Pop Culture Mondays/3.14.22
The “WHAT IS EVEN HAPPENING ANYMORE?” Edition
Happy Monday my darling pop culture junkies. Every ONCE in a while, I opt out of a Baby Yoda image and this is one of those weeks because I just couldn’t find one that spoke to me the way this amazing drawing from Charlie Mackesy does.
If you are not familiar with the amazing Charlie, his book, “The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and The Horse” is an international bestseller and will melt your heart every which way. (CLICK TO BUY) Charlie is also just one of the best humans so, WITH HIS permission, I have used THIS image to kick this week off.
And I am not going to lie, from the tragedy and heartbreak of this war to the horrible division amongst people and misinformation all over the place to the pettiness of rich white dudes on Twitter…I felt like skipping this week. Waking up when it’s still dark adds to that desire to just stay under the covers all day. BUT there are memes and trends to show you so I am PULLING myself together to do a quick little PCM today. ALL I ask in return is that you guys all take a breath, you all think before you tweet (myself included) and you be kind to everyone because we all need that right now.
Reminder..we are Trump (and Trump-adjacent)-FREE.
XO…
THE WAR & TIKTOK:
The war has continued to unfold on social media but for the first time, TikTok is now in the mix. And it is really fascinating/heartbreaking/cringe to see how different creators use the platform to showcase what happening.
We have residents of Ukraine telling their story from their POV which is the most haunting and also the hardest for me to get my head wrapped around when you see their videos. Here are a few:
Get the tissues out for this one. I mean you have to watch it a few times to capture mentally all that is happening. A group of people in a bunker it seems all together making food and working together to stay safe and then this little girl sings…the room goes silent. The good news is there are reports the little girl and her family made it out of Ukraine safe:
And the OG singer of “Let it Go”, Idina Menzel, responded:
There are so many TikToks that are remarkable and powerful coming out of Ukraine but this creator, in particular, has struck a chord as she showcases her life in a bunker as well as risks her safety to get videos of the destruction:
Pretty powerful stuff.
And here are some other TikToks I thought should be highlighted…
This is from the SOUTH as in SOUTH CAROLINA. The song is a version of the Black Eyed Peas “Where is the Love?” done by artist Lauren Amour who wrote this version for Ukraine. I am not going to lie, I needed to take a break for a bit after re-watching it because I couldn’t stop crying:
Here is the artist singing the new version:
And we also saw Ukrainian President Zelensky be BOSS again and again. Here is another example:
Look I could sit here all day and show you some amazing examples of this unfolding on social media, but there was a great scoop on how the US government was using TikTokkers to get their message across by Taylor Lorenz in The Washington Post (Just subscribe guys the paper is GREAT):
AND this led to a very funny SNL skit that got a lot of love on the socials. It’s long but if you are a regular PCM reader you will get several of the references:
Weird times. Even made weirder by our pop culture patron saint, ELON MUSK. Elon has challenged Putin to “SINGLE COMBAT” this morning:
TRANSLATION:
Владимир Путин → Vladamir Putin
Україна → Ukraine
Вы согласны на этот бой? → DO you agree to this fight?
OK kids it gets fucking weirder…Dmitry Rogozin, the former Deputy Chairman of the Government of the Russian Federation, RESPONDS to ELON ON TWITTER:
Roughly translated:
You, little devil, are still young, Compete with me weak; It would only be a waste of time. Overtake my brother first.
A. S. Pushkin “The Tale of the Pope and his worker Balda”
THIS IS REAL LIFE.
Let’s move on…
IT HAS COME TO THIS AND I APOLOGIZE:
I really try to avoid Kardashian stuff because…well just because. But this week it was impossible to avoid for a VARIETY of reasons. BUT man is that family good at the repositioning and distraction tactics and the “HEY don’t look there look HERE” moves and maybe they are Russian operatives the whole lot of them what do I know but it is wild. (OBVIOUSLY, I AM JOKING.)
