washington Post for which the writers contacted Elon via Twitter for comment, and then THEY were suspended. Taylor Lorenz, a writer who has been on the PCM podcast a couple of times, was told she was kicked off for promoting other social media channels like POST and Instagram…another new rule Twitter then rushed out (and since retracted.)
Here was the rule Twitter announced AFTER kicking Taylor off (she has since been re-instated):
The initial new rule from Twitter was announced during the Argentina/France game and since I was not watching this game, unlike BILLIONS of others, I was one of the first to see it. I decided not to say anything and just watch the wave of people go from celebrating the World Cup to sharing their outrage on this new rule they were just learning about. And seemingly ONLY reversed because Elon’s mom was even like this seems silly.
I mean at one point, even the Twitter accounts of other social platforms were suspended…again this has been reversed:
High-profile reporters other than Taylor Lorenz were suspended…like Ryan Mac of the NY Times and the excuse was he and others participated in “real-time doxxing” of Elon which is JUST NOT TRUE.
A true story…I have a client who is high profile and was receiving DMS from real Twitter users threatening his young children with rape and murder because they were angry about something related to his company. There were THREATS OF RAPE AND MURDER OF CHILDREN, with some showing they knew exactly where he lived. When I went to the powers that be at Twitter, under Elon, a couple of months ago…their response? NOTHING. Said sorry that’s life. NO joke.
But all this aside…Elon can do whatever the fuck he wants to do with Twitter because he owns it. Despite our indignation and horror and the deep hypocrisy we are shown time and time again, he can do with it as he likes for now. But as for all the drama that led to the initial removal of many journalists' accounts? Yeah, well apparently, the stalking of his son, which is horrible, was UNRELATED to the ELON JET account:
But the suspensions continue…long time supporter and advocate of Elon’s, Paul Graham (an investor, among other things), was suspended for Tweeting out his exasperation of the whole situation and a link to his MAstodon account:
His account has been restored for the same reason the others were…the rule has been revoked.
OK…I need a drink.
AND SOME OF OUR FAVORITE (OR MOST DESPICABLE) THINGS:
We have so many, and this has already taken me 4 hours, so let’s get to it.
- AI has once again taken over TikTok in the form of a filter. Here are just a few:
And yes, it’s exactly as you think….
- This dance has gone viral:
- Not only did this epic itinerary a mom sent her family for the holiday break go viral, but the son who posted it is someone I know! Khalid El Khatib, please adopt all of us!!
IF this is Christmas in Iowa, sign me up!!!
I am glad this amazing family got the attention they deserved! 😍
- RIHANNA broke the Internet by doing her first TikTok, which introduced the world to her son:
Really, we all lost our minds over it:
- WTF IS HAPPENING with Britney Spears, guys. Yes, we all know the story about how she got out of her conservatorship and how crazy that was…BUT now there is a growing belief that she is not ok either emotionally or actually even physically and many believe the content she is posting is not made by her. There are so many theories including that most are filmed in front of a green screen and she's not where she claims to be. Some are saying the wedding wasn’t even real….
And never did I think Perez Hilton would be the bastion of sense, but here we are 2022:
- I talked about tWitch on last week’s podcast:
It is a tragic end to a bright life and there are a million takes on social media for which I will not cover. All I want to do is make sure everyone knows there are resources if you or someone you know is finding life challenging at the moment. Especially around the holidays. PLEASE DIAL 988 to reach the SUICIDE PREVENTION HOTLINE.
- AVATAR: THE WAY OF WATER is out, and I saw it. If you see this movie, you must see it in IMAX and in 3D. That part is spectacular. The movie is NOT animated; it is all live-action with an impressive cast from the original stars Zoe Saldana and Sam Worthington, and Sigourney Weaver…but also stars Kate WINSLET (I originally wrote Middleton btw which is funny) oh…and try spotting VIN DIESEL I dare you! Look, I loved the creativity of it, and the effects are insane. I MUCH prefer water to the jungle as an escape for me, so the fact it was like WaterWorld Avatar, I was here for it. It was VERY violent, so like not for little kids or big kids like me tbh. And I do not see movies where animals, fictional or otherwise, die. I have never seen Bambi, Dumbo, Old Yeller, OKJA or anything along these lines so I was not ok during this movie which should give you a heads-up. But I enjoyed it and felt drunk after, maybe from the 3D but a good drunk, not a nauseous drunk.
And the actors had to learn how to free dive…..this is all real and insane tbh. INSANE. James Cameron did not allow scuba gear (bubbles, guys) and instead, the cast learned to hold their breath and wow…I cannot imagine:
- A Spanish commercial for J&B Whiskey has made the viral rounds and grab the tissues…there is a twist:
- And while I am skipping over a lot, we do want to say RIP to P22, the legendary mountain lion who terrorized the Hollywood Hills for years and was euthanized this weekend after being caught. P22 never found a mate and lived a life of solitude. And we send you off with love.
THAT IS IT, my darlings…
I hope you have a wonderful holiday and New Year. I am taking a PCM and PCMoT break and will see you in 2023 on the week of January 9th!
If you aren’t already a subscriber (PLEASE PLEASE SUBSCRIBE!!! to MEDIUM) and please do SHARE this with all your friends as I am trying to grow this little thing…BUT IF you want this in your inbox for NOW, please send an email to:
subscribe@popculturemondays.com
Xx,
Brooke