Let’s start at the beginning. Last week KIM K got everyone mad and everyone was mad FOR GOOD REASON. I will let the video do the talking but her guidance did not sit well with millions of people who felt it was a BIT ironic a woman born into fame and wealth was doling this advice out but what do YOU THINK?
WOO boy. Ain’t that something…well I will let the responses tell the story:
THIS ONE is 👀👀👀:
AND this guy summed it up:
BUT…just as these videos were taking off like wildfire…KIM and her team decided to REDIRECT and voila…an Instagram of her with her boyfriend Pete Davidson went up and the world exploded:
And then she posted the same pic on Twitter…same BUT different as the carpet was different. SO many questions (and that tweet has since been removed) so she got everyone trying to figure out the mystery of the rug…
BUT also this was clearly a gentle nod to how they first connected which was in this skit on SNL:
OK OK can we be done now? NOT so fast. Madness ensued over the weekend when apparent texts between Pete and Kanye came out. Most, including me, thought they were fake. Like he said a pic of himself in bed to Kanye saying “I am in bed with your wife” like that cannot be real? IT IS.
GIRL…the level you have to get to for me to be on the side defending KANYE is a whole thing and I have great resentment for this entire group of people.
I can not post all of them but here is an idea:
I would have been fine with his text to Kanye had they not included him taunting him in bed but also WTF is happening ad why is everyone taking their private business on socials???
APPARENTLY, this text exchange was promoted by yet another unhinged video of Kanye who is CLEARLY emotionally abusing and stalking his ex on socials. IT IS ALL BAD. And again, THIS IS REALLY HAPPENING:
I still cannot believe the initial text exchange is real…we shall see what unfolds but frankly, this being the top news story other than Ukraine makes me want to move to my little heaven in Jamaica and never come back or look at the Internets again.
EL SIGH.
AND SOME OF MY FAVORITE THINGS (OR DESPICABLE…)
Let’s cleanse the palate? Ok, I am actually not sure any of the below will help but godspeed.
- THIS GUY. Maybe more than that Kardashians, this guy was ALL over the socials this week for this short video from Mardi Gras. You have probably seen something about it if you are ever online:
People could not get enough of him. It was the golf shirt, the DAD vibe, the moves, the song, the glasses, the WHOLE SITCH. People could think of NOTHING else:
And TikTok detectives went to work:
This article explains a lot should you be so inclined. About the history of the sound/song and the dude…
- This went everywhere and I am having a hard time believing this is real or at least recent when they have put huge restrictions on service animals but alas…it is 2022 so who the FUCK knows anymore am I right?
I love this…
- TECH Twitter had a field day last week when on INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY (we get a whole day guys) this VC Firm announced its new CRYPTO team. All dudes. It was funny. I was not particularly offended but it killed me as someone who is in the comms business how BAD the optics were and how avoidable they were. The guy took it down finally but it’s the Internet…it lives forever. It’s funny how many weird crypto Trumpy dudes came after me when I tweeted about it. POOR LITTLE GUYS.
- This cover of the PARACHUTE catalog is getting a lot of laughs on the socials. I mean WHO is doing their gardening in their bedroom on their white carpet? This gives me SO much anxiety.
- I love this new trend on TikTok particularly because my first ever job in PR in 1996, “Reading Rainbow” was my client. I still have PTSD from trying to print a press release on the READING RAINBOW letter head which has rainbows in the corners and I never could format it correctly. A lot of tears were shed. I do not miss those days.
Our sweet little TINXY:
- And everyone losing their minds over this guy’s voice…watch the whole thing:
And my fave feature of TikTok is the DUET feature so you can duet to someone else’s video like this (it brings me joy):
THAT IS IT my darling pop culture junkies…
I skipped over a lot of other stuff this week I know but there are only so many hours in a day. I know I said this was a quick little PCM but it grew and grew and the coffee jacked me up so here we are. Also, I know sometimes videos I link to are no longer there when you go and read this. I am sorry about that. Sometimes TikTok removes videos. Sometimes the creators do.
ANYWAY…Stay safe and healthy my beauties.
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